A visit to Kanpur was on the cards for awhile. I wanted to visit the 2 IIT'ian railbuffs in their home territory and chose a midweek holiday in November to do so. This was also to be my first ever visit to Kanpur. The end result was an extremely well spent day with Joydeep Dutta and Rabibrata.

I took the Lucknow bound LHB Shatabdi from New Delhi in the morning and was met at Kanpur Central station by Joydeep & Rabibrata. We spent some time looking around the station area and then made our way by road to Kanpur Anwarganj station. From there we walked across to Govindpuri marshalling yard and spent a couple of hours there. Post that we went over to Kwality's for a much deserved lunch and then it was time for me to board the afternoon Shatabdi back to Delhi.

< Joydeep chats with the crew driving his foremost love - an Alco diesel locomotive! WDG3 14961 from Katni shed is at the head of a BCN working bound for Lucknow. This crew worked the freight to Lucknow more than an hour after the Lucknow bound Shatabdi had departed and were back in Kanpur more than an hour before its scheduled arrival from there! Now that's what you call high speed freight running!

< Joydeep & Rabibrata stand beside YDM4 6596 from Izzatnagar shed which is readying to depart with a passenger working to Kasganj. This is the last platform at Kanpur station and serves the last few metre gauge (MG) trains that call on this station today. The MG lines have seen better days at Kanpur Central with a greater share of platforms and lines not so long ago.

< The impressive station building at Kanpur better known as CNB or 'Cawnpore Barracks' from the days of the Raj. Unfortunately someone has gone and planted an ugly monstrosity in the form of a WAP4 cutout on the top of the building. So much for aesthetics! Kanpur town incidentally has a fine selection of heritage buildings left over from a bygone era albeit all in a decrepit condition.

< The station building at Kanpur Anwarganj. Formerly a metre gauge domain this station is slowly but surely being consumed by the all India virus called gauge conversion! This is the older of the 2 stations in Kanpur. Notice the banner strung across totally unmindfull of the gracefull building facade!

< A WDS4 shunting loco in an interesting livery far away from its home shed at Agra awaits its next set of duties at the east end of Govindpuri yard. We spent a couple of hours in this yard and began and ended our tour at this very point. The loco remained at this position - idling - throughout! Note the interesting mix of modern day catenary and the old semaphore signalling!

< The Kalka Mail approaches the yard foot overbridge at Govindpuri with an unusual loco allocation - WAP5 30010 in charge. This train usually gets a WAP7. A WAG5 and WAG7 can be seen in the background standing in the freight yard with their respective trains.

< A CNB WAG7 brings in a BCN working from the west and slows to a halt near the driver lobby at Govindpuri yard - possibly to change crews. A most unusual practice indeed! The other interesting thing was that it was running on the UP line as against the DOWN line but this I found out later was due to bi-directional working on the double line section between CNB station and Govindpuri. To the left of the picture - an SCR WAG7 from Lalaguda shed with waist-level headlamps waits outside the trip shed.

< A view of CNB electric loco shed with the freight yard in the foreground. CNB is the largest locomotive shed on NR homing 2 classes of locos - the WAP4 & WAG7. The WAG7 that can be seen outside the shed area is undergoing a much needed wash!

< Farewell Kanpur! Rabibrata and Joydeep stand beside Jhansi WDM2R 18726 as I ready to board the Shatabdi back to Delhi..