Matheran Hill Light Railway
The Matheran Hill Light Railway was a 2ft/610mm narrow gauge(NG) mountain railway near Bombay (Mumbai). The privately financed line was 12 miles (19km) in length and opened in 1907. The line was owned by the ‘Matheran Steam Light Tramway Company’ who provided all the ‘rolling stock, locomotives and plant, and maintain the way and works.... the keeping and auditing of the Revenue Accounts being under the control of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company’ (GIPR [1].
The line ran from the GIPR station at Neral to Matheran and is in some records described as the Neral-Matheran Light Railway and also as the Matheran Light Railway
Everard Richard Calthrop was the consulting engineer. Unusually for a railway for which he designed it was of 2ft/610mm narrow gauge(NG), with tight curves and 1 in 20 (5%) grades. [2]
The line is still in use today as a tourist attraction. Indian Railways description[3]:- 'Matheran Hill Railway is a heritage railway in Maharashtra, India. It was built between 1901 and 1907 by Abdul Hussein Adamjee Peerbhoy, financed by his father Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy of Adamjee Group at the cost of Rs.16, 00,000. Abdul Hussein Adamjee Peerbhoy was son of a renowned businessman Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy of Bombay, who visited Matheran often and wanted to build a railway to make it easier to get there. Hussain's plans for the railway were formulated in 1900 and construction started in 1904. The line was open to traffic by 1907.'
References
- ↑ "Administration Report on the Railways in India – corrected up to 31st March 1918"; Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta; pages 79-80 (pdf 87-88); Retrieved 7 Feb 2018
- ↑ Wikipedia "Matheran Light Railway"; Retrieved 9 Feb 2016
- ↑ Indian Railways "Hill Trains"; Retrieved 9 Feb 2016
