Chikmagalur's First Train

The Indian Railways has always been the backbone of our country since the time it was started. People have had an intimate relationship with trains, depending on them for everything from daily commutes to family vacations. I had never really thought about the value a train holds in normal people’s lives (non-railfans, to be precise) until the 19^th of November, 2013 – the day when my town, Chikmagalur got its first train service, which meant that it was finally connected to IR’s massive network spanning more than 65000km. This line is absolutely beautiful to say the least, and the railways have had to face a lot of challenges while constructing this line. A railway line descending over 200m in about 40km is no joke.

The Lakya Viaduct - probably the toughest, and easily the most scenic landmark of this route.

Children watch the coupling process.

On the day of the inauguration, I went to the new railway station early in the morning with my dad, and found that the rake for the Inaugural Run had already arrived, and the reversal process was going on. Krishnarajapuram Diesel Loco Shed had been kind enough to send one of their best performers - WDM3A 16294R – looking stunning with its new paintjob. We spent some time at the station, watching people go gaga over the ‘new’ train, and went back home.

The inaugural function was scheduled to start at 1330hrs. and we went to the station again at around that time to find that the Union Minister for Railways, Mr.Mallikarjun Kharge and the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr.Siddaramaiah were already present, as were numerous other dignitaries from different areas of politics and railways and everything else. We decided not to waste much time with the speeches and entered the platform where the train was waiting. The level of excitement and anticipation among the thousands of people gathered there was just something that I have never seen before in any kind of event. Everyone was obviously interested in the locomotive, which was looking even more stunning now, after being decorated with loads and loads of flowers.

After a salvo of speeches from the dignitaries, the Railway Minister and Chief Minister performed a remote commissioning of the railway line(by pressing a button!), inaugurating the train in the process. The moment the dummy signal on the dais turned green, the real ones turned green too, and 16294 let out an ear-splitting 15-second honk that had everyone screaming with happiness. Never have I seen a train horn eliciting this kind of response from the public. The train departed even as the ministers looked on, and I boarded the train and joined my dad, who was waiting with two new tickets bought for us by my friend. 

The rest of the journey was just epic, to say the least, and people were on a level of happiness that spread around like wildfire and soon everyone was cheering. People both on and off the train were so excited at seeing a train chug away after decades of promises that they waved and shouted at each other as the train passed by, sending out huge clouds of black smoke. For once, everyone enjoyed getting their face covered by black smoke.

Railway workers were the happiest of the lot, seeing their hard work pay off.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me, and I am glad that I decided to travel in the inaugural special. For a railfan, seeing such events unfold has to be one of the best experiences of a lifetime. Adding to this, the beauty of this railway line is tremendous, and I will let my videos do the talking.

I managed to cover the event as best as I could with both photos and videos on one camera, and here are the links:
Photos on Facebook

Videos on my YouTube Channel