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ALBERTA DAHLING!
By
Gyan Fernando
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Se*y
little numbers? Daddy's Little Girls. Mummy's Little Boys.....
A
nostalgic essay on trainspotting and G12 locos.......
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Going
up around the bend! Old Ontario the first of the Class M2 EMD G12s.
Pic:© John Raby, with
permission.
CLICK IMAGE FOR BIGGER
PIC |
***
THE CLASS M2 GM EMD G
12s
The G12s mean
different things to different people. Like with cars they have a human side to
them. Some people think of them as human beings. Just like "Herbie" the
Volkswagen Beetle. Or "Thomas The Tank Engine"
For example, to us at MadPage - a
trainspotter in the Fifties and Sixties - "Ontario" is the Patriarch or the
Grand Old Man of the clan. (We of course have continued to spot trains
throughout our life in spite of intervening years of Girl Spotting, Falling in
Love and Getting Married, but thats by the way.)
ONTARIO
Old Ontario was of course the
first of the CGR G12s. In 1954 after final assembly he stood out of doors on
lonely tracks outside the EMD plant in London, Ontario, Canada in below zero
temperatures before being manhandled (or rather Crane Handled), trucks forcibly
removed and the whole lot hoisted unceremoniously on to a freight ship heading
towards the tropics to a place called Colombo. Ontario had never heard of
Colombo before and the Maradana Yard was a rather an unsavoury
place.
"Ontario" never
forgot his origins and the hardships of the early days, the heat, the dust and
the abuse from the steam locomotives.
They used to let off loud steamy
farts in his general direction and of course they were jealous because they
could only go "Hoo-Hoo" whereas with his triple air horns Ontario could play a
full chord and some minor variations on the same chord.
"Ontario" still runs ...come what
may!
ALBERTA
"Alberta" (No 570) was of course
a sweet lovable little girl! (ahhh!). The original Daddy's little girl!
Everybody's sister.The Dahling! A quiet girl. Didn't say much. Sucked her thumb
all the time. Grew up to be rather awkward and long legged. We are pleased to
know that she is doing well and still running.
Unfortunately, Alberta got caught
up in the war and was stranded at Kankasanthurai at the start of the war. She
spent a terrified time over there before she was eventually tranquillised,
dismantled and brought back by ship to Colombo. She still has
nightmares.
" New
Foundland" and "New Brunswick" were brothers of course....Generally fought
among themselves but did a fair bit of work. They were rather fond of Alberta.
Their favourite sister. In fact at the time that Alberta got stranded both boys
wanted to go "up north" and rescue their sister and had to be forcibly
restrained!
MANITOBA
Manitoba was a se*xy little tart, rather fickle and
probably our all-time favourite. A la donna e mobile if ever there was one.
Some days you could wait for hours and hours trackside or at the Katukurunda
station and she wouldn't turn up. On other days you could see her travelling
both Up and Down in a typically provacative fashion. She was untypically,
rather quiet for a personality such as herself most of the time but had the
unnerving habit of creeping up unexpectedly and letting go of her triple air
horns.
This was
probably part of her modus operandi. She had a "Are-you-boys-or-men" attitude
about her accentuated by her high heels and the lateral movement of her
mainframe especially when clattering over facing points (switchovers) with a
speed restriction of 10 mph on the "up" approach to Kalutara South station.
Ahhh!
THE
PRINCE
Then there was "Prince Edward
Island" a rather silly boy but of course Royalty. Proud of his name. What could
one do with Royal Idiots. I am afraid "The Prince" didn't amount to much but to
do routine service on the Colombo-Aluthgama run..In the opposite direction to
main rush hour traffic! Nice boy though. Got married to a steam engine by the
name of "Lady Camilla Parker-Horton Plains" in the end and managed to produce
two narrow-guage locos.
SASKY
"Saskatchewan" was always a bit of a rebel and brave but was a
disappointment in some aspects. To be fair he did his bit on the lower reaches
of the Main Line and quite often on the Colombo-Matara "Ruhunu Kumari" run but
he was restless. A restless soul. Had to fight. Liked the Colombo-Jaffna
Colombo-Trincomalee run. Sadly "Saskatchewan" was completely destroyed by a
bomb. One of the first casualties of the war. Alberta cried a lot.
CITY
SLICKERS
British
Columbia 572 and Quebec 573 were the political stiff upper lipped city slicker
ars*hole types who probably only worked around Colombo, knew the Minister well
enough not to get transferred and never ventured outside a radius of 50 miles
from the Dematagoda-Maradana Yard. Probably got married to old steam engines
with massive doweries.
UP COUNTRY
GIRLS
Vancover (No 627) and Montreal (No 626)
were the cool, up-country girls of Class M2C with Bo-Bo wheel arrangement. Good
at climbing and then descending, silently. Especially on the
Pattipola-Idalgashinna descent.
They were of course "udarata"
girls and behaved, well, inappropriately. Tartish, but subtly so!... Well you
know what Kandyan girls are like!
Pic: © John Raby,
with permission. |
We last met Vancouver at Haputale in
1997. She is still lovely but appeared to have mellowed a bit or have we become
a little bit deaf in our old age? The exhaust note didn't sound the same!
Irritatingly our cheap camera ran out of power at the critical moment and we
lost a great photo shoot. She was great though! New coat of paint. Nice new
"Cowcatcher" painted a bright lipstick-red.
(Left: Vancouver at Pattipola,
the highest railway station at 6224ft (1897.1m). CLICK IMAGE FOR BIGGER
PIC) |
RUNTS
OF THE LITTER
Kankasanthurai (No 628) and Galle (No 629) were very definitely low caste (Class
M2D) though they had the same horse power as their rich relatives. They were
looked down partly or mostly because they got work at the cement factory.
Factory workers! Ha! It was of course hot, dusty air-filter-clogging work. The
dust was not good for their air intakes (lungs).
Later they were rather
reluctantly accepted into society and the Maradana-Dematagoda Club.
Acknowledgements:
Whilst the author has known the personal lives of the Class M2s all his life,
from the time he was a schoolboy in the 50's, some of the technical details on
Class M2 locos in this article and elsewhere on this page are from David
Hyatt's book. We are grateful to John Raby for permission to publish his pics.
Contributions are welcome. |
Copyright © Gyan Fernando.
First written on 23 Nov 2001. |
ALBERTA DARLING: Se*y little numbers? Daddy's
Little Girls. Mummy's Little Boys.....
