Century-old platform weighing scale adorns Mysuru Rail Museum

Mysore/Mysuru: Taking advantage of the second lockdown inducing the closure of the Museum to public for over two months, the Mysuru Rail Museum has added several new artefacts and features to its collection, including the over a century-old 250 kg-capacity (7 mounds) mechanical weighing machine.

This machine was manufactured in the year 1907 by W & T Avery Ltd., a British manufacturer from Birmingham, who were the patentees and manufacturers of every description of weighing apparatuses for Railways, ironworks, collieries, etc. 

Most of the Railway Stations had Platform weighing scale of different capacity —  250 kg to 1,000 kg — of this Company to weigh parcels and luggage tendered for transportation by rail as weight-checking was mandatory in the presence of the sender. 

This century-old platform weighing scale was kept in a dilapidated condition in Shivapura Station near Tarikere and  during the course of Station inspection by Rahul Agarwal, Divisional Railway Manager, South Western Railway, Mysuru Division, he spotted this and was brought to Mysuru. 

This is now placed in the Toy Train Station of the Rail Museum which is incidentally a replica of Stations built during the time of the Mysore State Railway (MSR) owned by the erstwhile Princely State of Mysore.

Besides providing released wooden sleepers in the pathways to prevent damage to lawn, wooden pedestals have been placed near popular outdoor selfie points. A service certificate in manuscript issued by Bombay Baroda & Central India Railway (BB & CIR) to one of their employees in the year 1931 adorning the wall of the indoor gallery rekindles the nostalgia of a bygone era.

‘Q’ managers for orderly movement of visitors in the ticketing area, introduction of house-keeping and security services, more of history books in the museum’s reference library, etc., are the steps initiated to gradual upgrade of the museum to international standards.

Rahul Agarwal, Divisional Railway Manager, Mysuru Division, under whose instructions the new artefacts have been added, has directed the authorities concerned that items with historical value lying in different places of the Division must be retrieved and restored for preservation to enable visitors to get a sense of the how Railway system has evolved over the years.