This man’s hobby brings alive rail transport systems from around the world

On the terrace of retired Special Director, Ashok Leyland, Sundaram Parthasarathi’s home, however, visitors can hear and see these trains in motion on a model railway set built by him from scratch. Rail transport modelling is a hugely popular hobby pursued in the UK and USA, and some of the pieces in Sundaram’s home, which he collected from these countries, are as old as 33 years.

His fascination with trains began at an early age because his father and grandfather worked in the railways. “From our home on Pilkington Road in Ayanavaram, I could observe trains coming and going. As much as I wanted to collect models back then, we couldn’t because of our financial situation,” he recalls. In 1986, the company he was working for sent him to the UK, where he bought his first set of tracks, engines, cars and so on.

A 6x10 layout complete with railway stations, trains, roads, bridges, buildings, vehicles, urban landscape and model figures sits on an elevated platform in an air-conditioned space. “I got this room built on the terrace just so I could display this,” he smiles.

 Sundaram’s collection comprises models in the 00 and HO gauges, indicative of the measurement between the rails. As for the constructions and terrain, most of it has been made by hand using scrap such as matchsticks, cardboard, wood, plastic from wire casings, tin sheet and so on. 

He explains, “I’ve added lighting to the entire layout using ballpoint pens, refills and LED bulbs to indicate street lights. The stations and trains too have lights to make them seem realistic.” The stations and tracks are replete with scaled to size signs like W for whistle, and W/L for level crossing. “I downloaded the lettering, printed it and stuck it on little flags also made from waste material,” he adds.

He has also developed an electronic circuit for the setup based on patterns found online, which can be operated through a software or manually. “I have used two types of decoders for this — one, a mobile decoder reads digital signals to control movement and speed. The other one controls sound such as arrival and departure announcements, cries of vendors to sell idli and vada, the hum of the engines, bellowing of the horn, and more,” shares Sundaram.

Rail transport models require a lot of care, which he is well-equipped to handle. “I clean the corrosion on the tracks using an eraser, which is abrasive. A small vacuum helps dust the minute parts,” he says. The entire setup cost Sundaram around Rs. 3.5 lakh and took over 35 years to complete. 

However, no one in the family wants to take up this hobby. “My nephew helped me with some of the wiring but he doesn’t have the time to maintain the model. I don’t know what I’m going to do, I’ll probably donate it to a railway museum,” says Sundaram on a concluding note.