Down Memory Lane - My Coimbatore.

If I tell that at one time no express train stopped at Coimbatore Railway Station, no body will believe me! But it is true. Coimbatore was a whistle stop station even for the Passenger trains. I remember the old Railway station, a small granite structure, on the western side of the railway lines at the southern end of present goods shed road just after the Variety hall Road cross. The prestigious Blue mountain Express used to pass through the station to Mettupalayam in the mornings without stopping.The same was the case of the return Blue Mountain Express from Mettupalayam to Madras. The nearest Express stop was at Podanur Junction about 5 Miles(8 Kms) from the town. Podanur was an important and old Divisional Head quarters in South Indian Railways, on the Jolarpet-Mangalore Line. If we wanted to catch Blumountain Express for Madras, we had to take a Passenger train or a horse drawn Judka to reach Podanur Junction well in advance. Similarly we had to detrain at Podanur and commute to Coimbatore on our return journey also. Later on at the request of the increasing population Blue Mountain Express stopped for two minutes at Coimbatore Station. In those days the S.I.R. permitted the trains to stop at any station if the I Class passenger has to detrain. (Usually I Class was reserved for rich and Englishmen only.) Which is unthinkable now. I was told that the Railways experimented another novel method to cool down the I Class Compartments for the Englishmen during hot summer. For a price the Railways used to provide Ice Boxes to be kept under the berths, which had special vents to drain off melting water! You know in those days Ice itself was imported from USA by ships and stored in Ice House in Madras. This Building is known as Vivekanandar Illam now.

South Indian Railway Company which was reconstituted in 1891 was one of the oldest in India. Its jurisdiction covered mainly the old Madras Presidency. The trunk route on Jolarpet - Calicut in which Podanur was a Division, was completed in 1862. by the then Madras Railway.The Podanur-Coimbatore - Mettupalayam BG line was opened in 1873.

Another interesting information many of the present generation in Coimbatore may not be aware was that the then Coimbatore District Board had constructed and commissioned a Metre Guage line from Podanur to Pollachi, which was run by the S.I.R, and eventually taken over by them. Similarly Tanjore District Board also constructed a Rail link to Arantangi in those days.

Railway link to Coimbatore was used more for transporting Cotton to the newly started Cotton Spinning and weaving Mills in Coimbatore and to connect Mettupalyam. In those days, Lorry transport was not developed much. There were three big textile Mills on the proximity of the railway lines in the City. They were C.S.&W.Mills, Kaleeswrar Mills and Somasundaram Mills. Till recently these Mills were linked by railway sidings directly entering the Mills. All the three Mills had towering chimneys belching smoke when they were powered by steam turbines at one time, which were also the land mark for Coimbatore.

During the war time, in 1941-42, old Railway Station was demolished and brand new Station Building with modern facilities with entrance on the Madras Bank Road (Imperial Bank).was built. Initially there were only Two Platforms for receiving BG Trains, which was expanded later on by adding two more platforms for Metre Guage trains extended from Podanur.

Podanur-Coimbatore-Mettupalayam line became busy when the Nilgiri Mountain Railways started functioning in 1899. During the summer seasons many Maharajahs used to go over to Ooty by special carriages attached to Bluemountain Express. It was a colourful sight to see various specially built Carriages with different Royal Coats of Arms displayed on them. Also the Governor's secretariat used to be shifted to Ooty from Madras during Summer months to function from there.

Coimbatore was well connected by good Bus services from olden days. Sri Gopalaswamy Naidu Doraiswamy Naidu, popularly known as G.D.Naidu started his Transport business under the name of United Motor Service (U.M.S) and ran his first "Auto Coach" between Pollachi and Palani in 1920. Incidentally my mother's maternal Uncle, who was the Police Office Manager at that time was a good friend of Sri Naidu. In those days licensing and regulating Bus Transports were under the Police Department. Then Sri Pollachi Nachimuthu Gounder started Anamalais Bus Transport (A.B.T.) in 1931, connecting Pollachi with Coimbatore and other nearby areas. Later another company known as Mettupalayam Coonoor Services (M.C.S) was started by Sri Katteri Chettiar at Mettupalayam connecting Ooty with Coimbatore. This service was known for their good Bus Coaches from the beginning. There were other Bus Transport Companies like BMS, Pakshiraja and VCK which connected the City to other parts of the District by running Buses on feeder routes.

Interestingly for a long time, there was no common Bus stand or Bus Station in the city for the Buses to start or reach. Each Company had its own Bus station in different parts of the city. The present Bus Station at Gandhipuram was opened only after the transports were nationalised.



posted on Sunday, March 02, 2008 11:29 AM