සබරගමුව දුම්රිය මග.

waligamaya

Well-known member
  • 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.

    wow
     

    warwickuni

    Well-known member
  • May 21, 2008
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    Good post.
    My primary education was done in a small school by the side of this narrow gauge line. We used to run to see these trains. Sorry to see them decay. I would have seen most of them as there were only very few trains in this line and they mostly operated on office hours.
    There is a big issue in this line as there are most number of level crossings on this line and lot of people have already lost their lives due to poor visibility of the train and engine drivers not tooting horn as required , when they arrive a level crossing. If a fast train is introduced there will not be possibility of this as some of these level crossings are very close by.
    If this line is to be improved lot of planning is needed. Lot of acquisition is needed and all squatters needed to be relocated. These people have lived in these for over one generation and cannot be evicted using only military or police power. Adequate safety measures should be taken for adjoining schools, hospitals, level crossings etc.
    If not it would be another tragedy like the garbage mountain!
     

    JCT

    Junior member
  • Sep 29, 2008
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    ඕපනයිකෝ පච්චත්තන් වේදී සබ්බෝ කියන්නේ ඕකට තමයි...ඕපනායක පාර ගලවල, දැන් පසුතැවෙනවා....​

    mehema athal denna epa yako :lol: :lol: :lol: .......
     

    .amda

    Well-known member
  • Jun 13, 2012
    11,079
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    Colombo
    එක එක කතා කියනවා.
    මේ ට්‍රැක් එක බඩු ප්‍රරවාහනයට හදපු එකක්. ඒ නිසා මන්දාගාමීයි. පටු ආමාන නිසා බඩු ගිනියන්න පුලුවන් පොඩ්ඩයි. මගී ප්‍රවාහනයට යොදන්න බෑ. පය 9-10 අතර යනවා කොඋවෙ ඉදන් ඌපනායකට. බස් එකකට උපරිම පැය හතරයි.
    දෙවන ලෝක යුද්දෙන් පස්සෙ ගල් අගුරු ලාභාදායී උනේ නෑ .
    ආසන්නම හේතුව නම් දේශපාලනිකයි. මම ඒක මීකෙ ඉස්සෙල්ලා කොටල තියෙනව.
    ඕක බ්‍රොඩ්ගේජ් කරන්න ප්‍රොපොසල් එකක් තිබ්බා. උනේ නෑ.
    ඔය පාරට ඒ පැත්තෙ මිනිස්සු හරි ආදරෙයි. ඔය පාර ගලවන්න එපා කියල මිනිස්සු මණ්ඩප්පඉඅය්ක් අගහගෙන පිරිත් කිව්වලු ඕපනායක. පිරිත ඉවර වෙනකම් ඉදල පාර ගලවන් ගිහින්. :(

    :(:(:(:(
     

    suta86

    Active member
  • Aug 2, 2011
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    මගේ ගෙවල් තියෙන්නේ කහවත්ත ස්ටේෂන් එක කිට්ටුවමයි...තාත්ත කියනව හෙට කොළබට යන්න ඕනි නම් අද උදේ කෝච්චියේ නගින්න ඕනිලු...කහවත්තේ ඉදන් රත්නපුරට යන්නත් පෑය 5-6ක් විතර යනවලු..

    ගෙවල් පෑත්තෙ අයියා කෙනෙක් කියනව එයාලගෙ ගෙදර රොටී හෑදුවම රොටියෙ CGR කියල සීල් එක වදිනවලු...CGR එකේ sign බොර්ඩ් එකකලු රොටී පුච්චන්නේ
     

    signshop

    Well-known member
  • May 30, 2011
    12,193
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    Dubai
    අඩේ මාර වටිනා ලිපියක්. දැන්නේ දැක්කේ. එල..:yes: අපරාදේ අවිස්සවේල්ලේ ඉදලා රත්නපුරේට තිබුන රේල් පාර ගැලව්වේ.. වැඩි දියුනු කරලා පවර් සෙට් එකක් දැම්මා නම් මොන තරම් වටිනවද.:sorry:.REP+15