Bombay Railway & History Group

05 January 2017

Century-old signal cabin along India's first railway line pulled down

A 100-year-old signal cabin lost its life to make way for the landing of a new pedestrian bridge at Kurla suburban railway station. This had been a part of India's first railway company, the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company.

1st Day tickets of Ram Mandir railway station in Mumbai

First day tickets issued from Mumbai's newest suburban railway station Ram Mandir collected by friend Jigar Desai. The station on Western Railway Mumbai division was formally opened on December 22, 2016.

11 December 2016

Fourth imprint -- Halt Station India

Yes! Excited to announce the 4th imprint of my successful book on the story of India's 1st railway. Thank u, all. For those who still haven't bought it, here are the details: To place an order..

Please call for home delivery--

Mumbai number- 02223524655, 02223511381. Monday to Friday 9.30am to 5.30pm. Saturday 9.30am to 2.00pm, Sunday closed.
Email at kgminternational @ gmail.com

The book is also available online on Flipkart/Amazon and also at book stores

To buy in India

On FLIPKART, click HERE

On AMAZON INDIA, click HERE

To buy locally in the UK

On AMAZON UK, click HERE

For the US and other countries

On AMAZON.COM, click HERE

25 November 2016

Mumbai suburban railway goes religious!

Rajendra B. Aklekar

So with the Maharashtra government now deciding to name the proposed Oshiwara station between Jogeshwari and Goregaon on Churchgate-Virar section of Mumbai division of Western Railway as Ram Mandir, Mumbai suburban railway, the city’s lifeline, has now become a completely secular railway and come a full circle.

Controversies apart, and I do not have any political views, but lightly speaking it now has a Churchgate, a Masjid Bunder, a Guru Tegh Bahadur Nagar and now a Ram Mandir. :)

Let’s look at their brief history.

Churchgate: Mumbai (today’s south Mumbai) was a walled, fortified city with moats. The fortification had three main gates. And one of the gates was an entry to the St. Thomas Church, today’s St Thomas Cathedral. The road was named Churchgate as the road from led to this church. This gate, which roughly stood where today’s Flora Fountain stands, was demolished in 1860. The railway station that came up near the gate’s proximity on the Bombay, Baroda and Central India line (today’s Western Railway) was named Churchgate.

Masjid Bunder: Named after an old jetty which was near a mosque (masjid), this station on Central Railway Mumbai comes just after the iconic Mumbai CST. Records suggest the station probably got its name from the 200-year old Gate of Mercy Synagogue, called Juni Masjid, along Samuel Street in Mandvi in the east of the station, one of Mumbai’s oldest synagogues. Another one Saat-Taad mosque, simply translated “seven palm trees” is located just next to the station today hidden amid a maze of warehouses and wholesale dealers with a narrow entrance today
.
Guru Tegh Bahadur Nagar: Originally called Koliwada, this station on the harbour line of Central Railway Mumbai was renamed Guru Tegh Bahadur Nagar after the ninth of the ten Gurus of Sikhism in July 1979.

Ram Mandir: The proposed Oshiwara station had been under construction for quite some time. Political parties demanded that the station be renamed as Ram Mandir station in recognition of a popular temple in the area. The road that leads to the station is called Ram Mandir Road. Today, the Maharashtra government approved the proposal.

11 November 2016

F. W Stevens birthday celebrated in Mumbai

Rajendra B. Aklekar, Mumbai.

Started the day (November 11, 2016) by paying homage to Frederick William Stevens on his 169th birth anniversary at his grave in the Sewri Cemetery along with Central Railway delegation. '

The architect has not just designed the wonderful Victoria Terminus -- Mumbai CST heritage building, but also the Mumbai Municipal Corporation head office, Churchgate heritage building, what is now the Maharashtra Police head office building opposite Regal Cinema, the artistic water fountain opposite GPO and much more, all major icons of South Mumbai.

A salute and a happy birthday.

An official event was also been organised on the occasion this evening in the prestigious dining hall of Mumbai CST station.

What's the book about?

My book on Bombay railway is the story of how the line came up to become India’s first railway line and to grow into the 7 million passengers that if ferries today. It is the story of each station and the relics of that glorious era that are still lying around at those stations. It’s the story of Bombay railway..the lifeline of now Mumbai city.

Halt Station India chronicles the dramatic rise of India’s original rail network, the arrival of the first train, and the subsequent emergence of a pioneering electric line—all in the port city of Bombay. Trains that once provoked awe and fear—they were viewed as fire chariots, smoke-spewing demons—have today become a nation’s lifeblood.

Taking a walk along India’s first rail lines, the author stumbles upon fragments of the past—a clock at Victoria Terminus that offers a rare view of a city; a cannon near Masjid Bunder Station that is worshipped as a god; a watchtower overlooking Sion Station, believed to have housed a witch. Each pit-stop comes with stories of desire and war, ambition and death—by Dockyard Road Station, for instance, author Laurence Sterne’s beloved, Eliza Draper, followed a sailor into the sea; or close to Parel Station, the wife of India’s governor general, Lord Canning found a garden rich in tropical vegetation; this, she replicated at Barrackpore.

Drawing from journals, biographies, newspapers and railway archives—and with nostalgic, first-time accounts of those who travelled by India’s earliest trains—the book captures the economic and social revolutions spurred by the country’s first train line. In this, Halt Station India is not just about the railways—it is the story of the growth of India’s business capital and a rare study of a nation.

To place an order in Mumbai..

Pls call for home delivery--

Mumbai number- 02223524655, 02223511381. Monday to Friday 9.30pm to 5.30pm. Saturday 9.30pm to 2.00pm, Sunday closed. Email at kgminternational@gmail.com

The book is also available online on Flipkart/Amazon and also at book stores

To buy in India

http://www.flipkart.com/halt-station-india-dramatic-tale-nations-first-rail-lines-english/p/itmefqakn8hhzq5b

http://www.amazon.in/Halt-Station-India-Dramatic-Nations/dp/8129134977/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421582617&sr=8-1&keywords=halt+station+india

To buy in the UK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Halt-Station-India-Dramatic-Nations/dp/8129134977/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421582491&sr=8-1&keywords=HALT+STATION+INDIA

For the US and other countries

http://www.amazon.com/Halt-Station-India-Dramatic-Nations/dp/8129134977/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421582579&sr=8-1&keywords=halt+station+india

The story of Bombay's railway heritage

The first passenger railway in the east (in Asia) ran between 21 miles of Bombay and Thane stations on 16 April, 1853, laid by the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR) that was originally set up under the Parliament of England Act. Citizens of Bombay celebrated the day as a public holiday.

The same 'experimental line' of the GIPR is today the lifeline of suburban Bombay, now called Mumbai, India's financial capital, ferrying a record 3m suburban passengers every single day. It is called the Central Railway today.

As the line even today runs on the same old blueprint, there are a lot of relics lying along it that attach are of national heritage. The group believes that it is important to document and archive those silent structures that so vividly tell the tale of the glorious past and is working towards it.

May it be that neglected, old and rusted metal shell lying in one corner of the line or a crumbling stone structure. It may be just a piece of scrap for everyone else, but here for members of this group, it's living history.

Rajendra B. Aklekar

91 9892 190 761