Glimpses from the past

Rare photos of Carriage Workshop at Lallaguda to be published in a book

A chance discovery of vintage photographs of the Carriage Workshop, Lallaguda which would have been lost forever now have been restored for posterity, thanks to M Raghavendra Kumar, senior section engineer, IT, Carriage Workshop, Lallaguda.

The South Central Railway (SCR) is planning to publish a book of these rare photographs. The photographs dating back to pre-independent India speak volumes about workmanship and lifestyle during the period.

Speaking about the discovery, Raghavendra says, “There was a huge mountain of over 25 year-old files that were about to be discarded. It was just out of curiosity that I searched for anything valuable and found the photographs in a book. I scanned the photos and some that were soiled were restored.” This was in 1997. On a recent visit by the South Central Railway (SCR) general manager Ravindra Gupta’s to the Workshop, the rare photographs came into focus.

The Carriage Workshop that was established in 1893 has a lot of heritage value. Initially established under ‘The Nizam Guaranteed State Railways’ it later came under the ‘Nizam State Railway’ Though the workshop is known for repairing locomotives, coaches and wagons a few know that the unit manufactures oil tankers, jigs and fixtures.

There are photographs of men working on ‘sheet rolling’, where sheets are rolled to manufacture oil containers. The photographs have immense value as they take one back into time and also act as a testimony to the equipment used in the days gone by. For instance, today an electronic overhead traverse is used to lift a coach, but there are photographs of a steam crane doing the job.

The Carriage Workshop has items of historical value like an old pendulum clock of Nizam’s Railway and a wooden bodied four-wheeler inspection carriage (saloon) built in 1886 for the Nizam Guaranteed State Railways. This was restored in 2006.