A day after the Rail Heritage Centre in Trichy was thrown open to the public, the museum received `1 crore in the railway budget announcement. The funds will be used to preserve historical records of Southern Railway . A similar heritage centre is functioning in New Delhi. “To protect and preserve the valuable historical records, including drawings, maps, commentaries, company railway records, etc, from decay it is proposed to set up a Rail Heritage Document Centre and Archives.The institute can be located at Trichy , Southern Railway and Delhi, Northern Railway .It is therefore proposed to take up this work at an anticipated cost of `2.6 crore with an outlay of `1 crore during 2015-16,” the railway budget said on Thursday .

Trichy is home to the Golden Rock workshop, which renovates and refurbishes locomotives. The workshop also manufactures steam locomotives for mountain railways, the most notable being the four X-class oil-fired steam locomo tives that are used on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) between Mettupalayam and Coonoor.

The Rail Heritage Centre is located on five acres adjacent to Trichy Junction railway station and was built at a cost of `1.5 crore. A large collection of vintage items, including century-old documents, a firefighting vehicle and a toy train, is on display .

Addressing the media after throwing open the railway museum on Wednesday , divisional railway manager Manjula Rangarajan said plans to build an extra floor for scholars to research the century-old documents are on the cards and a proposal will be sent to the railway ministry .

For a nominal fee of `5 for children and `10 for adults, the museum will be open to the public from 9.30am to 5.30pm, except on Mondays.

Railways decided to set up a heritage centre in Trichy because the town was the headquarters of South Indian Railway , which had its origins in July 1874 and succeeded the earlier Great Southern Of India and Carnatic Railway Companies. The first line from Nagappattinam to Erode was opened in May 1859 by the Great Southern of India Railway Company . It became one of the main centres of railway development in the peninsular region under the British.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> Budget 2015> Rail Budget 2015 / TNN / February 27th, 2015