The first Rajdhani Express of IR, 12301 Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express a.k.a. the 'Kolkata Rajdhani' completed her 55 Glorious Years of Service in 3rd March, 2024 (3rd March, 1969 - 3rd March, 2024). The eventful day being a Sunday, it became a recurrence of the Golden Jubilee day in 2019. Therefore, 12305 Up Howrah Rajdhani Exp via Patna got the honor in place of 12301 Up via Gaya !! We, the rail enthusiasts, organised a small celebration which included light decorations on the locomotive & rake and a cake cutting ceremony.

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could have done even better but due to certain constraints we managed to achieve only this much. Thanks to all my fellow railfans who worked really hard. We are grateful to the officials of Eastern Railway who made the process much smoother despite their busy schedules specially DGM (G) Sir & Sr. DCM Sir / HWH. Also, thanks to all the contributors & all those who supported us wholeheartedly.

The wonderful train board was designed by our fellow rail enthusiast, Sahil Kamdi from Nagpur.

Throwback to the good old days !

A rusty Arakkonam (AJJ), WAM 4 6PE # 21256 waiting for starter at Chennai Egmore with 17643 Chennai Egmore - Kakinada Circar Express.

The 6P suffix...
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indicates an arrangement of 6 traction motors in parallel while the other prevalent TM arrangement for WAM 4 was the 2S 3P configuration.

The 'E' suffix was used to differentiate locomotives equipped with air brakes only from the ones which had dual brakes (air & vacuum, DB suffix) and vacuum brakes. However, after a certain point of time owing to standardization, all WAM 4 units & other existing locomotives were configured as air brake only. Despite the standardization, sheds like Arakkonam, Vadodara & Vijaywada still continued with the 'E' suffix on their locomotives.

Circa, 2014.