On February 8, 2009, I went out from home around 4: 30 p.m. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon. I went out alone on this afternoon after taking a nap at noon. It was an unplanned trip. I went to Howrah Station. I thought of travelling to the broad road beside Howrah Station. The Howrah Station is just near the Howrah Bridge.
As I was walking over the road, which is quite clean and broad, which took me straight to a place, which is enclosed by boundary walls. The wall is painted yellow. It has red borders on top. The museum is well guarded. The entry fee is Rs. 5. On the entrance, one can see a white sign board and written in blue letters: "EASTERN RAILWAY RAIL MUSEUM VISITING HOURS: 13:00 TO 20:00 HOURS. (THURSDAY CLOSED)"
As you enter the museum, you will be pleased to see a beautiful flower garden with wonderful round enclosures of glass in part and covered with iron casts. There are samples of different articles used by railways. It is nice to see and it increases your knowledge how a rail works and what are the important things involved to move a railway.
There are beautiful steam engines on display on the right hand side of the entrance. The engines are kept in open. A steam engine was displayed with beautiful green, black and red paint. The garden is well maintained. The grasses are green. They are well trimmed. Many visitors are relaxing in this pleasant afternoon.
A toy train encircles the spot. The toy train has 2 bogies and it is beautifully painted. Children with their parents are enjoying their ride for a nominal fare. The toy train is seen in Nicco Park and Science City. I am very pleased to see it here. It can be seen in hilly regions like Darjeeling.
Different miniature model of train are displayed here. They are as follows:
- Rajdhani Express.
- WDM2 engine model.
- Black Beauty (East Indian Railway).
- East Indian Railway BESA. O and RR standard design locomotive of 4-6-0 wheel arrangement HP class.
There were many pictures of different models of trains. There were captions below them. As it was an unexpected visit, I was not prepared with a notebook and pen to write them down. In future, I am going to visit again and will take down further details of this beautiful place which gives you an encyclopedia of information on the train.
As I look at the photographs I took in this museum, I felt like I have visited a foreign land. The neat and clean surroundings are an added attraction. For a nominal Rs. 5, you get to know lot of information about train. So whenever you visit Kolkata, you must walk straight the road beside Howrah Station and pass some of your valuable time in this museum. A large area under this museum has been made into a park with beautiful flowers like pansy and decorative plants and Dahlia flowers of variety of colors adorn the place. So not only the bees and birds will come, thousands of tourists will come if the Eastern Railway makes proper publicity. This museum has become 3 years old. I love to travel but never heard about it for such a long time.
My discovery of this rail museum can be compared to an adventurer's discovery of some unknown land. It is a place worth visiting and a great place to be close to nature. You will hundreds of small plants with flowers all around you. The Eastern Railway has created a paradise for you in Howrah. So what are you waiting for? Come and visit this place which is at the beginning of Howrah and over the bank of Ganga, whose beautiful air your make you de-stressed and the sight of greenery will be pleasant for your eyes.
