[Recap] - Accessible Nagpur - Narrow Gauge Railway Museum - Ep-10

[Rohan10]

Nagpur has opened up fully under the Mission Begin Again by Govt. of Maharashtra. After lock down there are many changes happening on POI. The main objective of this meet up is to check the accessibility of the place and mark updates on the maps.

In Nagpur one of the main attraction is Narrow Gauge Railway Museum which is tourist attraction which is must visit place.

The main objective of this meet up was to check the accessibility of the location and also photo walk.

Here is the Invitation Link.

Narrow Gauge Railway Museum was inaugurated on the 14th day of December in the year 2002 by Shri. Nitish Kumar, the then Minister of Railways on the occasion of 150th Anniversary of Indian Railways. It is located on Nagpur to Jabalpur National Highway No. 07. The museum is constructed within their old Broad Gauge Steam Loco shed in the area of around 6 acres. Approximately around more than 1000 kms of network was operating by South East Central (SECR) Railway of Nagpur Division. Due to development in Railway technologies, the narrow gauge has now been converted into Broad Gauge. Recently, on 25th day of November in the year of 2019, the narrow gauge network of around 100 km which was between Itwari to Nagbhir section made permanently closed and Narrow Gauge has become a part of history. Hence to conserve the Narrow Gauge history this museum was built up by Indian Railways.

The Museum basically categorised in the followings:

1. Locomotives Gallery
2. Coaches & wagons Gallery
3. Signal & Telecom Gallery
4. Electrical Gallery
5. Commercial and operating Gallery.

All the Galleries are representing the historical development through photos and models or we can say parts or components.

Followings activity were performed:

1. Marked as Open.

2. Checked the Accessibility of the Entrance.

3. Checked the Accessibility of the Sitting Area for Senior Citizens.

4. Checked the Accessibility of the Parking Area.

5. Checked the Accessibility of the Toilets/Washrooms.

6. Checked the Availability of Tactile Paths for the Visually-Impaired.

7. Clicked the photos and upload on maps.

Following are the photos of the Narrow Gauge Railway Museum based on the above checks and marked with an accessibility icon and also an indication of the criteria passed or failed. All the photos are clicked by me ( @Rohan10 ).

The Revolving Restaurant is major attraction and unique which is an air conditioned Revolving Coaches. It is having seating capacity of 24 persons and converted in two coaches mounted on a motorized turn table which revolves one revolution per 15 minutes. Unfortunately, it was not operational during my visit hence i missed the experience in revolving restaurant.

In this museum there is a huge play area with all types of play equipment like swings, nets, merry go round, aeroplanes, exercise games, slides, etc. for the children in beautiful and pleasant garden.

A beautiful 5 Bagnall make steam locomotive made in 1916. A wooden Royal Carriage used by the Royalties of Paralakhemundi buildt in 1899.

A Diesel Locomotive of ZDM2RA class built in 1964.

The official Mascot of the Indian Railways is the Elephant named as Bholu (meaning - Innocent). The Mascot is declared on the occasion of 150th Anniversary of Indian Railways in 2003. The Mascot is designed by National Institute of Design and started effective use on 15th April 2002. Later Indian Railways decided to declare its official Mascot on 24th March 2003. Ministry of Railways described Bholu as ethical, responsible, sincere and cheerful icon. Green Lamp in his hand is the symbol of Safe Journey with positivism.

The big attraction in this museum specially for kids is Toy Train named as Orange City Express (as Nagpur is also known as Orange City because Nagpur is large exporter of Oranges) which gives trip around the circumference of museum and gives kids a great experience.

You will find this museum is great example of combination of Education and Entertainment centre. Children must visit to know the history of Narrow Gauge of Indian Railway. Adults also can enjoy here with great extent.

This meet up is the part of Accessibility Movement for all initiated by our LG friend who is Connect Moderator, Accessibility Champion

and Accessibility Guiding Star @Tushar_Suradkar. I want to thank him from bottom of my heart for his anytime support and guidance.

Parking: Dedicated parking space is available at nominal charges in the premises of Narrow Gauge Railway Museum.

Entry Fee: Adults - INR. 25/-, Child - INR. 10/-

Toy Train Fee: Adults - INR. 25/-, Child - INR. 10/-

Revolving Restaurant Fee: INR. 50/- per Adult/ Child.

Conclusion of the meet up: Narrow Gauge Railway Museum is very much accessible. Only, Toilet and Ticket counter is not accessible. I have suggested to install accessibility wherever required to the Manager of the Museum. He said that museum will work on it as soon as possible. Hoping for the best.

Thank you…

[AjitThite]

This is turning into a classic series @Rohan10 !! Way too good photos and accessibility info covered my friend!!

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers!

[Rohan10]

Thank you so much @AjitThite dada for your supporting words. This is the last recap of my meet ups conducted in Nov 2021. Thank you again.

[PaulPavlinovich]

What an interesting museum, thanks for sharing it @Rohan10

Out of interest, one step would not stop most wheelchair users, two of them would.

So many interesting things to see, great post and great effort to determine what is and is not accessible.

Paul

[Rohan10]

Thank you so much @PaulPavlinovich for your appreciation. I am happy you found it interesting. It’s my pleasure to share it here.

I agree with you about wheelchair accessible through one step, but its difficult through two.

Thank you so much again for your valuable feedback.

[Cecilita]

Wow! Excellent recap @Rohan10 !

That place is very interesting and you made a great job checking the Accesibility of every place. I’m sure my friend @Jesi will be very happy to read your post as one of the active members of One Accesibility initiative.

I have some questions… Did you go to this place with any other Local Guide? How much time does it take to visit all the museum?

I don’t know if you know about the limit of 1000 photos in connect every LG have. I’m telling you this because your post has a lot of photos and if you publish several posts like this, you will reach the limit very soon. Once in the limit, you will not be able to add photos to your posts unless you delete manually some photos of previous ones, and that is a lot of work.

To mitigate this issue, you can add only some photos to your post and share the other ones perhaps in a video or gif of several photos, or perhaps in a photo album sharing the link in your post. You are going to find more options in the post I shared.

Thanks a lot for sharing this beautiful and colorful place with us!

Ceci

[TusharSuradkar]

Hi @Rohan10

What an amazing museum, scrolling through the photos it was almost like a virtual tour.

You covered every aspect of the museum including accessibility which is well-captured.

I remember you commented about this museum in Nagpur on my post about Delhi’s National Rail Museum.

Great to see that you eventually visited and did an accessibility meetup there

Your pose at one of the railways is delightful

[Rohan10]

Thank you so much @Cecilita for your praising words. I am glad you liked it. Also, thank you for tagging your friend. It will be great to have her feedback on it.

I was alone as usual as due to pandemic may be no LG was present there. But as per your earlier comment on my Caves post, alone can see more things than any group.

You may take maximum total time of about 2-3 hrs, if you see each and everything.

Yes I am aware of the 1000 photo limit. Yes right now my total photos are 696. As I always want share all the photos. Soon it may exceed. But I am going to use HTML (i.e. inserting photo link in the post) method henceforth, which is quite easy but I am not fully familiar and will practice soon. @TusharSuradkar has posted about the same in his How to NOT breach the 1000 Photos Limit Using a Collage. This is best method instead of deleting of old photos.

I thank you for alerting me about the 1000 photos limit. I will work on it from my next post. This was my last meet up recap till now. More meet ups are being planned.

It is my pleasure to share this post with you all here

Rohan.

[Rohan10]

Hello @TusharSuradkar I am very happy to have your positive reply and you find it amazing. My aim is to upload all the photos so that it will be like virtual tour to everyone who visits my post.

I was totally forgotten about my earlier comment about the same but by seeing it, I recollected. It’s my pleasure to share the post here.

Thank you for the compliment my photo .

Here, I completed 10 accessibility meet ups. I want to thank you from bottom of my heart for your full support and guidance regarding meet up conduct, accessibility checks etc. More accessibility meet ups are being planned.

[Shrut19]

नमस्कार…

** @Rohan10 **

मस्त फोटो, छान पोस्ट…

[Rohan10]

@Shrut19 ताई धन्यवाद

[TravellerG]

As rightly mentioned by our @AjitThite , your series turning out to be very interesting,

Best wishes.

All the photos are very informative.

Accessibility is well explained in your RECAP…

Thanks for sharing.

[AnubhaBangia]

First of all, thank you for sharing this wonderful meetup post @Rohan10 . You have very amazingly captured every tiny detail with accessibility criteria. The museum almost looks the same as of Delhi! Very beautifully, you have presented and captured the pictures! It is always great fun to explore such museums! Thank you for sharing this wonderful journey with me! Always thankful and Best of Regards!

[Rohan10]

Thank you so much @AnubhaBangia for your kind words. Yes almost all Railway Museum looks same. Yes my meet up was exclusively for Accessibility. it’s my pleasure to share with all LGs here.