A Life on Cold Rails

A Life on Cold Rails
Working day begins between the cold iron rails at dawn. The distance covered is 20 kilometers every day until the evening. The railway is entrusted to the guards with 10-15 km parts in many regions. The railroad guard, who inspects the area he is responsible for with slow steps every day, has to look after the deposit.

Mustafa Dogan (1975), who started his career as a laborer in State Railways (DDY) 57, he is one of the guards of railway.

While he was inspecting the region he was responsible for for twenty years, he walked 85 thousand kilometers to travel around the world twice. Aşık Veysel said “I am on a long road, day and night,” as if he made the professional definition of the railway guards.

Every morning, the first day of the profession with excitement as the first day passes. Carefully walk through each meter of the kilometer, as if it were the first meter. A small carriage lamp in one hand, a carburetor lamp in one hand, a tool bag in one hand, rails, and thousands of fixtures that secure the sleepers, carefully control the eye, attention is paid to the right side of the road. Was a landslide, fell to the road, screw loosened, loaf-thrown small faults by using the hand tools at that moment, large faults and irregularities to inform the concerned.

He was at home in the 1998 earthquake in Adana. He goes to see the Varda Railway Bridge, which he calls "the entrusted of our state", even though he is not in his area, then he comes and checks his house.

The night of the day, the safe flow of traffic, the passengers work to reach the load in time. The rail watchman, the 10 watches over the hour and the 24 watch is ready for duty. On the way to freeze, cold, not to sweat the priority way to be open, is the completion of the work. Life spans the roads. Her friends, trains that pass by several meters away, thousands of passengers and tons of cargo.

At the end of twenty years, the road watchman Mustafa Doğan becomes Mustafa Çavuş. Pozantı-Belemedik, which is a dangerous and important region for FDI due to the nature of the land and the nature of the nature conditions, continues to serve among the stations of Belemedik-Hacıkırı, Hacıkırı-Bucak and Mustafa Çavuş. There are full 4 mile tunnel crossing between the Belemedik-Hacıkırı stations, which have a length of 10 kilometers.

Wildlife and settlements intertwine. There is no rheumatism in this region.

Now railways are being restructured. Now the title of Mustafa Çavuş is a line maintenance and repair officer. Changing the title did not reduce the weight of the task, on the contrary, imposed new responsibilities. But the workers continue to call him "Sergeant". Not only the title has changed, but the trains that have come in, replaced by electric high-speed trains.

“The road has changed and the trains have changed,” says Mustafa Çavuş. He had an accident nearby, “We were working at the mouth of the tunnel, a new train was put in, we didn't know, it was electric. He was with us twenty meters when we heard his voice. "We threw ourselves hard on the side of the road," he says.

The materials they used have also changed. “We used carbide lamps this way from the Germans. Nowadays, we use led lights, head lamps, battery powered lights. While in danger, firecrackers and red-green illuminated lamps were used, mobile phones and radios were used in places where they did not receive. Now they go to work in motorized wagons. Mustafa Sergeant said, “A lot has changed. After the steam, the first 24 thousand horsepower trains came out. Then the British medium cabins, and then the locomotives of 22 hp. Now, on this ramp, there are 850 thousand diesel engines carrying 33 tons of cargo ”. The most popular is the Fast Train. Even when he hears his name, he gets excited.

Source : http://www.memleket.com.tr