National Rail Museum

The railways remade India more thoroughly than any building in this atlas, and the museum that records them is mostly outdoors: eleven acres of track in the diplomatic quarter, with locomotives, saloons and cranes parked along it. It opened in 1977, assembled from what the regional railways had kept rather than thrown away.

The star is the Fairy Queen, built in 1855 and still in steam — the oldest working locomotive anywhere, which occasionally hauls a heritage train. Around it stand the private saloons of maharajas and viceroys, a monorail carriage from Patiala that runs on one rail and a road wheel, and the sober engineering that carried everyone else.

No station is within easy walking distance — Chanakyapuri sits in the diplomatic enclave, away from the network, and an auto-rickshaw or cab is the practical way in.

A car park is provided at the entrance, rarely full outside weekends.

A cafeteria operates inside the grounds, alongside the miniature train that circles the site.

Closed Mondays. Largely open-air, so avoid the middle of a summer day; the toy train circuit is worth the extra ticket.