Carnatic Railway

Carnatic Railway
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Line of route
Arakkonam-Conjeevaram Tramway
Gauge / mileage
3feet 6inch(1097mm)	Opened 1865
Broad Gauge(BG)	Converted to BG c.1870
Metre Gauge (MG)	Converted to MG 1878
Timeline
1862	Indian Tramway Co. formed
1870	Carnatic Railway Co. formed with state assistance
1872	Merged with the ‘Great Southern of India Railway
1874	The two merged Companies became South Indian Railway
Key locations
Presidency	Madras
Stations
System agency
How to interpret this infobox

Carnatic Railway

The Carnatic Railway(CAR) was formed in 1870 to acquire the operations and line and equipment of the Indian Tramway Co., a company which went into voluntary in liquidation
See separate page ‘Indian Tramway Company’ for further information

The CAR was able to secure a 5% Guarantee from the Government of India)

Contract

The Contract shows that the only line that had been constructed by the ‘Indian Tramway Co.’, was the ‘Arakkonam-Conjeevaram Tramway’, a 3 feet 6 inches(1067mm) Rail Gauge line of which "opened for traffic about 1 Aug 1865" and ran between the towns of Arkonam and Conjeeveram, a line length of 18.8miles (30.3km).

The Contract specified that the Company shall alter the gauge of the ‘Arakkonam-Conjeevaram Tramway’, described as the ‘Original Line’ in the Contract, to 5 feet 6 inches broad gauge(BG) throughout. It is thought that the line from Arkonam Station to Conjeeveram was in the process of being converted to BG, probably in late 1870 or early 1871 but exact date not known, but then changed to metre gauge(MG).Note there is still conflict regarding these dates

The “1870-71 Annual Report for Indian Railways for the Carnatic Railway“ gives the 19 miles(30.5km) of line opened as 3 feet 3 3/8 inches which is metre gauge(MG), with 100 miles (161 km) sanctioned and 81 miles(130.5km) to be finished’. The Report also details the ‘progress of the railway and the commercial summery’ - see separate pages for Report details.

The Contract also specified that the Company shall undertake the construction of an BG ‘Extension Line’ from Conjeeveram to Cuddalore.
It is clear that this “Extension Line” was not constructed by the ‘Carnaic Railway Company’.

It was not until 1881 when the ‘South Indian Railway’ (SIR] opened the extension from Conjeeveram to Chingleput Junction (see ‘Later Developments - 1881’ below).

Later Developments

• 1872 the ‘Carnatic Railway’ merged with the ‘Great Southern of India Railway’. The background to this is fully explained in the record “Amalgamation of the Great Southern and Carnatic Railway Companies” , this record has been transcribed by FIBIS.
• 1874, the merged companies were renamed the ‘South Indian Railway’(SIR).
• 1878, the ‘ ‘Arkonam-Conjeeveram Line’ was converted in July 1878 to metre gauge(MG) as part of the SIR Metre Gauge systemwas adopted and the line was converted once again to MG .
• 1881, The SIR cextended the line as a metre gauge(MG) from Conjeeveram (now named Kanchipuram) in stages reaching Chingleput Junction in Jan 1881 forming the ‘SIR Arkonum MG Branch’. At Chingleput Junction the line joined the ‘SIR MG Mainline’ which had opened in 1876-77 , thus connecting throgh to Cuddalore.

Records

An on-line search of the IOR records relating to this railway gives 7 references. The most important being:-

• L/F/8/11/874 “Carnatic Railway Company, Duplicate contract Secretary of State; 1870”
• L/PWD/5/3 “Public Works 'Old Series' (Collections), Coll 15, Amalgamation of Great Southern and Carnatic Railway Cos, 1869-1874”

Personnel

Unfortunately, there are no ‘Carnatic Railway’ staff records held in the India Office Records at the British Library.

• Frederick Lewis Dibblee, 1868 August was engaged as Chief Engineer of the ‘Carnatic Railway’, he had previously been Chief Engineer of the ‘Great Southern of India Railway’ also in the Madras Presidency.
• Frederick Charles Bullmore, 1870-76, engaged upon the preliminary surveys of that line at various points between Madras and Porto Novo. In 1874 South Indian Railway(SIR) absorbed the 'Carnatic Railway' and services retained. Left SIR on completion of the work< ref>Grace's Guide 'Frederick Charles Bullmore'; Retrieved 3 Apr 2020</ref>.

Further Information

See Arakkonam-Conjeevaram Tramway
and Indian Tramway Co. for early history up to 1870.

See South Indian Railway for period after 1874

References

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