WDP3A class diesel passenger locomotive:

• Year entered service: 1998
• Units built (maker): 44+ (DLW)
• Wheel arrangement: Co-Co
• Power: 3100 hp
• Weight: 117 tonnes
• Max Speed: 130 kmph

India’s first twin and only twin cab diesel locomotive was built in the shape of the WDP3A (earlier known as WDP2). Built by DLW around a 3100 hp ALCO powerpack and a Flexicoil chassis, these locos  can reportedly haul 24 coach passenger rakes at 130 kmph. One such unit (#15506) is seen standing at Shivaji Bridge station in Delhi.

A short while later, the 15506 is seen at the same location hauling the Delhi - Bareily Intercity express. DLW has delivered about 69 of these locos and they are based at Tughlakabad shed in Northern Railway, and Golden Rock (Tiruchirapalli) shed in Southern Railways hauling important trains out of Delhi and Chennai .

Golden Rock (Tiruchirapalli) based WDP3As are painted in the shed’s beautiful Green-Gold livery. The starting point of many of these locos is at Chennai Egmore where #15534 rests easy before it heads out with an overnight train to the southern parts of Tamil Nadu.

TKD WDP3As come in 2 liveries, the Deep Blue-White as seen above, and the slightly different White on Blue as displayed by loco #15537 standing light on the platform at Shivaji Bridge. This livery has the words ‘DIESEL POWER’ emblazoned ion the sides. Their Golden Rock based brothers come in the famous GOC Green and Gold and a Red-Cream livery as well.

The WDP3As are also known by their generic class name of Pushpak, stencilled right under the windscreen of TKD’s #15512 as it hauls out the Shalimar Express to Jammu Tawi from New Delhi. This train uses the circuitous Delhi - Saharanpur - Ambala route to reach Jammu Tawi.

A TKD WDP3A in the ‘Diesel Power’ livery heads out from New Delhi station in charge of the ‘Swarn’ Shatabdi Express to Amritsar. 6 days a week, this service is run with the experimental IRY-IR20 rake which is based on a design by Eurofirma / FIAT. Though successful, IR has decided to adopt the Alsthom LHB design for its future passenger coaches.

TKD’s 15544 is caught in a low shot over the Minto Bridge in Delhi as it heads back to the comfort of its home shed after finishing its set of duties for the day. The Minto Bridge is a landmark in Delhi’s architecture and is also notorious for water-logging in its underpass during monsoons causing huge traffic jams in the city’s busy Connaught Place area.

The platforms at New Delhi station are a hubbub of activity round the clock with trains arriving and departing at all hours. This keeps the porters at the station constantly on their toes and they struggle to keep up with all the parcels and luggage that is deposited at the ends of the platforms. Here the asst. driver of the TKD WDP3A (#15526) watches over a pile of sacks and boxes as he waits for the starter for his charge; the Bareily Intercity Express.

For decades the WDM2 was incharge of some the crack diesel hauled expresses on IR. The advent of the WDP3A changed things a bit, but niggling problems with the design saw the loco being built in small numbers only. Here the brutes stand side by side in the sidings at Chennai Egmore station.