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[[File:Matheran Light Railway - Matheran Hill.png|thumb|'''Matheran Light Railway - Matheran Hill Map''']]
The '''Matheran Light Railway'''(MLR) was a 2ft/610mm narrow gauge([[Rail_gauge#Narrow_Gauge|NG]]) mountain railway near Bombay (Mumbai). The privately financed line was 12 miles (19km) in length between [[Nera]]l and [[Matheran]] and opened in 1907. At [[Neral]] there was an interchange with the broad gauge([[Rail_gauge#Broad_Gauge|BG]]) [[Great Indian Peninsula Railway]] [[Great_Indian_Peninsula_Railway_-_Lines_owned_and_worked#GIPR_South_East_Mainline| ‘GIPR South East Mainline’]] 20 miles(32km) south-east from [[Kalyan]]. 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| Great ‘Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company’ (GIPR)]]
<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/BombayBarodaAndCentralIndiaRailwaySystem/Bombay_Baroda_And_Central_India_Railway_System#page/n87/mode/1up "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</ref>.
The ‘Matheran Steam Light Tramway Company’ was established under the Indian Tramways Act of 1886 and the Matheran Tramway Order of 28th July 1904 by their Agents ‘Messrs. Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy and Sons’, Bombay <ref name=IOR>British Library IOR/L/F/8/19/1441 Agreement between the Matheran Steam Light Tramway Company and the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company ddated 12 Aug 1918 in suppression of the Agreement dated 13 Oct 1909</ref> 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 Hill Light Railway'''and the '''Matheran Tramway''' A new Agreement dated 12 Aug 1918 transferred from the GIPR back to the MLR the “provision of Traffic and Telegraph staff and audit of the Revenue Accounts and Expenditure inclusive of supervision thereof”. It also confimed that “the Tramway shall be solely responsible for the provision of Rolling Stock. Locomotives, Machinery, Furniture, Fittings, Plant and Appliances necessary for the purpose of working the Tramway and for keeping the same in order and up to the standard of efficiency for such working.” <ref name=IOR/>
[[Everard Richard Calthrop]] was the consulting engineer. Unusually for a railway for which he designed it was of 2ft/610mm narrow gauge([[Rail_gauge#Narrow_Gauge|NG]]), with tight curves and 1 in 20 (5%) grades.
