Bangladesh Railway Museum

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Bangladesh Railway Museum in Chittagong , front view, 2019
Bangladesh Railway Museum

The Bangladesh Railway Museum ( Bengali বাংলাদেশ রেলওয়ে জাদুঘর ) is the only railway museum in Bangladesh . It is located on a hill in northwestern Thana Pahartali of Chittagong city . Pahartali was founded as a railway settlement and opposite the museum is the Pahartali Railway Workshop , a railway depot.

history

The museum was established on the initiative of the General Director of the Bangladesh Railway and opened on November 15, 2003 . It is visited by 150 people every day, and more in the high season. In the years that followed, the building fell into disrepair, and in 2012 the press received harsh criticism of the building's dilapidation and the threat to the exhibits. In 2016 the museum was closed for two years to carry out the much needed renovation. The museum is still owned by the Bangladesh Railway and is open for three hours on weekday afternoons.

Land and building

The museum's approximately 5 hectare property is located on a lavishly overgrown hill opposite the Pahartali Railway Workshop , a depot of the Bangladesh Railway in the northwestern Thana Pahartali of the city of Chittagong . The museum building dates from colonial times. It has a brick basement, the upper floor is made of wood with a tin roof.

collection

Since the Bangladesh Railway Museum has limited exhibition space, is located on a hill and has no siding, no locomotives and railway wagons can be collected and exhibited. For example, a historic, luxurious saloon car from the British-Indian colonial era could not be handed over to the museum, but was instead parked in the depot opposite the museum. Nevertheless, the museum has a large number of exhibits from the history of several railway companies: the Chittagong-based Assam Bengal Railway (1892-1942), the Eastern Bengal Railway (1857-1942) based in Calcutta and the Pakistan Eastern Railway, also based in Chittagong (1961-1971). The exhibits include numerous lamps and signals, switch and signal box technology and historical uniforms.

Web links

Commons : Bangladesh Railway Museum  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Shahadat Hossain: Country's sole railway museum in a shambles , The Daily Star, December 28, 2012, accessed May 17, 2019.
  2. ↑ ঘুরে আসুন পাহাড়তলী রেলওয়ে জাদুঘর ( Memento of the original from April 27, 2019 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.railnewsbd.com archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , RailNewsBD.com , October 29, 2017, accessed May 17, 2019 (Bengali).
  3. ↑ Shuvrajit Baria: রেলওয়ে জাদুঘর: অযত্ন অবহেলায়, বখাটেদের আস্তানা , Suprobhat Bangladesh, January 21, 2018, accessed May 17, 2019 (Bengali).
  4. ^ Age-old 'State Saloon' bears witness to history , Dhaka Tribune, January 14, 2016, accessed May 17, 2019.

Coordinates: 22 ° 21 ′ 15.4 ″  N , 91 ° 48 ′ 5 ″  E