The Rail Museum in New Delhi houses some of the oldest steam engines and carriages that chugged on the Indian railway system. Spread over a sprawling, quiet but open area, the museum is a nostalgic journey into the romantic era of the steam loco. Of engines bellowing clouds of smoke…
Small stations with stone benches under banyan trees...
Of those childhood days when we ran from indoors, on hearing that hoarse whistle, to wave to a passing train, its long rows of dull red carriages jerking from side to side...
Of engine drivers with windswept hair under black handkerchiefs…
Of grandmothers who timed their cooking with the 11:20 Up…
Of rail men who walked long distances to light oil lit signals near railway tracks…
All of this, a beautiful experience -- the unique charm of rail travel in India.
Days that are long gone, yet the memories live on.
We relive some of them…
