Title - Travelling through time via train

Amidst lush greenery stand heavy and colourful railway engines and coaches. But they are not your ordinary coaches as encountered on the railway stations everyday.

They are unique in as much as they generally remind one of the black-and-white Hindi films, especially those revolving around Partition.

These engines are a part of the National Railway Museum which was formally inaugurated on 1 February 1977.

It is a one-of-its-kind museum in Asia which has an interesting collection of 90 real-size exhibits which include different types of locomotives, royal saloons, cranes,

wagons and furniture.

Out of the many steam locomotives spread across the 11-acre museum, there is a blue coloured Patiala State Monorail belonging to the Maharaja of Patiala. There is white coloured 18-seater, eight-wheeled, wooden-bodied, milky white dining car which was used by the Viceroy of India.

Saloon coaches used by Maharjas of different territories add to the beauty of the open museum. It includes saloons of Mysore and Jodhpur Maharaja, Prince of Wales and Nizams of Hyderabad.

Giving a glimpse of these locomotives exhibited in the open area, a toy train runs around these locomotives frequently at different time intervals. On the other end

of the open museum there is an indoor gallery where working models of locomotives and cranes, models of coaches, artifacts like old railway tickets, clocks and old types

of signal and telecommunication equipments are displayed aesthetically.

As you enter the gallery a bright red coloured John Morris fire engine, dating 1914 welcomes you. It was purchased the Nizam of Hyderabad and interestingly only two such engines are known to exist in the world today. One definitely belongs to NRM!

Enter the adjoining big hall and a big 1926 grandfather clock captures your attention. Just adjacent to it is a model of steam locomotive used in 1851 – the first locomotive used for the first commercial run in India. A series of other models like Narrow Gauge Steam Locomotive (1963), Meter Gauge Steam Locomotive (1949) and a slightly bigger model of ‘W’ Class Steam Locomotive (1913) adds to the collection.  Don’t miss the ‘Cugnot’ (1771), the world’s first automobile.

Amidst all these models is a real skull of a white elephant, which had run into a train in 1894! As you move ahead, lamp fittings of the East Punjab Railway saloon, glittering with bulb lights draws your attention. Even the furniture used in Bombay-Baroda locomotives and GIP Railway is on display.

Under the glass shelves is a priceless collection of railway tickets. You will find here, the first-ever ticket issued for Rajdhani train from New Delhi to Howrah; a ticket of Oudh-Tirhut Railway which was used by Darjeeling Himalayan Railway after Independence and tickets used to cross India-Pakistan border. There are tickets which distinguishably mention Wagah and Attari borders.