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Another day with the 2952 Mumbai Rajdhani Express - WAP5 #30005 from GZB shed is in charge as the train crawls on a maintenance section south of Okhla station in New Delhi. Observe the annoying Shatabdi generator car - totally out of place in the Rajdhani scheme of things. This train gets the impressive Faridabad-Mathura stretch to compensate for schedule lapses, caused by track and traffic.

 

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New Year's Day 2001 greets the trip shed for AC electric locomotives at Igatpuri near Mumbai. However, trains must run - there's no holiday and the crew at the shed have a busy schedule. The SRC (Santragachi) WAP4 has two local mates for company - the Bhilai WAM/4 by her side has "6P+DB+HS" marked on the side, denoting abilities for 6 motors in parallel, dual-brakes and high-speed operation.

 

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The center-of-attraction at the Igatpuri AC trip shed happens to be a mighty WAP4 locomotive from SRC (Santragachi) shed of SER. In all probability, she was responsible for the 2859/60 Mumbai CST-Howrah Gitanjali Express for its IGP-HWH run. WAM4 locomotives totally dominated the CR trunk from IGP to BSL/ET - but now WAPx classes have become ubiquitous everywhere - even taking trains like the 1057/58 Dadar-Amritsar crawler of an Express. Observe the twin headlamps - making the "pregnant belly" assembly redundant.

 

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WAP5 #30009 from GZB is a mean machine - she raced with the 2003 Lucknow-New Delhi Shatabdi and reached both her stops before time. She is seen taking a brief respite at Kanpur Central (CNB) on a cold winter afternoon in Dec' 2001. Photographing locomotives on Indian Railways has now become a clandestine affair with severe admonishment by RPF constables when caught.

 

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JHS WAP4 #22208 that starred in an earlier picture, now waits silently in a dead-end siding at Renigunta station (RU) in late '97. RU junction has four routes radiating from it and forms the transit point into the temple town of Tirupati. In all likelihood, this unkempt loco should have arrived with the 2626 Kerala Express.

 

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The cleaning yards at Chennai Central houses a long list of trains, and on this slack day, a fresh-from-the-shower WAP4 rushes towards the terminus. The model of a WGSCN coach forms the entrance to the yard office, that can be spotted to the left.