The railway track next to this small, densely populated locality would have attracted the attention of art-house filmmakers of the 1960s, but they never came to this part of the world. It is not as busy a track as it used to be, let’s say, 50 years back, still, the neighbourhood along which it runs makes for quite a cinematic spectacle. Regrettably, the apartment buildings made for railway workers have morphed into something of a Kafkaesque entity, distorting the original design plan of the developers of this area. This is City Railway Colony, one of the many railway localities established in Karachi when British rule was in full swing.

When you walk past Shaheen Complex to reach I.I. Chundrigar Road (formerly McLeod Road), look left: the street, which boasts of some seriously good colonial buildings, is called Elander Road (you already know that). Yes, the same street where a couple of old restaurants are frequently visited by media personnel, especially during lunch hour. Right at the end of Elander Road, a KESC office block bathes in sunshine and uninterrupted supply of electricity. Opposite that there is a narrow road which at first glance would appear just another insular pathway. It is not. It zigzags into a shabbily maintained neighbourhood, City Railway Colony, with no extraordinary features except the stone-made structures in which railway employees live, and have been living, for a long time.

Wait for a moment. Before you step into this fascinating locality, you have to cross an unmanned railway track and then turn right to reach the colony. The shops that flank the narrow road are fairly indicative of the kind of lives that people in this neck of the woods lead.

They are fun-loving, for sure. The pool tables in small spaces thronged by the hale and hearty are ample proof of it. Forget the worn-down tips of the cue sticks. When the better players take aim, the colour balls head only towards the pockets.

This is an odd-looking, strangely likable place. If you take an overhead picture of the small alleyways and passages that do not have a pattern, they will appear as find-your-way-out type maze games that you play in children’s activity books or on the Internet. And yet, you instinctively know, once you are in this railway colony, you will get out of it no matter what.

The buildings, flats to be precise, in this area are quite similar to one another. They have the same height, the same windows, and the same staircases. The difference is in the additions that have been made to them over a period of time. A couple of them have extended constructions to make more room for more people, obviously not made of stone, which gives the structures an uncharacteristic look. The shops in the corner of one of two blocks too are more of an afterthought than part of the initial architectural blueprint. All said and done, it is the people who fill up these buildings which make the vicinity a quirkily delightful area.

Charles Napier, the conqueror of Sindh, had an idea about connecting Karachi to other parts of Sindh. Bartle Frere, commissioner of Sindh, floated the idea to the then government (in 1855) that a railway linkup be developed from Karachi to Kotri. Four years later the first part of the track was laid. It connected Keamari to the railway workshops near City Station. Consequently, the first line from Karachi to Kotri for public was opened on May 13, 1861.

When a proper railway system was established, naturally housing schemes for its officers and workers were required. The government set out to make two kinds of residential accommodations for railway employees: one for officers and the other for workers. The former were more spacious and comfy, while the latter were relatively simple and not so roomy. The railway colony behind Elander Road falls in that latter category.

Architect Arif Hasan says: “When the railways started to expand, a track was laid near McLeod Road or as we call it I.I. Chundrigar Road today. This was built in the 1860s. There were warehouses all around it. The flats that you are talking about are from the same period.

Their masonry is quite similar to the one used in the warehouses. They resemble the apartments which were built for port officials in Keamari. So I suppose they go back as far as the 1860s.”

“Architecture-wise, they are functional buildings made of hammer dressed stone. Even if they have arches, essentially they are functional structures. All of them can be preserved and protected. As for the people who occupy them, you either have to provide them with accommodation in the event of restoration or make these buildings livable for them,” says Mr Hasan.

Describing the premises of the machine age in The Wanderer and His Shadow, Friedrich Nietzsche writes, “The press, the machine, the railway, the telegraph are premises whose thousand-year conclusion no one has yet dared to draw.” When did he come to Karachi?

mohammad.salman@dawn.com