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Demodara Railway Station |
Demodara Railway Station (Sinhala: දෙමෝදර දුම්රිය ස්ථානය හා දුම්රිය ගැටය) is the fourth last railway station on the Mail Line situated in Badulla District, Sri Lanka. The station is notable for the spiral rail line at this location, popularly known as the Demodara Getaya or Demodara Loop.
Located 276.8 km (172 mi) away from Colombo, the station remains 911.61 m (2990.84 ft.) above sea level. It has three tracks 320 m (1049.87 ft.) in length. The length of the main platform is 112 m (367.45 ft.) and it has three good sheds with platforms, a weighbridge and a crane.
History
The British rulers commenced the railway service in the country for planters to facilitate the transportation of their harvest from inland to the seaport located in Colombo (Kesavan et al., 2015). In 1858, the then Ceylon Governor, Henry George Ward (1855-1860 A.D.) commenced the construction of the first railway line in the country to be run between Colombo and Ambepussa (Abeysinghe, 2016). The line then extended to Kandy (1867), Nawalapitiya (1874), Hatton (1884), Nanu Oya (1885), Haputale (1893), Bandarawela (1894), and after the First World War, to Ella (1918), Demodara (1921). The first train arrived at the Demodara station on 21 March 1921 (Ellis, 1994).
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Demodara Loop
The spiral rail line known as the Demodara Loop has made this station notable and famous in the country. The loop is said to have been constructed following the ideas of the project engineers including D. J. Wimalasurendra (b.1874-d.1953). It was constructed to achieve the level difference by maintaining 1 in 44 (one foot per 44 feet), the maximum allowable gradient in Sri Lanka Railways (Ellis, 1994). The rail line passes under itself via a 900 m long spiral to emerge from a tunnel directly beneath the Demodara station. The tunnel situated 277.64 km and 277.81 km posts is 126.79 m (416 ft) in length.
A Protected Site
The Office building situated at the Demodara Railway Station in Demodara village in the Grama Niladhari Division of Nawulla in Ella Divisional Secretary’s Division is an archaeological protected monument, declared by a government notification published on 1 February 2023.
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References
Books, Government Gazette Notifications, Journal Articles
1) Abeysinghe, A.H.M.S.P., 2016. ශ්රී ලංකාවේ දුම්රිය කාර්මික පුරාවිද්යාව; නව මානයක් කරා රැගෙන යමු. Puraveda 2016.
2) Kesavan, R.A., Chandrakumar, C., Kulatunga, A.K., Gowrynathan, J., Rajapaksha, R.T.D., Senewiratne, R.K.G.D.M. and Laguleshwaran, D., 150 Years of Sri Lankan Railways: Evaluation of the Services from Employee and Customer Perspectives. International Journal of Emerging Technology and Advanced Engineering. Volume 5, Issue 5.
3) Ellis, R., 1994. Sri Lanka by Rail. Bradt Travel Guides. p.130.
4) The Gazette of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka: Extraordinary. No: 2317/57. 1 February 2023. p.9A.p.523.
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Attribution
To Whom
#) LankaPradeepa.com extends its gratitude to Malsha M. Ranasinghe and Lalith Kekulthotuwage for providing the necessary photographs required for this article. All the photos are published here with the permission of the authors.