O&RR Railway Workshops

O&RR Railway Workshops

The following Workshops were developed and operated by the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway(O&RR)

See Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway main page for further information until 1925 when the O&RR transferred to the East Indian Railway(EIR).

Charbagh Railway Workshop

Charbagh is a suburb 2 miles(3.2km) south west of Lucknow city.
Construction for the Charbagh workshop was started in 1867 by the Indian Branch Railway, from 1872 to become the Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway (O&RR) to prepare for its needs of locomotive and carriage maintenance in the Lucknow area after it secured a contract to build a large broad gauge(BG) railway system in the area north of the Ganga. 1867 was also the year that the company had finished construction of the light metre gauge(MG) line between Lucknow andCawnpore.
Originally almost all the staff of the Charbagh workshop was from Great Britain, however within a few years a large number of Indians were also employed, including many from Bihar and also Jamalpur .

Last of the O & R R Apprentices, 1930

O&RR Apprentice Training

The Charbagh Workshops operated the O&RR Technical Training School for Apprenticeships until 1925 when it transferred to the ‘East Indian Railway’(EIR).

The last intake O&RR Apprentices was 1925, prior to the absorption into the EIR.
This group completed their Apprenticeships in 1930.
Some of the training had been undertaken at the EIR Jamalpur Training School

Alambagh Railway Workshop

Alambagh lies about 4 miles(7km) north-west of the centre of Lucknow. It was the site of a maintenance facility, was started in 1865 by the Indian Branch Railway, to become Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway (O&RR) from 1872 for the routine overhaul and repair of carriages and wagons. In time, the workshop grew to become one of the major centres in India for the construction of new coaching and goods stock, as well as its restoration and repair .

Lucknow Railway Workshop

The Imperial Gazetteer of India , 1908 reported that there were two railway workshops in Lucknow, employing between them 3,400 hands in 1903. This reference must refer to the ‘Charbagh Railway Workshop’ and the ‘Alambagh Railway Workshop‘ both workshops operated by O&RR. .

Later Development

From 1925 these Workshops were taken over by the East Indian Railway(EIR) with all the assets and liabilities of the O&RR

See EIR Carriage and Wagon Workshop page

See East Indian Railways - Locomotive Workshops page

Thus the ‘Charbagh Locomotive Workshop‘ and the ‘Alambagh Carriage & Wagon Workshop‘ became part of the EIR.

Subsequently in 1952 the EIR merged with ‘Northern Railway’ . This Railway did not have any loco workshops Lahore – Mughalpura Workshops of the ‘[[North West Railway}}]]’(NWR) had already gone to Pakistan and EIR Jamalpur workshops were now with ‘Eastern Railway’.
So the ‘Charbagh Workshops’ were upgraded and became the ‘Nothern Railway Locomotive Workshops’.

The ‘Alambagh Workshop’ became one of the premier Carriage & Wagon Workshop to cater the need of broad gauge rolling stock in the Northern part of the Country .