The Vadakara-Olavakkod journey took 5 hours. The No.1 Mangalore mail was powered by the Steam Locomotive. There were two types of steam locomotives. The more powerful one with a pointed nose and a star on its nose (my hero)
and the other one which had a round frontage, which I contemptuously called the flat one, for I hated it.
Looking back now, perhaps it is the power that was associated with these engines that attracted me to them and maybe I liked the Star Engine because it was aesthetically pleasing.
Anyway, the very infrequent trips to Kollengode were the highpoints of my life. I shall look out of the second class window, craning my neck to get a glimpse of the engine when the train takes a turn. I watched with awe at the huge puffs of black smoke that the Engine belched. It didnt matter that I was covered with soot nor did it matter that I got coal dust on my eyes. All it mattered was I was travelling, absorbing the scenic beauty of the Bharathappuzha (river Bharathappuzha) banks. The beautiful lush green paddy fields, the fine sand on the river banks, the cool breeze, the cold dhal vada you get on the railway platform.
Those were the days of single line traffic. I watched with interest the skill at which the train driver hooked the big 'Chavi' containing the clearance for him to travel upto the next station. The train will be whizzing past a small station where it doesnt halt. At the beginning of the platform, the train driver will throw down the 'big key shaped thing (almost the 3 ft in length) containing the steel ball that indicates the line being blocked firmly inside a leather pouch in the key. And the Assistant Station Master will be holding up the Chavi vertically so that the train driver can hook his arm on the chavi head and take it inside, all when the train was travelling at 80 kms per hour.
I groaned when the signal indicated us to stop, for I always wanted my train to be never late, dont ask me why. It was a question of my pride. And I used to look out for the train from the opposite direction when we have stopped to allow it to cross.
My father taught me how to calculate the speed of the train from the telephone posts on the side that had markings of the distance from chennai on every post with even the fraction of a kilometer mentions as 334/2, 334/4 etc. All I had to do was to check how many seconds it took for my train to move from 334.0 to 335.0. If it had taken 40 sec, then the train was travelling at 90kms per hour (figure it out how for yourself).
Shoranur Railway Station had a loco shed. I could see tens of Engines there doing shunting. Also there was a well with a bridge that was used to turn these monsters around. The steam engine had to be turned around unlike the Diesel or Electric locomotives that can be driven forward and back with equal felicity. What they do is to drive the Steam Engine to a well that had a bridge containing rails as diameter (the size of the engine). Then they turn this bridge 180 degrees, so that the Engine now is turned around fully and can be driven away.
At Shornur, father will take me close to the engine so that I can have a look at the furnace burning brightly with the engine drivers shovelling coal to build up the steam. I also watched in awe at the huge water pipes at the top that dumped thousands of gallons of water into the engine. For me, it was a beautiful monster that I just loved.
At Olavakkod, we got down and went to Platform one to take the Pollachi Passenger, which in my opinion was the pits as it stopped on all the stations, and was run by the flat engine on metre gauge. I would have become a black monkey from all the soot by then.
But it didnt matter one bit, for I had travelled by the then modern day miracle, the train powered by my favourite, the Star nosed Engine!!!
With time, the steam locomotives that kept a young kids dream alive ( I wanted to become a steam locomotive driver) were phased out with initially Diesel Locomotive and later with Electric Engines. Southern Railway was the first to phase out all steam locomotives for more efficiency and to ensure less pollution. And I cried. I was a grown up young man by then. But I still felt lot of sadness, which I still carry with me.
