Roana Maria Costa | TNN
Mumbai: He takes a photograph and converts it into a blueprint. Raw material is painstakingly moulded into miniature parts. For hours on end, he crouches over a cluttered work table to build perfect little models of train engines, keeping alive a passion that revved to life nearly 20 years ago.
C L Singh, a section engineer at the tool room at the Parel workshop of the Central Railways, is the proud creator of 38 miniature train engines, including a 1928 rock engine used in steam trains. For Singh, everything starts with a picture.
Perched on a high stool in his home at the Trombay Railway Quarters in Chembur, Singh, who looks relaxed in army pants and a light brown tee, says his workshop is where he finds nirvana. “I was always artistically inclined, and never dreamt of joining the Railways. But my parents passed away when I was six, and I moved from Jhansi to Mumbai to stay with my sister. Her husband worked in the Parel workshop and after I finished my SSC, I joined as an apprentice,’’ says 56-year-old Singh, as he cuts white sheets of tough plastic which will be shaped into windows grills of an electric train engine.
Singh’s workshop—one of the two bedrooms of his flat—is lined with ceiling-high shelves stocked with prototypes in glass boxes bearing the names of the train engine models. “The family accommodates itself in the other room, besides there is always space in the hall,’’ he says. “I have all the tools I require. Some of the materials I use are very fine. I get them from old umbrellas, cycle spares and used fireworks.’’ In the room are a plastic cutting machine used to cut synthetic sheets, bench vices, a hacksaw, a grinding machine, a buffing machines and air compressors used for spray painting. Somewhere in the corner is a black bicycle. “Work ends at 3:45 pm. After that it’s a train from Parel to Kurla, from where I pick up my cycle parked near platform number 9 and peddle home,’’ he says. This practice helps him keep fit, save time and a few rupees.
Friends and colleagues, intrigued by his hobby, are always ready to help with pictures of rare train engines and raw material. A model takes at least a month to finish with a minimum of four hours of work every evening. His wife Usha is a great cook, he says, but when he’s midmodel, not even her food can entice him.
Singh, whose largest replica is a 140-tonne crane that weighs over 10 kg and is six-and-a-half-feet long, has exhibited his work at various railway exhibitions at CST, the Thane Railway Institute and the Lokmanya Tilak Engineering College. He is grateful for the support he has received from his employer. “I started making train engine replicas twenty years ago, after I married Usha and we moved into the Railway quarters. My daughter Deepti and my son Devendra help me out but are not hands on,’’ he says.
Usha enters the room at this point. “I never clean his desk. I sweep the room but never touch the desk since I don’t understand the importance of the small parts lying around,’’ she says. Singh enjoys listening to old Hindi film songs, but when he starts working, the music, like everything else, fades into the background. “I am not a person who enjoys going out. At the end of tiring day, this is where I find solace.’’
All his work is self-funded—as much as 30% of his salary goes into indulging this hobby. He is undeterred by this and the increasing strain on his eyes ever since he had a cataract operation in 1997. He refuses to sell his work. “People approach me but I can never think of selling my work,’’ he says. “Each creation is added to the collection. I never make the same piece twice. Usha never complains, who will she complain too? My family is very supportive.’’
TRAINED HANDS: C L Singh, a section engineer with the Central Railways, works on protoypes of train engines as a hobby.
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