The Race which changed the way i looked at trains. This happened in the year 2002 when i was supposed to go to Chennai along with my family via the temple towns of Tiruvanamalai and Melmaruvathur from Bangalore. We reached Melmaravatur station after visting the famous temple of AdiParasakthi. My Dad took the tickets for Perungulattur ( A station before Tambaram towards Chennai Egmore ). A MG train led by YAM1 was approaching, got excited thinking that we will board this train but to my bad luck dad said no, reason being that this trian does not stop at Perungulattur. The train halted for a minute and left. We then moved to the BG platform where our train was supposed to arrive. After few minutes, our train Villupuram - Tambram Passenger arrived behind GOC WDM2 ( was able to recollect the shed only because of GOC's beautiful Green livery. Not sure about the train's originating station. The below picture shows the livery of Golden Rock Shed, Ponmalai ).
We boarded this train, the train was quiet empty and i occupied the window seat on the action side. Around 20 minutes after we departed from the station saw the MG train again, it was crawling. As we neared it YAM1 accelerated away from us. We overtook it after some time as it had stopped for line clearance. The YAM1 train overtook us again as we had stopped at some station. The cat and mouse game continued till Chengalpattu Junction. We stopped here for a while, i dont remebemer what happened to YAM1 hauled train after that. After departing from Chengalpattu Junction, we crossed and overtook lot of MG EMU's. As we were nearing our destination, WDM2 gave us a surprise by skipping Perungalathur ( Got confirmation later that this train does not have a halt there). Finally we got down at Tambram and boarded a MG EMU back to Perungalathur.
This was the last day i saw a YAM1 in action, i was really shocked to see this cute loco accelerate like that. That day changed the way i looked at trains, my interest in locomotive rocketed sky high and made me closer to the railways.
YAM 1 was very special being the only MG AC loco in India.From the late sixties YP/YG hauled trains used to have loco change at Viluppuram and for weary soot faced passengers, it was a great relief. It had more power and thus made up delays easily and the popular belief was that any delay would be made. It marginally changed with YDM 4 a remarkable Alco that ran at 110 Kms. with Vaigai/Pallavan but till the end in 2004, YAM was a beauty to look at. Now a specimen is resting at rail Museum, Perambur, Chennai.
ReplyDeleteHappy to see people remembering those cute locos.. :)
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