There was a time when one thought of Chennai, it was Egmore railway station that came before one's eyes. It was as though the train service from the Egmore railway station was exclusive to Tamil Nadu. These trains were jocularly called as 'small train'. The north and westbound broad gauge trains commenced their journey from the Central railway station. Whereas the meter gauge trains from Egmore set off in the southern and the western directions and reached certain remote corners of Tamil Nadu in the meter gauge track in the south eastern direction.

Egmore station is more beautiful and perfect than the Central railway station. The trains of those days had just 9 or 10 coaches and hence they were aptly called by the Sri Lankan Tamils as the Smoky Chariots. The platforms of Egmore station were just long enough to accommodate only these trains. This station somehow managed with just three platforms for nearly a hundred years.



The Indo-Ceylon Express or the Boat Mail would set off from the first platform leaving behind a trail of smoke and steam at around six in the evening and reach Dhanushkodi port the next mid day. Certain passengers from the train will take a steamer, which will be waiting there, and leave for either Jafna, or Trincomallee or Colombo. And tickets for all these places can be procured from Egmore itself. Even though this seems to be unbelievable, that indeed was the case.

The suburban electric railway services were inaugurated in Chennai immediately after the Salt Agitation and a new entrance was built exclusively for this service in Egmore. The transformation that this aluminium coloured trains had brought about in the lives of the Chennai citizens is indeed remarkable and nothing else can match that. We must have seen a number of seventy-year-old people fondly recalling their tram travel.

Now a days both the broad gauge and the meter gauge trains ply from Egmore station. The first two platforms have been pushed far behind. But the road in front of the railway station has not witnessed any change. Previously space was provided for the jatkas (horse drawn carts) and rickshaws. These vehicles are becoming a rarity.

Ashokamitran
(Translated by Sujatha Pradeep)