BENGALURU: Mahatma Gandhi arriving at City Railway Station and propagating the use of Khadi at Yeshwantpur in April 1927. The narrow gauge and broad gauge stations at Bangarpet. Villagers waiting at a station for water to arrive by a locomotive. These are some of the frozen moments that find a place at the Heritage Photo Expo under way at City Station.
Saturday will be the last day you can take a peek at these photographs, showcased to mark 150 years of rail connectivity to Bengaluru. Anup Dayanand, senior commercial manager, Bangalore Division, South Western Railway, credited the Indian Railways Fans Club Association, a global organisation, for transporting a major chunk of the pictures on display from Chennai, “out of sheer love for the Railways”.
Most of these photographs were shot between 1950 and 1960 by Ian Manning, an Australian professor who taught economics at Madras Christian College and had a passion for Indian Railways. They have been digitally restored by Chennai-based Poochi Venkat and sponsored by www.irfca.org. Other photographs on display are from Railway archives.
Delightful nuggets of information displayed alongside the photographs tell us the history of the Bangalore Railway division. Sample these: August 1, 1864, saw the first train leaving Cantonment for Jolarpettai station. In 1882, the line was extended to City Station and on June 14, 1959, the country’s first President Dr Rajendra Prasad arrived at Cantonment station.
Also on display are stamps and rare coins from the collection of Louis Amutham, numismatist and philatelist, who happens to be the Senior Divisional Security Commissioner of the Indian Railway Police Force.
Coins dating back to the Sunga and Nanda dynasties are among the 150 on display. “This has been my main hobby for the last three decades and the coins have immense historical value,” Amutham said.
The expo is being held by the main entrance of the station, just in front of the Rail Gallery.