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|| Meter gauge at Vijayawada ||
Vintage timetables showing the schedules of the meter gauge trains on the Machilipatnam-Vijayawad-Guntur route. The route was converted to broad gauge by 1962 (BZA-MTM section) and 1964 (BZA-GNT route), so records of the meter gauge traffic here are very hard to find.
Pic 1: The original Krishna bridge at Vijayawada. This is the abandoned bridge whose pillars are now visible between the existing 2 bridges at Vijayawada now.
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This bridge was popularly known as the 'Wenlock bridge' (Named after the then Governor of Madras, Lord Wenlock who inaugurated the bridge).
This was a dual gauge bridge with the BZA-GNT MG line running as a third rail on the BZA-MAS broad gauge line. The bridge and the MG line were opened on March 17th, 1893. The broad gauge line was opened for goods traffic on July 15th, 1897 and for passenger traffic in 1899. The attached picture was taken in 1898 shortly before the opening of the route for passenger traffic.
The MG line on this bridge was dismantled and shut down from October 13th, 1964, when a parallel broad gauge line was laid between KCC and GNT, and the bridge itself was abandoned a few years later.
Pic 2: Meter gauge trains on the MTM-GNT section in 1961 (Timetable provided by Prof. Aravind from IRFCA).
A lot of Meter gauge trains originated from Machilipatnam (known as Masulipatam at that time) to Macherla, Sattenaplle, Narsaraopet etc. The Masulipatam-Hubli passenger listed here later became the Guntur-Hubli passenger and still runs today as the BZA-UBL passenger.
About 1956, a passenger used to operate between MTM and SBC. However, around 1958, this passenger was replaced with the 85/86 SC-SBC passenger (which is the present day 12785/86 KCG-SBC express). However the SBC-DMM passenger was extended to GTL and later to GNT and finally to BZA after gauge conversion, and now runs as the BZA-BNC passenger.
One can also see the 'Satyanarayanapuram' just before BZA station on the Gudivada-Vijayawada section. This station lay on the old MG alignment outside BZA. During gauge conversion, the BG line was laid on a different alignment, avoiding this station.