The rail museum coming up next to Howrah station, with the restaurant coaches in the background. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

Railway catering might make you want to avoid trains, but Eastern Railway (ER) plans to offer meals on wheels that you can enjoy without buying tickets.

Come April, Calcutta will get its first two restaurants in rail compartments. Two discarded coaches have been utilised for the purpose.

The eateries will be a part of a rail museum, being set up by ER beside Howrah station. The Rs 1-crore project is scheduled to be inaugurated early next month.

?A broad-gauge coach has been converted into an air-conditioned, multi-cuisine restaurant, while another coach will serve as a takeaway counter,? said Saumitra Majumdar, chief public relations officer, ER.

The broad-gauge coach, used in long-distance trains, was lying abandoned and would have been sold as scrap. It has been thoroughly done up as an eatery at ER?s Liluah workshop.

?The coach will have the amenities of a good restaurant and the ambience of a railway coach,? said a railway official.

The other coach, a metre-gauge one, has been converted into a food stall. It will be set up on a faux railway platform, with seating arrangements.

?Customers will be served food from the coach. They can enjoy the fare on the platform,? the official explained.

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation will operate the restaurants.

The other attractions of the museum will include one of the oldest engines in the world. The steam engine, named Express, is a twin of Fairy Queen, the oldest operational broad-gauge locomotive engine in the world. Both were built in England and were part of East India Railway. Express was kept in the Jamalpur workshop of ER.

A four-wheeler salon will be attached to the engine in the museum. Besides, broad gauge, metre gauge and narrow gauge lines have been laid to display steam engines and coaches. A narrow gauge engine and a coach have been obtained from Darjeeling Himalayan Railways.

A hall modelled on Howrah station has been built inside the museum. The history of East India Railway, ER and the station will be depicted in prose and pictures in the hall. Clocks, levers, electrical gadgets, manuscripts and heritage uniforms will be part of the exhibits.

Four kiosks with an octagonal tower in the centre will provide information on each railway zone in India, their telecom and signalling systems and other features.

The museum will also have a green verge, a fountain with lights, a waterbody and an entertainment park.