TRANSPOTTER

Kadugannawa, a long-lost beacon to this history of transportation, first shot to modest fame in 1820, when the British, fresh from seizing the entire country and putting down a major rebellion, set about building a proper road to connect Colombo with Kandy.

At the Kadugannawa Pass, they faced a rock so large that neither blasting it nor circumnavigating it was an option. Instead, an army of builders led by Captain Dawson of the Royal Engineers pieced a sufficiently large hole through it to allow horses and carriages access. Although Dawson died of a snake bite before the road was completed, the Captain was credited with building the island’s first modern highway, and, rather extraordinarily, his own workers clubbed together to make a tower in his memory, the Dawson Tower.

Somewhat shakily, it still stands.

As befits a location of such transportational importance, the country’s National Railway Museum is also located in Kadugannawa. The country’s first train ran in 1858, and the network now covers 1,500 kilometres, using a lock-and-block signalling system so antiquated that trainspotters mark the government as their number one travel destination to witness history in action.

Harder critics argue that little has changed since 1858 – not least because the railway department runs one of the country’s most significant deficits, averaging an annual loss of 45 billion rupees.

But, as Senneca said, “it is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.” And who can be poor who can ride in trains and carriages of such vintage beauty, with doors and windows open to catch the breeze; with food sellers who scamper up and down with doubtful offerings; and – from time to time - destinations that are all too briefly reached. All this history is celebrated at the Museum, home to innumerable old engines, locomotives, rail cars, trolleys, carriages, machinery, and equipment.

Despite all this, the real and most secret glory of Kadugannawa is actually a bridge. Trainspotters, tourists and pontists flock like sheep to the Nine Arch Bridge, a viaduct built in 1919 between Ella and Demodara.

But connoisseurs go to a smaller, older one much closer to home – the Triple Arches Bridge of Kadugannawa, built in 1887 when the first rail lines were being laid. Today, it is a dreamy ruin, its arches lost in the ever-encroaching jungle. Listen hard – for here you can still catch the chatter of long departed passengers heading to the hill country.