125 Years of Churchgate's Headquarter Office

The Western Railway Headquarter Building
at Churchgate

Celebratory Decorations

 I read about it in a Times of India article back in December I guess. The article stated that in preparation for a quarter and a century celebration of the grand WR headquarter building in 'January' the following year, the Western Railway would be undertaking restoration and painting works there. The Railway was to also open a new heritage gallery on the building's third floor, as an addition to the one on the ground floor. The article further went on, discussing and marveling at the building's architecture, quoting from the book 'Anchoring a City Line' By Rahul Mehrotra and Sharada Dwivedi. That book was published back in the year 2000, on occasion of the building's centenary. Well, it wasn't quite likely that I would be willing to miss this opportunity. I requested my mother regarding the same, and we planned to pay a visit in the third week of January.

Well, I was quite emotionally connected to this building. Back in Dec 2019, when I visited the CSMT Heritage Gully for my very first time, my actual destination was this. My Father, who accomapnied me there, thought I wished to visit there, while I was willing to visit the WR Heritage Gallery inside this building. While returning from the CSMT gallery with a cheerful mind, on my way to Churchgate, I saw that building, telling my father, that this was my actual destination. But, we couldn't find the entrance, and that chance went empty. I recollect myself just desperately willing to visit the WR Gallery, one reason being the presence of a model of an early BB&CI EMU train there. 

Last year, in May, I visited the Heritage Gully at CSMT again. Again I spent a while there all again, and after fulfilling my desires, again tried to get to the gallery at Churchgate. This time I reached all the way till the gate, only to be told by a security guard, that due to it being some special day, the gallery was closed. I remember returning from there with nothing, but a picture of the entrance plaque.

It was 7th of January in the morning, when my father informed me about a planned celebration for the commemoration of 125 years of the Western Railway headquarter building. And that was to be held for three consecutive days from 7th to 9th January. It was quite clear, that I was just going there. I quickly prepped up, taking with me some valuable items. Firstly, a cutout of the WR advert of the event, a book titled 'Anchoring a City Line', Rail historian Rajendra Aklekar's 'Halt Station India' and my folder of Rail research materials. Eventually I dropped the latter, to keep luggage light.

I left from Borivali by 11 or so. I took my 'much fond of which' window seat, and began my research. What research you might ask? Of any old relic might find on the tracks, throughout my nearly 1.5 hr journey to the rail terminus of Churchgate. I had just forgot to bring a notebook, and had to make-do with the notes app on my device. And relics came soon. Just after departing from Borivali, I spotted double headed rails. All throughout my journey, I looked keenly in search of any old remains. I spotted fences, bridges and abandoned platforms (near Grant Rd). 

I finally reached Churchgate by 12:30. There I clicked this image-

The Churchgate Station

I went to have some lunch at the nearby Stadium Restaurant, on the station's western side, and after that, marched my way to the eastern side. It was there, that I had my first glance at the Headquarter building. Needless to say, I glanced in awe, while still crossing the street.

After doing so, I entered through the gate, only to encounter the same issue again. The guards stopped us. The special exhibition was erected just on the left side, on the lawn, and yet the guards were saying it was not to start today, but tomorrow. Well, my father argued otherwise, since the advert in the newspaper certainly suggested otherwise as well. The reality was something like the exhibition was to be inaugurated today, but was to be open to public only tomorrow formally. My emotions were again down. I turned my head up in the south east direction, and looked at the magnificent headquarter building. I thought, as though I was have to satisfy myself with nothing but this.

But we weren't alone. One old aged couple too argued that the WR had clearly invited us to the event, and they had traveled a long distance to come celebrate the building'd 125th anniversary with WR. Well, eventually one employee of the railway arrived, and allowed us to enter the exhibition. 

The exhibition (I'm in the picture somewhere!)

On entering, we were greeted by a info-tunnel. Screens surrounded us all around, with a video on the Railway's history playing. After stepping inside, we were greeted by several info-cards on the walls. Now that I'm posting images of these, I would like to credit Western Railway for all the archival images coming henceforth.

The first info-card (Credit: Western Railway)

There were tons of images all around us in the first part.

An Image pillar (Credit: Western Railway)

Now, I won't be able to include all the images for obvious reasons, but trust me, there were a lot!

On going ahead, there was a VR desk, which I tried out; it was a 360 degree tour of certain spots in the building just close by. I was immersed in the VR experience for so long, that the person handling it had my chance was over! Just adjacent, was one sci-fi projector, which I would like you to check out on your own.

The "Sci-fi" Projector

Moving a bit ahead, was the most exciting part. It was the place I spent 2 hrs at that day. You might ask, isn't 2 hrs a bit too much to spend at one place in the entire exhibition. Clearly there was something that made me lose my sense of time. And that was this desk.

A BB&CI Bell

Information on 'Why bells?'

A Handheld Kerosene Lamp

A model of a WG Steam Loco

A Magneto Telephone

And, finally the reason for my standing there for 2hrs-

The Reason..

Well, actually it narrows down to two too odd looking black books. And actually I spent most of the time on the book low in the picture. And what were these books exactly? Any rail historian's most prized treasure.

The Treasure

These were two Magazines of the BB&CI Railway, dating 1923 and 1931. Actually there was also a timetable from 1960 kept in the middle, but trust me, I did not even open more than once. The former things were much more significant to me than the latter.

I'm an obedient kind of guy. I just can't do things without asking for permission sometimes. And this was one such time. The book was an archival copy, and I thought it wasn't meant to be opened, but rather just displayed there. I mean there was a barricade like thing in between me and the table. But this wasn't time to be the most obedient. And being a rail historian, I was pretty confident that I could handle a 100 year old treasure trove safely. But of course I had to ask permission first. I went on the other side of the exhibition, granted a permit from a somewhat confused person somehow affiliated with the railway I thought, and walked back to that spot. 

With a baited breath, I carefully opened the cover. I first tried the 1931 magazine. I was first met with some random text (Railways used to put tons of advertisement in publications), and didn't find much in terms of 'fun stuff'. All I found were Locomotive diagrams, a somewhat interesting economy scale (BB&CI's fun way of displaying expenditures and income), but nothing more. That was one observation I made of the 1931 book, after several readings; there was nothing much. So I tried my luck on the 1923 magazine. Again, nothing much at first, but interesting things came in soon. The book was divided into monthly sections, regarding to the happenings of each month. And along side carefully turning 100 yr old pages, I clicked pictures of things I found interesting. 

A Typical Month page..
(Credit: Western Railway)

The frequency of the lights there messed up some of my images, but I eventually realised that increasing brightness removes the bars of darkness in the pictures!

Well, I continued scrolling through so on, until my father called me. I was then introduced to another rail historian, someone who shared my interests. He was clicking pictures from a rare Western Railway book, and my father was helping him in the process. In our conversation, we discussed several things and he asked me several things as well, from, why Dadar West is called Dadar BB, and Dadar East, Dadar TT, to what the Salsette Trombay Railway was. It was an engaging discussion, that went on for quite some time. Later, I went back to my task of exploring my book.

In the book further ahead, there were some pretty rare images, like those of the Bassein Bridge, (significant to me for reasons I have mentioned ahead), some personal accounts, like one of a person's trip to Goa, some jokes, to name a few. I found another image of the Bassein Bridge,one I found especially amusing. I would really like to include it here-

An otherwise unsuspecting page...
(Credit: Western Railway)

What's special you may ask? Check the image caption. It rather 'dully' specifies the speed of the train, something that might feel like an unnecessary addition. But its like a giggle inducing moment for anyone who knew the problem of the then bridge. Read this digitized BB&CI Magazine 'Crossing the Rivers' of 1924, and refer to the Bassein Bridges section (pg.6). 

To give you a brief, if you travel over the Vasai Creek between Bhayandar and Naigaon stations and look in the west direction, you will find a rusted bridge there. This bridge was used from 1927 all the way till 1980s or 1990s. This bridge was originally constructed in 1864, when BB&CI first entered Bombay. With the turn of the century, the bridge was found weak to handle the increasing traffic loads of the increasing services. The bridge was strengthened, but this was just a temporary solution. Hence a new bridge was to be built, the work of which started in 1923, and finished by 27'. This is that rusted bridge we see today. Before this bridge was finished, the railway set up restrictions for train speeds. A speed limit of 15 mph for local trains, and 8 mph for long distance trains was set up. That is exactly what the picture hints at, and that is exactly the reason I smiled on seeing it.

More to be added soon!