Chennai Rail Museum

Chennai Rail Museum

File:Chennai Rail Museum Emblem.png
Former name	Regional Rail Museum, Chennai
Established	2002
Location	Perambur, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600 038, India
Type	Rail Museum, History Museum, Art Gallery, Model Rail Coaches, Souvenirs
Visitors	7,500 per month
Curator	Shri. Arun Devraj
Public transit access	Villivakkam Railway Station, Anna Nagar Tower Park Metro Station, ICF Bus Stand
Website	Official site

The Chennai Rail Museum is a railway museum in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, which has a rich rail heritage of India. The museum was opened on the 16 April 2002 on the premises of the Furnishing Division of Integral Coach Factory near Villivakkam. It is located in over 6.25 acres of land with the host of both technical and heritage exhibits with a sizable collection of steam engines belonging to various decades of the British Raj. The museum also exhibits various vintage coaches such as Ooty trains endemic to the Indian railways. Most of the older models were manufactured by the North British Locomotive Company and some of the collection dates back more than one hundred years as it covers the railway history of South India. A toy train offers rides around the premises on regular days. Museum remains open from 10.00 am to 6.00 pm (Last entry 5.30 pm) Tuesday to Sunday and remains closed on every Monday and National Holidays. The Indoor Art Gallery is now fully renovated and opened to the public.The museum is administered, managed and maintained by the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai.

History

Indian Railways has a glorious history of more than 150 Years. In this period the Railways have passed through many developmental stages. The Buildings, Bridges, Wagons and other artifacts of the yesteryear's are a testimony for the entrepreneurship, skills and inventiveness of the Railway men. The Artifacts of heritage value need to be preserved for posterity. This can be done in a focused manner through development of museums. Indian railways already has a National Rail Museum at New Delhi which serves the purpose well. However, Regional Rail Museums are essentially required due to space constraints at National Rail Museum. Accordingly RRM (Regional Rail Museum) was established in March 2002. Its development was watched with keen interest by the Railway Board, It has to serve a model for the other RRM's being planned at Kolkata and Pune. Proposals were made for setting up of RRM in Chennai as early as 1993 - 94 based on Secy of Railway Board which was addressed to General Manager, ICF, followed by various meetings by Director Rail Museum with CE/ ICF. Accordingly Regional Rail Museum was set up and opened by the then Railway Minister, Shri. Nitish Kumar on 31 March 2002. And then the museum was opened to public from 16 April 2002. As part of the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Integral Coach Factory(ICF), efforts are on to make the Regional Railway Museum at Villivakkam an attractive place by adding a few more antiques and facilities that would explain the rich history of the ICF. The Regional Rail Museum (RRM) has been renamed as Chennai Rail Museum, to mark the 377th Madras Day on 22 August 2016. The Renovated Chennai Rail Museum with new Art Gallery was inaugurated on 2 October 2016 by Eminent dancer Padma Bhushan Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam in the presence of renowned artist, Shri. Maniam Selvan and Shri. S. Mani, General Manager/ICF.

Overview

The museum covers an area of 6.5 acres and has two galleries, a host of outdoor heritage exhibits dating from the 1800s, a toy train that takes visitors around the premises, and a playground.

The museum's collection includes both indoor and outdoor exhibits. The indoor galleries include various photographs detailing the early years of Integral Coach Factory and the Indian Railways. The museum also houses a working scale model of trains and rare artifacts from the colonial days. This will be where new exhibits, planned for the museum's second decade, will be located. There is also an opportunity to view a video about Neal's ball token system, which was used for signalling between trains and a coach in which Gandhi travelled.

In the museum's outdoor spaces, there are more than 40 different models of trains. An 1895 model of the Fowler steam ploughing engine made by Sir John Fowler for agricultural purposes and 1860s Double Decker coaches are some of the recognizable coaches displayed in the museum. The models also include Coaches of Inspection car RA 30 made by Metropolitan Carriage and Finance Co. Ltd., Crane Hercules (used for emergency relief) and luxury trains coaches. Almost all coaches in the museum are accessible to visitors.

The exhibits are interspersed with posters of high-speed trains from around the world, the history of the Indian Railways and models of coaches made for other countries, namely, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Vietnam and Zambia. The exhibits also include a coach from the Mumbai suburban train network, old railways map of India, century-old clocks, and engine block of diesel locomotives.

As outdoor exhibits, life size models of Nilgiri Mountain Railway coach, GM Inspection car, MG EMU, Hospital van, a hand operated crane, an overhead equipment car, Meter gauge EMU, different types of engine (Steam, Diesel and flower stream plough engine) etc.. are available.

This museum also contains photographs of the visits of various world leaders, royal and distinguished dignitaries to ICF. The three tier running models, apart from providing amusement to the younger ones, will be of informational value for the elders.

The museum has more than 150 photographs which document the evolution of Integral Coach Factory (ICF) as well as the Indian Railways.

Did you ever know that Tambaram Railway Station had once a metregauge turntable on which engines could be turned and put on the right track? Or does anybody have an idea on how seats in the first class compartments of yore used to look like.

One can step into the ICF Diamond Jubilee Gallery at Railway Museum premises to get an idea about those things. The gallery was inaugurated recently by eminent dancer Padma Subrahmanyam and it has photographs shot by Professor Ian Manning and digitally restored by Poochi Venkat of Chennai that show valuable anecdotes of Railway history like the steam engine turntable.

The seat inside the first class compartments, scale model of third class MG coaches designed and manufactured at ICF for Uganda, photographs showing dignitaries like Queen Elizabeth II, K Kamaraj, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru are among the artifacts in this gallery.

After seeing this section, visitors can move to the art gallery where there are about 14 paintings. This gallery was also inaugurated by the famous classical dancer on the same day.

These artworks by eminent artists like M S Murthy, Shahed Pasha revolve around subjects commonly found in Railway stations and related establishments. M S Murthy's painting 'Gandhi' is an attempt to salute the common man and to transfuse the Gandhian philosophy on to the canvas.

Shahed Pasha's artwork 'Kanhaiya's Journey' shows little lad Krishna showing his mother Yashoda the way to home who is herself pulling a suitcase and trying to board Mathura Express at Bangalore Railway Station.

This painting is another attempt to show that god is not restricted to temples alone, but is present everywhere to guide us and show the way.

The New Face lift

The Regional Rail Museum (RRM) has been be renamed as Chennai Rail Museum (CRM), to mark the 377th Madras Day on 22 August 2016. The 14-year-old museum has now been expanded with a new Art Gallery, Rail heritage, Diamond Jubilee galleries with star attractions of Steam engines, Joy train, Children’s park, Souvenir shop display, Coach model, Photo Gallery, Indoor and Outdoor exhibits, etc,.. The Renovated Chennai Rail Museum with new Art Gallery was inaugurated on 2 October 2016 by Eminent dancer Padma Bhushan Dr. Padma Subrahmanyam in the presence of renowned artist, Shri. Maniam Selvan and Shri. S. Mani, General Manager/ICF. It chronicles the milestones of ICF, and the visits by dignitaries to the factory and narrates the origin, growth and development of the Indian Railways through photographs. Visitors coming to the museum will soon get an opportunity to have a closer look at the antique steam engine which used to ply in the Nilgiris mountains. The engine which is currently placed at the entrance and space surrounding it is been spruced up with greenery and herbs. A walkers path has also been added which will help visitors get close to the antique marvel and have a feel of it. The steam locomotive has X class engine which is a class of metre gauge 0.8 2T rack and pinion compound locomotives working on Nilgiri Mountain Railway. Apart from these an additional play space at the museum for children has been created, the play equipment has been placed in the play area to amuse children.

Visitors

The Museum was started to showcase the heritage of the Indian Railways. Work began for it in 2001 and the museum was inaugurated in March 2002 by then Railway Minister Nitish Kumar. Several additions have been made since then. The museum recently constructed a joy ride for children to teach them about the history of trains. Close to 5,500 people visit the museum every month, comprising mostly students and locals, but the railway struggles from a lack of awareness and publicity despite people's connection and the role of the railway in India's growth. While celebrating the museum's 10th anniversary in 2012, the museum announced plans for future growth.

As of now, there is only English subtext to highlight a photo’s significance. But curator Arun Devaraj says they have taken up the task of compiling Tamil and Hindi versions of the text, thereby benefiting the local audience. Besides, there are preliminary plans to have a child care centre and an art gallery which will have murals.

A personal initiative of Devaraj, currently in his third stint as the curator, the plan involves training the students on the history of the museum and its exhibits. “On many occasions, visitors just take a glance and leave without gaining knowledge from the exhibits. So I have contacted few city colleges like Ethiraj and DG Vaishnav to send their students here for training,” he said.

The Future

In 2014, the museum planned to tie up with the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation (TTDC) to include the museum in its Chennai itinerary and in package tour offers to increase the number of visitors. Other plans include opening a restaurant in an air-conditioned coach, making the exhibits more interactive and creating a park within the premises.

"Another idea in the pipeline is to start a thematic restaurant probably inside a AC train coach. We are in discussions with IRCTC in this regard," he said.

"There is an intention to start night visits also, he said and added 'people will be able to visit the museum at night also much like the night safari in Singapore", he said. He also informed that they are intending to make B Class locomotive of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) functional.

The Chennai Rail Museum will also be documenting working of steam locomotives, bringing out a book on Railways with a emphasis on how railways were in 1960s and 1970s, spreading awareness about Bhor Ghat and Thal Ghat.

External links

• Official website
• Rail Museum - a hidden gem: Slideshow