Southern Railways extended the closure of the PUU-SCT line by one day, and hundreds of people, old and young, took the time off to travel on the last trip of the last day of the metre-gauge line. This blog salutes the Southern Railways!
My trip report was a personal contribution to this heritage railroad, which has since been shut down. However, it was a very kind gesture of Southern Railways to extend the planned closure of the PUU-SCT section (19 Sept 2010) by one more day, to the 20th of September. Hundreds of people paid respects to this 106-year old railway line, by physically coming to Punalur with their friends and family, and enthusiastically taking the last ride (PUU-SCT-PUU) to Shencottah and back.
Throngs of people--including youth, women and children--crowded the carriages. People stood in the luggage van the entire way. Mediapersons and cameramen were present in large numbers, recording for posterity the last ride of this last passenger train.
The reason why I make this posting today is because I just saw, this morning (3 October 2010), one of the travelogues made that day by a crew from Doordarshan. It was heartwarming to observe the enthusiasm and respect that ordinary people had for this railway line.
Media crew were on the train and also in their vehicles on the Kollam-Tirumangalam National Highway, tracking the train and taking vantage shots of the passing train. They interviewed not only the passengers, but even the vendors and railway personnel. Many camerapersons were perched on the front of the engine, shooting the view, the loco-pilots' cabin, the stations, and even the rattan-made 'key' that was exchanged at stations.
In all, a day of tragedy and exuberance...
