Narrow Gauge Museum is a Railway Museum dedicated to the rich history of Narrow Gauge Railway lines of Indian Railways. The museum is located in Motibagh workshop of Indian Railways in the city of Nagpur. The museum has a rich collection of heritage artifacts of Indian Railways.
Nagpur has a special place in the Railway History of India. During the British times the idea of Railways was conceived mainly for transporting the raw materials from the inner parts of the country to the major port town like Bombay, Calcutta and Madras to transport them to the industrial towns of Britain. These raw materials fed the Industrial needs of Britain. In this context a line connecting Bombay(Present day Mumbai) to Calcutta( present day Kolkata) was conceived.
Howrah-Nagpur-Bombay Line
The Great Indian Peninsula Railway(GIPR) started that first Railway line connecting Bombay to Tannah(Thane) in 1853 and in 1867 this line was extended to Nagpur. The Nagpur Chhattisgarh Railway was formed as a provincial Railway and it constructed Nagpur Rajnandgaon railway line in meter gauge. Later on Bengal Nagpur Railway(BNR) was formed which overtook the operations from Nagpur Chhattisgarh Railway and connected the existing line to Asansol in 1891, thereby Connecting Bombay to Calcutta via Nagpur.
It is due to large scale operation of Narrow Gauge line by the Bengal Nagpur Railway(A part of Which is South East Central Railway SECR) that it has a huge heritage artifacts of Narrow gauge line remaining.
History of Narrow Gauge Rail Museum(Nagpur)
Nagpur Division of South East Central Railway once had the unique distinction of maintaining the largest Narrow Gauge Railway system in Indian Railways with a network of more than 1005 km. Over the years due to Gauge conversion, the narrow gauge has been converted into Broad Gauge. The last remaining network of about 110 kms. in Itwari – Nagbhir section was closed for gauge conversion on 25th November 2019. Thus the entire Narrow Gauge system of Nagpur Division has now become a part of history.
In order to preserve and showcase this history to the people, the Narrow Gauge Museum was inaugurated on 14th December 2002 by Shri Nitish Kumar, then Hon’ble Minister of Railways. The Museum is located in Motibagh Workshop which is one of the oldest workshops in the country(Established in 1879).
Major Attractions at Narrow Gauge Museum
The Museum is built on the idea of thematic galleries with galleries of different departments of Railways portrayed in different sections. Some major galleries include:
- Locomotives
- Coaches & wagons,
- Signal & Telecom etc.
There is also a heritage gallery displaying the cutlery items used in the Royal Carriages. However the most interesting gallery is the photo gallery which displays the photos of various phases of Railways. I am attaching some of the photographs of the same.
Other Attractions at Narrow Gauge Museum
A 1916 Bagnall make steam locomotive is kept in the museum for the visitors to see. There is one Royal Carriage and Rail Bus. However the most interesting among all is the 24 seat capacity restaurant which has been mounted on a turn table to make it a revolving restaurant.
The most interesting attraction for the kids is the toy train which is operated in the premises of the museum although i could not take a picture of it.
Overall the Narrow Gauge Museum at Motibagh is a great place for people interested in knowing the history of Railways in India. The place is good for kids as there are ample of children play areas in the museum complex. The place is a must visit if you are in Nagpur.