TENKASI TO NELLAI EC RAIL LINE - 556

  

   TENKASI TO NELLAI      

  ELECTRIC RAIL TRACTION




It was the 4 th of August 1974 and we the 22 of us as  Apprentices were on our Way from Madurai to Ambasamudram by the Shenkottah Passenger Train.  Our Employers M/S Madura Coats Ltd had arranged Two Exclusive First Class Coaches for our overnight travel . The Train which was to Depart from Madurai Junction Railway Station  shortly before Midnight was scheduled to arrive at 10.00 am on the next Morning . The Quaint Looking British Era Steam Locomotive on the Metre Gauge took all of 10 hours to cover the mind boggling distance of the near 200 Kms !! . We were received by an equally quaint looking Ford Ambulance Van with the Blue MADURA COATS  MILLWHEEL INSIGNIA as our Transport Vehicle  to take us to the the Mill Colony at VK Puram . 

For reasons which I could never  understand , I had always felt that I had been short changed for no good reason  . As a small kid I had been a regular Annual Visitor  to Bombay/Mumbai during the Puja Vacation from Kharagpur or Bhilai depending upon where I was stationed at that time  

The Electric Locomotive hauling the Train from Igatpuri to Dadar TT  with the many Tunnels and Picturesque Scenery all around and the Electric Locomotive Snaking it’s way up the Ghats even as  you saw this from your window left you wondering as to why you were still left with the Steam or Diesel Locomotives on the Calcutta , Kharagpur to Nagpur Sections . 

I am now settled at Ambasamudram for almost Half a Century now . This station has been in service for more than a Hundred Years  now  . This Station first came in to operation some 120 years . To be more precise in the year 1904 by the then British Owned South Indian Railways . 

From a single platform Station with a huge Water Storage Tank and Coal Feed for the Steam Locomotive , this Metre Gauge Steam Station has now Graduated to a  Multi Platform Broad Gauge , First  with the Diesel Version and now as a Fully Electrified Section .  This journey has  been a long and eventful one .

 That trials are now underway and Tests  Conducted for speeds  at 120 KMPH which makes us feel proud of the long strides that the Indian Railways have taken to make Rail Journey The Safest and Fastest mode of  Travel across India for the Common Man . 







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