Virtual tours to satiate wanderlust amidst the pandemic has gained currency world over and the Mysuru Division of South Western Railway has joined this bandwagon to enable potential tourists and rail afficionados to explore the exhibits online.
The virtual tour of the Mysuru Rail Museum, commissioned on Wednesday, provides an interactive and immersive experience of the facility with voice over that provides the visitor a detailed walk through the exhibits.
Dedicated by Mysuru MP Pratap Simha, the virtual tour enables one to discover the slew of exhibits at the museum which was renovated and inaugurated early this year but had to be shut due to the pandemic.
Though the museum is open since June, the tourist footfall is low as the travel industry is yet to regain traction due to the surge in COVID-19 cases.
Hence the authorities thought it fit to commission the virtual tour facility on its website https://mysururailmuseum.com so that people can explore it virtually from any part of the globe.
The museum was the first regional rail museum in the country established in 1979 and second after the national rail museum at New Delhi. Among its exhibits are the steam locomotives one of which is the Metre Gauge YP Class 2511 which used to be in service till 1993. The maharani’s saloon, signalling and telecommunication contraptions used in a bygone era, meter gauge rail bus, narrow gauge locomotive, and Austin rail motor car are among the collections on display.
Mr. Simha appreciated the efforts of the Divisional Railway Manager, Aparna Garg, and the railway employees in the transformation of the renovated rail museum into a world class tourist attraction. He expressed confidence that the rail museum could be counted among the top tourist spots in Mysuru alongside the palace, the zoo and Chamundi Hills once normalcy returns.
The museum traces the evolution of the Railways in this region which saw the construction of the first railway line in the Princely State of Mysore way back in 1882.
The audio-visual room, the enclosure for commercial department equipment including travelling cash chest, card ticket printing machine, cash safe, and card ticket dating machine are some of the collections that can be viewed.
The Rail Museum has also launched ‘Click-a-Selfie’ contest where the selfies taken in the museum by visitors can be uploaded on their social media profile using (hashtag) #ILoveRailMuseum and tag it on facebook/mysururailmuseum, twitter/mysurumuseum and instagram/mysururailmuseum. The best selfie will be given a prize based on likes, shares and comments received on the image. This contest will be live from September 1 to 30, 2020, according to the authorities.
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