General Motors EMD Locomotive Controls

General Motors EMD Locomotive Controls

General Motors EMD Locomotive Controls of Sri Lankan Locomotives

By

Gyan Fernando

Of the locomotives of the Sri Lankan Railway, two types of locomotives have a General Motors EMD pedigree.

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The Class M General Motors EMD G12 locomotives of Sri Lanka and the Henschel built Class M6 locomotives have General Motors EMD type controls.

The Class M2 locomotives are pure GM EMD and are designated as G12 by EMD.

The Class M6, although built by Thyssen Henschel of West Germany, have EMD prime movers and EMD controls. This of course makes these two classes similar in some ways.
(use link to read more)

The Air Horns of the Class M2 Locomotives

The Air Horns of the Class M2 Locomotives

by

Gyan Fernando

One of the distinctive features of the General Motors EMD G12 Class M2 locomotives of Sri Lanka are their air horns. 
The triple air horns, which are mounted on top of the cab, are finely tuned with two of the “bells” pointing in one direction and the other in the opposite direction.
They are also controlled by a pull-cord, in traditional fashion.

AirChime Nathan 
The horns fitted on all the M2 locos are manufactured by AirChime and Nathan. AirChime and Nathan are now

 

More......

The Locomotives of Sri Lanka

The Locomotives of Sri Lanka

By

Gyan Fernando

This is an open-ended web book which I published on the 23^rd of November 2011. 
It is not a comprehensive account and is just a web home for some of my recent pictures.

In fact, it is just a photo-essay with minimal text.

Try this link

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!

Randles Hill: A Most Peculiar Railway Halt

Other Little Known Railway Halts

Randle’s Hill

An obscure halt with a Colonial name

Long forgotten and swinging in the wind!

Randles Hill is a rather obscure and underused railway halt between Peradeniya Junction and Kandy in Sri Lanka. Although the railway line, the Kandy Spur, traverses the corridor between Kandy and Peradeniya and the track is straddled by two busy main roads, the numerous rail halts on this section are underutilised.

This is rather a pity, as the roads handle a lot of traffic in the form of buses, and a lot of passengers could use the railway if there were sufficient stopping trains. 
One of the problems is that the railway here is still single tracked. 

Although there are plans to upgrade it to dual track and surveys have been undertaken, nothing much has been done at the time of writing. A few culverts have been partly upgraded but that seems to be all. (More: Click Link)

Glenanore, Haputale

Glenanore

A well preserved plantation railway siding in Sri Lanka

By

Gyan C A Fernando

Plantations railway sidings or estate platforms on the Sri Lankan Railway are little used nowadays, some have become stations and some have completely disappeared. (read more. Click link)

Rozelle: A quaint little Railway Station

Rozelle

A Quaint Little Railway Station in Sri Lanka

By

 Gyan C A Fernando
with a cartoon by N Senthilkumaran
Thanks to Station Master Hemalal Vidyaratne for the cup of tea

Amongst the railway stations on the Up Country Line of the Sri Lankan Government Railway are a number of little known Colonial-built and Colonial-style quaint railway stations. 

The romantic sounding Rozelle is one of them.

Very little is known of how this station came to be, although one assumes it had to do with the tea plantations.

The Name Rozelle

Even the English spelling of the name is not established as far as this station goes, and varies between Rozell e and Rozell a. 

The latter reflects the present day pronunciation of the name.

Most English speakers would pronounce Rozelle as “Ro-zell” (two syllables) but the Sinhalese characters spell it out as “Ro-sall-a” (three syllables).

Rozelle is a Scottish name associated with Ayrshire. (There is also a Rozelle in New South Wales in Australia.)

In Sinhala, which is a phonetic language, the spelling and the pronunciation of “Ro sall er” are clear and consistent but one cannot help thinking that, over time, the original pronunciation (and therefore the Sinhala spelling) has been “Sinhalicised”.

Officially, the station sign and the railway tickets use the first spelling but the rather recent official SLGR website lists it as Rosella, further confusing the issue!

There is no town by that name in Sri Lanka and the name seems to come from the tea plantation which is, confusingly, named Rozella.(continued.....click link below)