As train frequency improves, commuters have little time to check their weight.

Bollywood

Amitabh Bachchan

friends

Those monster weighing scales at railway stations that gave you not only your weight but also your fortune for the day could soon be a thing of nostalgia as the railways are doing away with them.It appears that the greater frequency of local services in the city is leaving commuters with no time to check their weight at railway platforms. Add to this the fact that health conscious citizens have their own weighing scales at home.The scales – each a massive 225 kilograms to prevent them from being stolen – were once extremely popular, said Sharat Chandrayan, Chief Public Relations officer, Western Railway, who remembers people queuing up for their turn at the machines.“Records present with us trace them back to the 1950’s when they were mechanical,” he said. “Decades later, to make them more attractive, they got dazzling lights and moving wheels that attracted people of all ages. Also the brown thick ticket had a horoscope and even a picture ofactors that made it a collectors item.”While collections from the machines amounted to Rs 26 lakh in 2001, and Rs 19 lakh in 2010, they plummeted to Rs. 1.71 lakh in 2012 and stand at barely Rs. 26,000 this year (to date), said a Western Railway official. And, the Railways, under pressure to show revenues, have to think of more profitable services on their premises.It was from 2001 that the decline started. “It was like a timepass activity for many to check their weight and also how their day would go. But today with trains every three to four minutes and other modes of advertisements like giant screens no one has time for these machines. They were the earliest machines which vended tickets without any human intervention,” said a Central Railway official.With nobody patronising these machines, it has become unviable for the Railways and for the machine suppliers to keep them going. Most of the scales have already been removed from the 28 railway stations on Western Railway, which once had 110 machines between Churchgate and Virar.On the Central line, the contract with one of the suppliers has been terminated, while electricity supply to the other contractor has been cut for non-payment of power bills of Rs. 5.5 lakh. As a result 79 machines are not functioning.The weighing machines were installed by two companies, Eastern Scale Pvt Ltd and Northern Scale Pvt Ltd. The Railways used to get a 40 per cent share of revenues from the machines.Chief public relations office with Central Railway Atul Rane said: "Neither the public nor the contractors seem to be interested. In spite of us discontinuing one contract, there was no representation from the company. The other contractor whose electricity supply has bene cut, has also not responded. This shows that the interest in these machines is waning and they are being pushed into history.”Rajeev Sharma, a Goregaon resident has fond childhood memories of the weighing machine.“I used to feel so elated at getting a 50 paise coin from my father for this. I used to walk proudly to stand on the machine, insert the coin, hear it move and see the card ticket drop. If the ticket had the picture ofthen it was something that I would show to all mynext day.” It was something that made going to the railway station special, he says.The people maintaining the machines were even given free passes to travel on trains. The machines used to be opened every 15 days, and the money would be collected under the supervision of the station master and aperson from the machine company.