Diesel WDM Veterans Meet at Alappuzha!
Southern Railways Diesel workhorses, WDM2B #17544 and WDM2 #17805 both of Golden Rock (GOC Ponmalai) shed stand tall, head to head at Alappuzha Railway Station one late evening. The former hauling the Mangalore – Nagercoil Ernad Express arrived first and the latter arrived later with the Kozhikode – Thiruvananthapuram Jan Shatabdi Express, but left first. Poor Ernad and #17544 was stuck at Alappuzha for half an hour .
Both these are veterans and have quite a history behind them. The #17805 was once a Jumbo (here is how it looked like) belonging to the Ernakulam shed and was later rebuilt to look like how it is now. I remember boarding the Vanchinad Express hauled by it, many years back. The #17544 was once with Erode and had an accident after which the cab was rebuilt looking flat. (Here is how it looked) Later it was given raised steel numbers on it’s side. It now belongs to the Tondiyarpet (TNP) shed.
