Most people view their daily train commute as one of life’s essential evils. But as a schoolboy travelling from home in Kurla to IES school in Matunga in the early 1990s, Rajendra Aklekar became obsessed by Mumbai’s railway system. “After school, I hung out with a bunch of friends near the tracks, train-spotting smoking diesel engines, identifying their classes and noting down numbers,” said Aklekar, who is now a journalist with The Hindustan Times.

He’s still crazy after all these years. So much so, in fact, that in 2002 he founded the Bombay Railway Heritage Group, an internet discussion group with 99 members who share his passion for rakes and rails.

The Bombay Railway Heritage Group is a collection of mainly Indian and British enthusiasts. “The railways were set up by the British, so they took some mementoes with them when they left, like bells and share certificates,” Aklekar said. “The people who have these things now have become fans and are part of the group too.”

This isn’t to suggest that the group is an idle exercise in nostalgia. In November, when the authorities were renovating the Masjid Bunder bridge, the group lobbied to save from destruction four plaques from 1868 that were found buried under hawker’s stalls.

Aklekar first began to share his enthusiasm for the railways as a journalist with The Daily 1997-’98, after he convinced Rusi Karanjia to let him run a column on the history of the railways. Aklekar realised that the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (now the Central Railway), which began operations from Mumbai to Thane in 1853, was the first railway in Asia and he was sure that it would have several historical structures along the line. He’d find material for his column by walking down some part of the route from Victoria Terminus to Thane, a total distance of 33 kilometres, every day, making notes on everything that caught his attention. Though he stopped writing for the paper shortly after, he conducted a similar exercise down the Western Railway route.

Since then Aklekar has focused on documenting everything about the city’s railways, because “it can’t be preserved and it’s too heavy to move”. He hopes some day, with all this information, he’ll write a book, or build a museum. Roshni Bajaj Sanghvi

Visit the Bombay Railway Heritage Group at www.brhg.4t.coM or at http/finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/brhg.