The Mysuru rail museum, renovated and expanded at a cost of ₹9 crore, was opened to the public on Saturday, adding a new heritage site of historical value to the city.
Providing an experience of the history and evolution of the Railways, starting from the steam era down to the modern times, the exhibits, including the steam locomotives and wagons, have been refurnished and restored aesthetically.
The renovated museum was inaugurated on Saturday by H. Ashwathnarayana, a long-serving employee of the museum, in the presence of Ajay Kumar Singh, general manager, South Western Railway, Aparna Garg, Divisional Railway Manager, and other officials of SWR.
The Maharani’s Pavilion, housing the vintage saloon used by the maharanis of the Wadiyar dynasty, was inaugurated by G. Mala, a veteran staff member of the rail museum. Originally, it was supposed to be inaugurated by Jamuna Bai, one of the members of the cleaning crew of the steam era, but she could not make it owing to illness.
Ms. Garg said the renovated museum was the Railways’ contribution to the heritage city of Mysuru. “We wanted to make it more experiential, rather than a collection of exhibits. The Indian Railways and the city of Mysuru have one thing in common — a lot of heritage — and the museum complements this,” she said.
Sumedha Sah, an architect from Bengaluru who was involved in the redesigning of the museum, said a lot of thought went into it and the few old structures were renovated and connected with the walking pathway. Each site is connected visually and spatially by the pathway, inspired by how the Railways has knitted the sub-continent. Likewise, the pathways link all the exhibits, she said.
Cafeteria and galleries
A metre gauge coach has been converted into a cafeteria while there is a coffee shop with a library, complete with literature and books related to the Railways. There are pictorial galleries tracing the evolution of the steam locomotive and diesel locomotive, while the old signalling contraptions used by the Railways have been painted and displayed in the signalling section along with other equipment.
The earlier exhibits have been refurbished and given a fresh coat of paint, while the audio-visual gallery with touch-screen monitors provides complete information about the museum but the Railways in general. The toy train and the Central Park station have been redone. The museum also has a website (www.mysururailmuseum.com). A postal cover was released to mark the occasion.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home>News> States> Karnataka / by R. Krishna Kumar / Mysuru – March 15th, 2020
