Flash news: from july 1st chennai egmore-Tiruchendur-chennai egmore chendur exp(16735/16736) and chennai egmore-rameswaram-chennai egmore(16701/702) boat mail exp would be renumbered as given below:

16101/16102 MS-RMM-MS boatmail (as this no given in MG era)
16105/16106 MS-TCN-MS chendur exp
it...
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seems these two will have RSA from july 1st,also shifting the maintanance to MS i think so.....
source:click here

REWIND
Indo-Ceylon Express
This train covered 675km between Madras Egmore and the Dhanushkodi Pier for connection with the Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) ferry. In the 1950s it took 19 hours and 5 minutes for this run. The detailed schedule is given below.
Madras Egmore dep. 20.00
Chidambaram...
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arr. 01.38 dep. 01.43
Tanjore arr. 04.27 dep. 04.42
Trichinopoly arr. 05.50 dep. 06.25
Manamadurai arr. 10.15 dep. 10.30
Mandapam arr. 13.02 dep. 13.34 ( Medical and Protection Examination for passengers proceeding overseas)
Pamban arr. 14.12 dep. 14.16
Dhanushkodi Pier arr. 15.05
Ferry service from Dhanushkodi Pier to Talaimannar (Ceylon). Boat leaves soon after 4pm. Time taken is about 3½ hours. No steamer service on Sunday night.
Fare from Madras First Class 36-4-0 (36 rupees, 4 annas, 0 pice).
To Rameshwaram (665km from Madras), change at Pamban dep 15.15, arr. Rameshwaram 15.45. Fare from Madras First Class 35-8-0 (35 rupees, 8 annas, 0 pice).
Dhanushkodi Pier dep. 12.05
Pamban arr. 12.49 dep. 12.55
Mandapam arr. 13.34 dep. 13.45
Manamadurai arr. 16.13 dep. 16.33
Trichinopoly arr. 20.40 dep. 21.38
Tanjore arr. 22.26 dep. 22.40
Chidambaram arr. 01.14 dep. 01.19
Madras Egmore arr. 07.25
To Rameshwaram, change at Pamban dep 12.35, arr. Rameshwaram 12.05.
In 1898, the South Indian Railway ran a Madras - Tuticorin service that connected with the boat to Ceylon. This took 21 hours and 50 minutes for the 443 mile (709km) run. The steamer from Tuticorin to Colombo took 22 hours.