First ever philatelic exhibition on wheels

Southern Railway General Manager Deepak Krishnan (right), having a look at the stamps at a philatelic exhibition on wheels in Chennai Central Railway Station on Tuesday. .

The stamps on display have been collected by Muhammad Mujibullah of Eastern Railways

The first ever philatelic exhibition on wheels was inaugurated at Chennai Central here on Tuesday.

This is the first time in the history of Indian Railways that such an event is being organized. The stamps on display have been collected by one person: Mohamed Mujibullah of Eastern Railways.

The exhibition train, comprising three AC coaches, portray important developments in Indian Railways such as horse-drawn carriages, birth of steam locomotives, emergence of metro rail, monorail, superfasttrains, rolling stock, important and heritage railway stations, signals, bridges, tracks, tunnels, mountain railways, railway ferries, mail trains, Railway Mail Service and railway centenaries.

Mr. Mujibllah's collection includes stamps of 156 countries, besides a $500 stamp issued by Guatemala and a postal currency issued by the US Postal Department. Mr. Mujibulla claims he is the owner of the only available piece of the postal currency.

To enable viewers to identify the countries that issued the stamps, they have been arranged in alphabetical order.

Inaugurating the exhibition, Southern Railway General Manager Deepak Krishan said steps would be taken to include it in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The exhibition will be held on April 13 and 14 at Chennai Central. It will move to Tiruchi on April 15, Madurai on April 16, Tirunelveli on April 17, Thiruvananthapuram on April 18, Ernakulam Junction on April 18, Kozhikode on April 20 and Coimbatore on April 21. V. Carmelus, Heritage Officer of Southern Railway, said the idea of conducting exhibition on wheels was conceived after seeing three condemned coaches.

They were refurbished and made fit for running.

The first exhibition was held during Scout centenary celebration.

Encouraged by the tremendous response to the exhibition, the philately on wheels was conceived.

Mr. Mujibullah hoped that the exhibition would enthuse youngsters to take up philately as a hobby as the art was dying throughout the world.