...continued from Hubballi Railway Museum, chapter-1.
In the first part we had covered approximately half the exhibits which includes the two locomotives, a passenger wagon, a goods wagon, water tank wagon, semaphore signaling system and Malaprabha cottage. The cottage building itself is an antique, probably built in the 1950s. Inside the cottage are railway theme artworks, station master's office, ticket booking office, goods booking office, passenger waiting room furniture, railway tools & instruments, communication equipment, safety equipment, and other items. Most of the items are labeled and also there are several infographics. This is the tiled roof cottage in its original livery, only the paved courtyard is a modern touch.
Right besides Malaprabha cottage is a collection of railway axles & wheels. Two axles with spoked wheels belonged to steam locos while the rest are diesel loco axles. There's one with a gear wheel in the middle, that would a mountain railway coach axle.
A small collection of spoked wheels, all belonged to steam locos or stem powered cranes. In the background is an airconditioned coach, the types seen on rails even to this day.
The next item is a "track survey push trolley." I remember seeing this little trolley being pushed by two or three people while two technicians carried out track inspection. Few years later these trolleys came with a propelling system with two levers which was operated by two men. With the new system the men didn't have to run after the trolley, instead they could ride it as they operated the levers. My wish to ride one of these trolleys still remains a wish.
The next item is a mini platform with two coaches. What seems to be two airconditioned coaches are special coaches. One is a theater coach and the other is a restaurant coach. Unfortunately both were locked and even their windows had dark tints, we couldn't see the inside of them.
From my railway journeys, I remember seeing a kitchen car in Grant Trunk Express which ran between Chennai and New Delhi in the 70s and may be 80s too. That was the first train I saw which had vestibules between bogies. The journey lasted 2 nights & a day. The restaurant car was always busy, cooks and their helpers working on the orders. The kitchen car was the only bogie where stoves were permitted. Later the kitchen car made way for the pantry car. Presently most regular trains do not have pantry cars, I guess the Palace on Wheels are an exception they might have kitchen or panty cars.
Coming to the theatre coach, it must be a part of the touring train item. Ah, this reminds me of touring talkies.
From the station platform we come towards Ghataprabha cottage. Before we enter the cottage we decided to check out the exhibits placed in the open space here. The largest item was an undercarriage. An undercarriage is an assembly of frames, levers, axles, and brake subassemblies. Every railway wagon & coach has two undercarriages. Undercarriages come in different sizes and types depending on the application.
The next important item in railway safety. This device made sure that signals and points are interlocked with each other. I guess these are obsolete since the advent of electronic & digital systems.
This is a railway ticket printing machine. This machine was used until 80s or early 90s to print cardboard tickets. At some point of time cardboard tickets were phased out on the introduction of newer type which was compatible with digital printers. Now most tickets are booked online, use of printed tickets has reduced drastically.
The next item is brass name plates. One of the walls has a collection of nameplates of railway wagon builders between 1901 and 1943. The collection includes brands from England, Hungary, India and USA. Every manufacturer has a unique identity, lot of thoughts & efforts behind the design. In the case below are items relating to rescue teams... brass water containers, medical kits and other stuff.
Here's a collage of closeups of four nameplates.
Next we have a machine which is very important for all workplaces, its a machine that monitor's employee attendance- Time Punching Machine. On the right is a card holding slot board. The card punching machine is connected to a clock, every employee entering/exiting the premises has to time-stamp his/her card for the day. This data is sent to the human resources department who would process the employee's leaves & salary information. In the present age, mechanical time punching device has been replaced by digital devices which function on employees' biometric info. With this we were done with Ghataprabha cottage and ready to step out for fresh air.
After seeing all the artifacts I was curious if there was a souvenir shop here. I checked with one of the staff members. Apparently the souvenir shop shut down because of lack of sales. I asked if there was an online store. No. Well, it would've been nice to buy a book or painting for memory sake. The museum also had a cafe, again it had shut shop. I'd read there was a children's play area but I don't remember seeing one. One thing I expected to see was a miniature train set. Again a no. Well, seems like this railway museum has a tight budget. Anyway, let this be maintained as it is. While we rested, sun had set, the evening lights had been turned on. We went around taking another look. Here's the Jumbo TC :)
The passenger coach and the classic grill work of Indian Railways.
The lit-up diesel loco. Even the wheels have been outlined. People would love to take selfies with such objects.
The station platform, restaurant coach and theater coach. One has to appreciate the efforts of the team maintaining this little museum. We were done with our tour and mosquitoes had started their shift. We decided to leave.
The museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday, weekly off is Monday. You can visit it any time between 1 PM and 7 PM. It closes at 8 PM on Sundays and public holidays. Do check it out once, the tour will be educational.
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