Sriram Venkatesh's video: INDIAN RAILWAYS- CHENNAI MANGALURU EXPRESS with Modern high speed Linke Hofmann Busch LHB Coaches

Location: Basin Bridge, Chennai It was a joyous moment for many railfans alike. The LHB carriages which were biting the dust in the Basin bridge yard for nearly 2 years were finally allotted to 12269/70 Chennai-Nizamuddin-Chennai Duronto express on the 8th of January, 2016, and the other coaches were speculated to be thrust into service as soon as ICF rolled out the requisite no. of EOGs (End On Generation Carriages). When the EOGs were rolled out, it was speculated as to which train would be LHBfied. SR quietened all the speculators through twitter a couple of days before the first LHB run of this train- '12685/12686 Chennai Central-Mangaluru Central Superfast Express'; and confirmed that this was the train which would get the coaches. The date for inauguration was fixed as the leap-day Feb 29, 2016 from Chennai Central and March 1, 2016 from Mangaluru Central. Accordingly my friend and I rushed to Chennai Central on the day of the inauguration and covered the event as much as possible. The rake was a beautiful arrangement, sans the decoration of course. SR was never known for decoration LHB rake allotments, but thats apart from the topic. WAP-4 22617 from Erode (ED) shed was given the honors of hauling the first LHB run of 12685 from Chennai Central. At around 16:50hrs the two of us decided to see the rake in action, this decision proving to be fruitful in more ways than one. We headed to the railway parallel road after Basin Bridge and at about 17:10hrs, after witnessing the Hyderabad express and Coromandel express on the Gudur line, it was time for the important action of the day to occur. ED WAP4 announced its arrival with a honk scaring away the people crossing the tracks. And there it was, the first commercial run of the Mangaluru Superfast Express with modern LHB coaches. Railfan Jyothish can be seen waving as I pan the video. The added bonus here was the next rake for the next day's departure (March 01, 2016) from Chennai Central was being shunted towards Basin Bridge yard and was headed by AJJ WAM4. It was indeed a superb and surprising spotting, seeing an AJJ WAM4 with an LHB rake. And thus ended our small RF trip. The full rake headed could be seen as we headed home. Thanks for watching and please subscribe for more exciting actions of Indian Railways. More info about Mangaluru Superfast express- http://indiarailinfo.com/train/chennai-mangaluru-super-fast-express-12685-mas-to-maq/1057/35/1470