An online project on Google Arts & Culture is celebrating this rich history and heritage with over 100 exhibitions. Besides featuring scenic routes and historic events, this project, designed in partnership with the Indian ministry of railways, tells the lesser-known stories of the people who keep the trains running. These range from the trackmen and keymen to the pioneering women who’ve become signal engineers and rail managers in an overwhelmingly male-dominated industry.
The goal is to make this rail heritage more accessible to Indians. So the exhibitions will be taken to 22 railway stations across India
Viewers are introduced to three long-time railway employees who have witnessed different eras in the long history of India’s railway network. There’s Ganey Khawas, the oldest living ex-worker of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, who was born in 1916 and vividly remembers the days of the steam engines. Balbahadur Majhi, a 76-year-old former locomotive pilot, remembers the hazards of the job during natural disasters. And Deepak Das, a former senior section engineer, talks about some of India’s historic locomotives, and working on the iconic Darjeeling Himalayan Railway.
Source: Quartz India
See the online project HERE