Eastern Railway conducted push- pull trials of the 22-coach Howrah -New Delhi Rajdhani between Howrah and Gaya last Thursday. ER expects to shave off 90 minutes between Howrah and New Delhi using push pull configuration.
The move follows IR’s decision to run premium trains with twin locos in a push- pull configuration to save on run time. Indian Railways recently introduced push-pull configuration in train number 22221/22222 Mumbai CSMT- Nizamuddin Rajdhani express which proved successful.
Two WAP -7 electric locos – one in front and another at the rear were used to haul an empty Rajdhani rake for the trials.
The trials were done under guidance from the RDSO testing team. The rake was worked by two locos- a master loco No. 30692 (WAP-7) and slave loco No. 30686 (WAP-7) of the Howrah Electric Loco Shed.