I was lucky enough to travel to Opanayaka either a day or two before the line shut down beyond Avissawella. KV line runs along our back fence in Kottawa, since I was a little kid I can recognize the train engines by the noise or the horn. Opanayaka train comes to panninpitiya around 10.30 in the morning (leave Fort at 9.30 am), and reach Opanayaka around 7.00pm. It's only 85 miles journey, but it takes around 9 1/2 hours.
This line was earmarked to shut down for long long time, but somehow survived until the day mentioned in your article. My father was telling all along, this is not going to shut down, until he finds out 2-3 days before the scheduled day, this time it's going to happen.
The very next day we all went to Colombo fort and get in the train, because my father wants us to go the whole length of the journey.
It's almost a ghost train, few passengers in each compartment, and by the time we reach Avissawella, head guard and underguard both spoke with us (because at each station we got down and move in to another compartment) and allow me to ride in the guard wagon.
This was the last trip to opanayaka by this crew, and they wants to farewell this line by having some arrack on board the guard wagon. When we reach Opanayaka it was a ghost town too. Nowhere to spend the night, no any hotels to eat, on top of everything no electricity too. Even the station being a train terminus, it's being light up with kerosene lamps and torches (wilakku or pandam).
Even before we reach opanayaka the guards invite us to spend the night in their railway accommodation, and when we get in there, they send a station worker with my father to find some food for us. They all enjoy whole night drinking, singing etc, and next morning we came back on the same train with the same crew.
I salute my late father for taking us this unforgettable journey, because many people not had the trustworthy information regarding the shut down date.