Badulla Night Mail M6, M5b - Ambewela to Pattipola Sri Lanka 🇱🇰

Badulla Night Mail Train (බදුල්ල රාත්‍රී තැපැල් දුම්රිය) runs between Colombo and Badulla railway stations.

The service is run by M6, M2c, M5 locomotives pulling Romanian-built ASTRA passenger coaches.

From Rambukkana, it has to climb a steep slope of 1 : 44, into the hills of the upcountry. But it is a difficult task for M6 locomotive to do alone. So M5 class locomotive is attached at the rear end, as a banking engine. The rear engine is removed Kadugannawa and again from Gampola, a M6 (mostly) or a M5 locomotive is attached at the rear end, to climb steep slopes, from Gampola to Pattipola.

The Train continues its journey passing Hatton, Nanuoya, Ambewela and at 4.00am, it reaches Pattipola (this day the train was delayed for about 5 hours), the highest altitude railway station in Sri Lanka. In here, the rear locomotive is uncoupled and brought to the front end of the train and re-coupled, as a pilot engine, to begin its descend from Pattipola to Badulla.
(Source: web)

Shot on iPhone
Sorry for the disturbing camera movements.

0:00 Intro
0:21 Badulla-bound Night mail train Approcing Ambewela
1:46 Stops for signal clearance to the railway station
2:27 Approcing Ambewela railway station
4:41 Arriving at Pattipola rail Crossing
6:24 Rear Locomotive brought to the front end
8:53 Re-coupled, as a pilot engine
9:40 Departs Pattipola

#nightmail #Ambewela #Pattipola
Music: Adventure from Bensound.com