On the Right the bathroom / Sandas / Sundas is fast being renovated into & by Sulabh Swachalaya. Most people avoid going there.

The bar in question is the one across the door. You can see that the left hand of the assistant driver is resting on it. YOu can see the "bar" in the open position in the other picture - here it is hanging parallel to the regular rails on the either side of the door.

Could anyone point for me which bar is being talked about in this picture?

With the boxy cab, if this loco were ever to go at 150 kmph, the drivers would go deaf at the end of the trip! C’mon dudes - 150 kmph is no joke, have you tried keeping your car windows open and driving on the freeway at 70 mph - 115 kmph? It is deafening! That is in a car with a lot of aerodynamic thought put into its design. The ugly ducking has zero aerodynamics elements in its design, and with all those strange protrusions on the window, the cab noise must be nasty. This is basically a freight locomotive with a makeshift cab arrangement and is not meant for fast running.

Sad that this loco does not have the matching Raj livery, but is in the standard GOC.

the wdp4 was used for this trial run because the WAP5 and the WCAM2P locos (locos which haul the regula mumbai raj) are available in limited numbers, and since this trial was run on off schedule hours, no loco would have been available. secondly, the wcam2p has a speed potential of only 120kmph while the wdp4 can do 150+. the purpose of the trail was to test these rakes at 140kmph, therefore a wcam2p would not have been suitable beyond vadodara.

I remeber travelling with my dad from HWH to Varanasi in Doon exp during the early 1980's as a kid. The loco had this peculiar turbine like sound and it was exiting. I still remember the WDM 4 that hauled us. The fate of this beautifull loco is in the pg no: 5 of this site.

Is this one of those converted locos??

Sunny,the WDS4b has three sets of wheels.From a distance it looks like four because one is a flywheel which runs the other three sets with the help of shafts(not sure the name given to them-same drive as used in a steam loco).

I wonder if IR is thinking of dedicating WDP-4s for the LHB Rajdhani rakes.