There was a time when passengers could post a letter without getting off a BEST bus. For about two years between 1928 and 1930, some buses had scarlet-red letterboxes fitted into their middle sections. Passengers could drop in their mail as they travelled through the city.

The letterboxes are no longer in Mumbai’s buses. But one of the stories about them survives at the BEST Museum, tucked away on the third floor of the undertaking’s administrative building at Anik Depot in Sion. The museum has no grand setting. What it does have is a collection of objects that offer glimpses of how Mumbai travelled, used electricity and paid for public services several decades ago.

There are old tickets, miniature bus models, wooden tram benches, street lamps, lighting models and traffic stops. Among them are objects that now seem unusual, a bell punch machine, a brass table fan used for advertising and photographs of a tram that once went around neighbourhoods as a mobile repair unit.

BEST Museum at Anik Depot in Mumbai

The museum came about almost by accident.

In 1972, the undertaking decided to publish a book tracing its history. Departments were asked to send in old documents, photographs and objects that could help with the project.

The response was much larger than expected. Staff Liaison Officer P D Paranjpe, who was coordinating the collection, began gathering the material. Eventually, BEST decided that the objects should be preserved separately.

BEST Museum at Anik Depot in Mumbai

The first collection was kept in a 150-sq-ft warehouse at Dharavi Depot in 1981. The museum opened at Kurla Depot in 1984 and moved to Anik Depot in 1993 as the collection grew.

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A postbox on a bus

BEST’s first motor bus service began on July 15, 1926, between Afghan Church and Crawford Market. There were 24 buses, each with seating for about 24 passengers and space for two standing passengers.

BEST Museum at Anik Depot in Mumbai

The service grew quickly. Nearly six lakh passengers used it in its first six months and the number rose to 38 lakh in 1927. But the following years brought a series of disruptions, including the textile strike of 1928, communal riots in 1929 and the Civil Disobedience Movement. Passenger numbers dropped and BEST tried several measures to encourage people to use its services. One of them was the letterbox.

“It was to attract more people to the buses by allowing them to post their letters while travelling,” says Ambadas Garje of the BEST Museum. The facility did not last long. About two decades later, BEST had moved on to other forms of passenger convenience. Much later, between 2005 and 2010, it installed PCO booths in buses.

When a ticket made a sound

Displayed at the museum is a bell punch machine brought from London in 1924. It was in use before BEST’s motor bus service began.

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The conductor punched holes into pre-printed tickets using the machine. Every punch produced a small ringing sound. The round pieces cut from the ticket were collected inside the machine. At the end of the day, a ticket department officer emptied the pieces. The officer alone had the key. These stubs were then used to estimate the revenue collected by a bus.

BEST Museum at Anik Depot in Mumbai

The tickets themselves came in different colours depending on the fare. A one-anna ticket was grey, a two-anna ticket beige and a three-anna ticket turquoise. The system, called the Williamson ticket printer, was discontinued in 1947.

Selling the idea of electricity

In 1905, when it was known as the Bombay Electric Supply and Tramways Company, the undertaking began generating electricity, initially to supply its tramway. A power generation system was set up at Wadi Bunder, followed by another facility near Mazgaon.

BEST Museum at Anik Depot in Mumbai

As electricity began entering homes, the undertaking also had to persuade people to use it.

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In 1920, it opened a showroom at Electric House in Colaba, where customers could see table fans, lamps, kettles, toasters and geysers. Five more showrooms followed, including at Tardeo and CSMT.

One of the exhibits at the museum is a brass table fan made by London-based Solaflex. Nearly a century old, it has the words “BEST for Service” inscribed on its blades.

BEST Museum at Anik Depot in Mumbai

The fan has since been fitted with LED lights and animation and turned into an advertising display.

“The goal was to attract customers and show them that electrical appliances were safe to use,” Garje says.

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The tram that came to the doorstep

Among the photographs at the museum is one of a black service tram. It was not used to ferry passengers.

BEST Museum at Anik Depot in Mumbai

The tram functioned as a mobile repair unit, travelling through neighbourhoods to repair domestic electrical appliances.

It was equipped with two large tanks and drew power from an overhead supply. Its equipment converted 600 volts DC to 230 volts AC, allowing technicians to carry out repairs.

BEST Museum at Anik Depot in Mumbai

“With this, repairing was brought to the doorstep of customers,” says Garje.

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For visitors today, these objects offer a different way of looking at BEST’s history and remain as reminders of the many small ways BEST once tried to make its services fit into the daily lives of Mumbai’s residents.