For the `gora sahib’ travelling to inspect the pride of the British Raj – the railway, the glass windows once framed the undulating arid landscape of the Marathwada region. Close to 100 years after it first trundled down the line connecting Nagpur to Jabalpur, the same coach has now been restored to its former glory and rests in the regional railway museum in the city .

For more than 50 years, the coach lay in a railway yard in Moti Bagh, Nagpur, before two officials from Chennai chanced upon it in the midst of mangled metal and splinters of glass and wood in 2010. “We went there to inspect another coach that the Railway Board sanctioned for the museum in Chennai, only to find that it was sent to a museum in Pune,” said Jagadeesan N, senior engineer, planning and furnishing at the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai.Jagadeesan and his colleague then came across a century-old coach, which served as a saloon for railway officers. “It was part of a narrow gauge train. The wood had rotted, leaving gaping holes, we could vaguely make out that the coach once had a bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom,” said Jagadeesan.They identified three other coaches, which was part of the rich history of the narrow gauge lines: A postal coach, a first-class compartment and a guard-cum-luggage van. These coaches were part of the trains that ran between Nagpur, Chhindwara and Jabalpur.

While narrow-gauge lines are now restricted only to a few hilly routes, there were once more than 100 narrow-gauge lines in the country . Until 2015, narrow gauge lines covered 2,000km of the total 1.15 lakh km of the railway network.With a 622-km network, the Nagpur division of South-East Central Railway is one of the biggest narrow gauge routes in Indian Railways at present.

The coaches were brought by road on three trailer trucks.But it wasn’t until six years later that the railway museum officials here got funds to refurbish the coaches. “We first renovated the 1906 coach as it required extensive work,” said Arun Devraj, curator of the museum. The wooden walls were painted, the metal floor welded and colonial furniture introduced to recreate the era when narrow-gauge trains were a lifeline. The postal coach is now being renovated with the help of private players, following which work will begin on the other coaches, which were manufactured in 1968.

Arun said the 100-year-old renovated coach has been thrown open to visitors. “Visitors can sit inside a coupe and relive a bygone era,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Chennai / TNN / August 04th, 2016