Date:02/01/2009 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2009/01/02/stories/2009010250320200.htm

Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi

A journey into rail history

Staff Reporter

Senior Section Engineer’s exhibits thrill visitors

Photo: M. Moorthy

Wonderful: A view of toy rail at an exhibition on Indian Railways at Railway Institute in Ponmalai in Tiruchi on Thursday.. —

TIRUCHI: It was indeed a journey into the past for the public when they visited the rail exhibition organised in the city on Thursday what with an array of old books on railways, photographs and stamps kept on display depicting its rich heritage.

The day-long event demonstrated the keen interest and painstaking efforts taken by R. Syed Abdul Jalal, a railway employee, in displaying his old and contemporary collections on railways.

This is for the fourth time that Jalal, a Senior Section Engineer working in the Golden Rock Railway Workshop here, had organised the exhibition to enable the general public know about the origin and development of the railway system over the years.

Though there were several books pertaining to Railways on display, the pick of the expo undoubtedly was an old book titled Indian Railways General Rules which was published in 1880 from Calcutta.

The time table of the erstwhile Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway brought out way back in 1933; the first souvenir of Southern Railway brought out in 1948; the one highlighting the development of steam locomotives and a book on 150 years of Indian Railways captured the attention of the visitors at the expo which was inaugurated by Divisional Railway Manager, Tiruchi S. Subramhanyan.

Also on display were valve radios and record players which were once used at railway stations, a model of the steam locomotive of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and a hundred rupee coin which was brought out in connection with the 150th year celebrations of the Indian Railways. Railway stamps brought out by various countries, toy trains and models of various steam locomotives made the expo interesting.

Mr. Jalal says he has been collecting books, photographs and stamps for the last 25 years.

He has nearly 300 old and new books on railways and about 1, 500 railway stamps.