A FOND REMNESCIENCE OF A HISTORICAL RAILWAY LINE, SOON TO BE EXTINCT!
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It was a normal monday! I had been home for a while and went off to see my friend and Ex-IRI 'Hotshot' Suriender Singh...
Suriender had encountered a challan for rash-driving and had to surrender his 'Driving license' to ASDP Police...and had to pay off his fines to clear his name...
more...

and ID :P
And being his 'jigra Bangali dost', he almost compelled me to accompany him to Asansol! So we set up for a chain journey to Asansol by catching up the MURI-DHN passenger up to DHN and then subsequent journey upto ASN would been be covered up by the RNC-HWH intercity...
So we bought an express ticket from SJA-ASN, how we made this journey is a tale for some other day,and I am attaching the same as a fond memory, as from tomorrow onwards such tickets won't be available in any of the plethora of stations lying on the DHN-CRP railway line stretch....
It is my deep regret that inspite of covering many journeys on this track section countless time, I never considered saving a ticket as a souveneir....
This line along with the DHN-JRI-PTD lines have given me some of my fondest childhood memories and at this juncture, when this line is said to become inoperational from tomorrow, and while I lie musing about it in Hyderabad, I confess that I have been overcome with moments of poigant sorrow and fond remnisciences....
Yes the line had to be closed, yes it's mere operational existence was akin to gambling with people's lives......but still deep down somewhere in my heart, there is a small child crying out, lamenting that a railway line that provided him with some of his most cherished memories....a railway line where he saw the last surviving legacy of the 'Steam Engines'......a railway line where he saw his favourite ALCOs being towed to trains like 'Shaktipunj' and 'Maurya'.....a railway line that made him a ferroequinologist in the first place......and most importantly a rail-line where his 'Late grandfather' would often spend puttering around as a guard of the great 'Eastern Railways'!!!
Alas, all good things must come to an end. At the stroke of midnight tonight a chapter, a legacy, a 130 year endeavour that started during the days of slavery in the 1880s under the reigns of 'Eastern Indian Railways' would fade into the pages of history..........
Farewell 'DHN-CRP' line, thee served well!!!
In forever fond remembrance
Arnab