My father was a station master of a nondescript railway station called Hasanparthi Road, on the Kazipet-Balharshah rail route. Almost all Express and Mail trains to Delhi and Nagpur passed along this way, but they did not stop here. All the trains would pass on with a great speed, raising a good deal of dust, barely giving me a chance to get a glimpse of those marvellous machines.
On some days, my father came home for lunch, when there were no trains to pass on the route for a while. One day when he came for lunch, he told me that a diesel locomotive would pass the station any time that afternoon. A that time, diesel locomotives were not introduced in the Indian Railways. The chance of catching a glimpse of the diesel railway engine was too much to resist.
I have routinely watched steam engines of different types passing along the route. I’ve even had the pleasure of riding them with friendly engine drivers who never disappointed a boy of my age. I was around nine years old then. I asked my father if the engine would stop at the station. “I cannot say for sure, unless there is a crossing needing it to halt for some time,” my father replied. My mind was already working out various possibilities.
I went to the station to stay on the platform to watch the diesel engine pass from close quarters. The wait seemed endless. The lone diesel locomotive without any wagons in tow, made its appearance on the horizon slowly making its entry onto the platform, with a rumbling sound. The locomotive looked like a huge new car—gleaming and shining, with a ‘Made in USA’ emblem riveted at the ladder to the driver’s cabin.
My father said it would stop for while as the route was clogged towards the Kazipet side. The driver got out of the locomotive, allowing the machine to idle with the typical rhythmic sound of a giant diesel truck, its engine on.
I looked at the driver admiringly as he looked quite clean and neat, unlike steam engine drivers whose attire used to be coated with soot. The engine driver looked at me and asked if I was interested for a ride, I nodded my head in agreement. It was more than a ‘space ride’ for me. I was in the cabin of a new diesel engine, watching the driver operating the controls. I was seated beside the driver’s seat and the engine moved for a good five hundred meters to and fro. This experience remains ever etched in my mind.
K V Raghuram
Email: wyd.raghuram@gmail.com