Locotoons by Kumaran

Locotoonstm Revived!

"LocotoonsTM by Kumaran"

 by

Gyan Fernando

Sometime in the year 2002, Kumaran of Singapore did a series of delightful caricatures, of  Sri Lankan locomotives of the M Class as well as other trains, exclusively for my website. 

I cannot remember whose idea it was originally but it does not matter now.

They were drawn in his usual style of "Humanising" locomotives and in the process of drawing them, he gave them feminine personalities! 
I called them "Locotoons tm by Kumaran"

Given the limitations of my original website I don't think many people actually saw them but they do appear on a Google search and have been plaigiarised.

Unlike other things in life, cartoons never really age. I thought that they were worth a second life and have reproduced them here

Do go on and indulge yourselves!

They were published between the 16th of August 2002 and the 9th of March 2003, except for two because they were not in the M Class.

They were published without any commentary on my part except for the following:

 

Why are all the Locotoons® feminine? All the named railway services in Sri Lanka have feminine names. The first were "Ruhunu Kumari", "Yal Devi" and "Udarata Menike". Then came "Podi Menike", "Uttara Devi" etc. For instance Udarata Menike (lit: "Upcountry Lass") runs between Colombo and Badulla. Ruhunu Kumari ("Princess of Ruhuna") runs between Colombo and Matara. (The other names defy translation ...)

Kumaran has reflected this in his Locotoons®

Click images for bigger images

Class M1 Brush Bagnall

Class M2 General Motors EMD

Class M4 MLW Bombardier

Class M5 Hitachi

Class M6 Henschel Thyssen

Class M8 DLW Varnasi

Class M7 Brush

Class M3 Locally built

.

Class M9 GEC Alstom

Class S1 English Electric

Class S5 Hitachi