In his interim budget last week, railway minister Mallikarjun Kharge promised 73 new trains and connectivity to Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya.
As the Indian Railway expands, many of its older infrastructure is being dismantled to make room for the facilities. But Vikas Singh, 41, head of consumer marketing at ABP News, is seeking to preserve the railway's heritage -- not by halting the march of progress, but collecting the stamps depicting trains, railway stationery and other memorabilia.
Over the past decade, Singh has gathered dozens of stamps that featuring trains or that commemorate special occasions such as centenary of a railway line, railway stationery with special postmarks indicating their source, picture postcards of railway stations and other postal items such as railway telegrams.
Singh first got interested in the railways ten years ago, when he realised that the world's oldest meter-gauge line ran between Garhi Harsaru and Farukh Nagar, near Delhi. Inaugurated in February 1873, this 12.3-km line has now been converted into a broad-gauge line. In 1982, while shooting Gandhi, director Richard Attenborough used Garhi Harsaru station as a stand-in for the South African station of Pietermaritzburg, in the scene in which the Mahatma was thrown out of the railway carriage.
Philately -- or collecting stamps -- is a good way to understand railway transformations, Singh said. "For example, state railways such as the Jodhpur railway had its own postal stationery including post cards and telegrams," he said. "Over time, these stationery items changed. Collecting such items is another way of documenting their history."
Over the course of six years, Singh has collected all the 68 stamps and other postage items related to the Indian Railways. He also has railway stamps from other countries.
His collection has won medals at a number of international exhibitions, including some in South Africa, Portugal and the UK. He has also written a philatelic handbook on the Indian Railways, which has won prizes at international exhibitions.
In 2009, to mark the 125th anniversary of the Darjeeling railway line, he organised a philatelic exhibition inside the train. The exhibition is listed in the Limca Book of Records as the first of its kind in India.
Singh is also visiting faculty at the Railway Staff College in Baroda, where he teaches a course on railway heritage. "I take my students through my collection, and tell them the story of development of Indian railways through them," he said.
Singh's ambition is to hold the most comprehensive exhibition of Indian railway stamps and postal memorabilia. Currently, he owns enough material to fill 80 pages of a stamp collector's volume. It would, he says, form a "five-frame exhibit". But he wants to put on an "eight-frame exhibit", which would contain enough material to fill a 128-page volume.
Said Singh, "With the eight-frame exhibit, one can tell the whole story of the railways."
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As the Indian Railway expands, many of its older infrastructure is being dismantled to make room for the facilities. But Vikas Singh, 41, head of consumer marketing at ABP News, is seeking to preserve the railway's heritage -- not by halting the march of progress, but collecting the stamps depicting trains, railway stationery and other memorabilia.
Over the past decade, Singh has gathered dozens of stamps that featuring trains or that commemorate special occasions such as centenary of a railway line, railway stationery with special postmarks indicating their source, picture postcards of railway stations and other postal items such as railway telegrams.
Singh first got interested in the railways ten years ago, when he realised that the world's oldest meter-gauge line ran between Garhi Harsaru and Farukh Nagar, near Delhi. Inaugurated in February 1873, this 12.3-km line has now been converted into a broad-gauge line. In 1982, while shooting Gandhi, director Richard Attenborough used Garhi Harsaru station as a stand-in for the South African station of Pietermaritzburg, in the scene in which the Mahatma was thrown out of the railway carriage.
Philately -- or collecting stamps -- is a good way to understand railway transformations, Singh said. "For example, state railways such as the Jodhpur railway had its own postal stationery including post cards and telegrams," he said. "Over time, these stationery items changed. Collecting such items is another way of documenting their history."
Over the course of six years, Singh has collected all the 68 stamps and other postage items related to the Indian Railways. He also has railway stamps from other countries.
His collection has won medals at a number of international exhibitions, including some in South Africa, Portugal and the UK. He has also written a philatelic handbook on the Indian Railways, which has won prizes at international exhibitions.
In 2009, to mark the 125th anniversary of the Darjeeling railway line, he organised a philatelic exhibition inside the train. The exhibition is listed in the Limca Book of Records as the first of its kind in India.
Singh is also visiting faculty at the Railway Staff College in Baroda, where he teaches a course on railway heritage. "I take my students through my collection, and tell them the story of development of Indian railways through them," he said.
Singh's ambition is to hold the most comprehensive exhibition of Indian railway stamps and postal memorabilia. Currently, he owns enough material to fill 80 pages of a stamp collector's volume. It would, he says, form a "five-frame exhibit". But he wants to put on an "eight-frame exhibit", which would contain enough material to fill a 128-page volume.
Said Singh, "With the eight-frame exhibit, one can tell the whole story of the railways."
