Jayasankar Madhavadas

WAP-4, the red beast of Indian Railways, is one of the successful electric traction locomotive in passenger train sector. Total of 778 WAP-4s were built by CLW till 2015. Out of which 773 WAP-4 are still in active duty. WAP-4 was mainly built for hauling 24-26 coaches at a speed of 110 Km/h even though the max speed of WAP-4 is 140 km/h . WAP-4 is derived from WAP-1 which had Alstom TAO 659 traction motor which was under performing with heavy load. So WAP-4 was designed to solve the issues of WAP-1 and WAP-4 came with Hitachi HS15250 traction motor. The first WAP-4 unit, #22201 rolled out from CLW on April 25, 1994. The last unit, #25051 was manufactured on November 1, 2015 . With production of energy efficient 3-phase locomotive increasing, WAP-4 production was stopped in 2015 but still remains as one of the trusted mainline electric locomotive.

Beautiful scene...

This is my 2701 picture ... It is has been a great journey with trainspo right from the time of its starting. Started with a point and shoot camera and right now with a mirrorless full frame camera I learned a lot here. Got to see good photographers here with great shots. Hope to see more and learn more to improve constantly. And also to showcase Indian Railways too. Thank you TRAINSPO team.

The Golden Temple or Harmandir Sahib or or Suvaran Mandir s the pre-eminent spiritual site of Sikhism. It is one of the holiest sites in Sikhism, alongside the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Kartarpur, and Gurdwara Janam Asthan in Nankana Sahib. Maharaja Ranjit Singh, after founding the Sikh Empire, rebuilt it in marble and copper in 1809, and overlaid the sanctum with gold leaf in 1830. This has led to the name the Golden Temple. The Golden Temple is an open house of worship for all people.

Munroe Island is a hidden pearl in the backwaters which is composed of a cluster of 8 islands. Each of them is separated by small water channels and lakes. Munroe Island is located about 27 km from Kollam. The place is named in honor of Resident Colonel John Munroe, of the former princely state of Travancore. He is said to have integrated several backwater regions by digging canals. Some of this island’s main attractions are the narrow waterways, canal cruise...

@nick86235 Yes, sad to see them reaching the end of their operational life

As the ALCos, WDM-3A, WDG-3A, were aging, Railway board decided to discontinue their service in mainline and use them for shunting duties. So the ERNAKULAM diesel shed decided to scrap ALCos but they retained some ALCos for the small sections where still it is diesel traction. Usually the power will be WDP-4D but sometimes WDM-3A or WDG-3A will be also coming as power from ERNAKULAM Jn to Kollam Jn. Once such instance happened and I was able to spot and capture an ERNAKULAM WDG-3A with Ernakulam Jn - Velankanni Express. This WDG-3A will power the train till Kollam Jn and from there PONMALAI WDP-4D took charge of the train after reversal. So after ages I got to see an ALCo in the mainline.

Indian version of Lok 2000 ( SBB-CFF-FFS Re 460 ), known in IR as WAP-5 have become very common in my state with electrification of Konkan Railways. Once it was a rarity to spot a WAP-5.

PYTHON freight trains are two priority freight trains coupled as a single formation bound for same destination or may get decoupled where the destination route changes. In this picture, there is another coal train attached to this train. Such trains run in priority as they cant be put in siding or even in mainline due to their length. So these freight trains are treated as priority ones and move fast to their destinations. Python rake consists of 140 + wagons and looks like a snake. Currently python freights are successfully operated from Sambalpur in Odisha to Waltair division of East Coast Railways (ECoR) which is a coal movement route.