Railways

General map of railways in India as of 1909

The railways in India were subject to constant changes of ownership, amalgamations and adjustments over the years. The categorisation below is intended to be comprehensive but not exhaustive.

The early railway companies were UK companies operating in India. Later the British Government of India (GOI) owned the majority and either managed them directly or leased them back to private management. From circa 1925 the GOI began to call in the leases, operating the services directly. By 1945, most railways were both owned and managed by the GOI.

• Guaranteed Railways included those railway companies, formed by 1859, to which the East India Company, later the GOI, guaranteed a fixed return on capital.

• Private Railways (those built without a guarantee) were few in number - only two were formed in the period 1850-1866 and both these were re-constituted by 1870.

• State Railways were those either built and run directly by the GOI, or those where the GOI exercised its right to assume ownership (which it did gradually with all the original guaranteed railways from 1879 until 1907), or those whose promoters chose to surrender the workings to the GOI (and, in the cse of the guaranteed companies, received their capital back). From 1907, the word State was usually dropped from the name of railways in GOI ownership.

• Assisted Railways were those whose construction was assisted by the GOI, either by guaranteed return or subsidy or in some other material way.

• Indian States Railways were those built or promoted, often on similar terms to those above, by the various Princely States.

• Foreign Railways. Three small railways were built to serve foreign enclaves. These were managed by British companies but ownership of the lines could never vest in the GOI.

For a full list of railways known to have operated in British India, follow the link below.

• Railways index, 1845-1947

Records and employment

It is important to bear in mind that railway staff records created in India before 1947 remain in India, as do the records of railways built, owned or operated by the Indian Princely States. The records that survive today in the collections held at the British Library (and elsewhere) do so because they were originally created in the UK.

For information about the records of railway staff held at the British Library, follow this link.

Railway occupations

Collections of railway records are generally by railway company so it is a good idea to know which railway company an ancestor worked for. In addition, very few collections of railway records are indexed so it is also a good idea to know the trade or employment followed on the railway as occupations were often grouped together when published in staff lists and registers. Even in Thacker's, this will be found to be the case in the individual railway company entries. More information about railway occupations can be found here.

Anglo-Indians

Anglo-Indians became closely identified with the running of the railways. By 1905, forming less than ½% of India's total population, they provided 2% of railway employees. Eventually more than 50% of all Anglo-Indian families came to be supported by railway emplyoment either directly or as a dependant of a railway employee.

Recommended Reading

Hugh Wilding, Research sources for Indian Railways, 1845-1947, FIBIS Fact File No 4 (London: FIBIS, 2009). ISBN 978-0-9547-116-5-8. [This title can be ordered directly from the FIBIS Online Shop.]

Hyde Clarke, Colonization, Defence, and Railways in our Indian Empire (London: John Weale, 1857).

J N Westwood, Railways of India (Newton Abbot: David & Charles Ltd, 1974) [out of print; a general history of the railways of India from pre 1840 to the 1970s].

Ian J Kerr, Building the Railways of the Raj 1850-1900 (Delhi; Oxford: OUP, 1995) [out of print; a detailed, academic examination with full bibliography].

Ian J Kerr, Engines of Change : the Railroads that made India (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 2007) [links to a Google Books preview limited to the first 35 pages].

Laura Bear, Lines of the Nation (New York: Columbia, 2007) [essential but uncomfortable reading for Anglo-Indians with railway roots].

External Links

The Imperial Gazetteer of India : New edition . . . in Council Vol 1, 1909 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908-1931).

Indian Railways, "Evolution of Indian Railways - Historical Background" Indian Railway Administration and Finance.

The Indian Railways Fan Club Train spotters site about Indian Railways.

PakistanRail Train spotters site about Pakistan Railways.

"Modern transport in India" Mike's Railway History.

Juland Danvers, Report to the Secretary of State for India in Council on Railways in India, compilation of three reports, viz to end of 1859; at June 1877; and for 1877-1878 [each report is separately numbered]. Online at Google Books.

Railways of the Raj A lively site featuring tidbits from railway life in British India.