Postcard from Islamabad - Pakistan Railways Museum, Golra Sharif

Photographer in Pakistan

On another cold and foggy day we drove to Golra Sharif, about a forty-five minute drive, to see the Pakistan Railways Museum. We were lucky enough to have the curator of the museum, a young archeologist, to show us around and provide a very informative background to the pieces held by the museum.

The museum has both train carriages and artefacts from when the British first built the station in 1881. The museum has railway items from clocks to crockery to carriages.

I was particularly interested in the historical carriages, Saloon no.38 that carried the last Viceroy of India Lord Mountbatten and also Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah and Saloon no.5, the royal saloon, a gift of the Maharaja of Jodhpur to his daughter on her wedding in 1888.

I also learnt about Major S.M. Rafi, who commanded a train during partition in 1947 and safely took Muslim refugees from India to Pakistan. He cleverly thwarted numerous attacks and locked each carriage to ensure the refugees safety. The key is on display in the museum.

The Museum is on one of Pakistan’s main train lines and trains come through regularly so look both ways before crossing the railway tracks! Even if you’re not interested in trains you will enjoy the social history in a well maintained museum underneath some amazing old banyan trees.

Major S.M. Rafi and his life saving key