Shimoga Tramway
The Shimoga Tramway was opened in 1907 to convey manganese ore from the’ Mysore Manganese Syndicate’ Company’s mines at Kumsi and Shankaragudda. The tramway, 2ft/610mm narrow gauge(NG), was 18 miles in length and was constructed by the Company as none of the Mysore rivers were navigable . The NG tramway operated to the Shimoga railway station where there was a connection to the metre gauge(MG) Birur-Shimoga Railway [1] [2].
In June 1905 the Syndicate applied to the Dewan of Mysore for permission to build a NG line from the station at Shimoga in two stages; firstly from the Shimoga railway staion over the bridge at Tunga river to Ayanur and from there to the mines at Kumsi. This permission was granted in July 1906. The tramway was to move manganese ore from the mines to the Southern Mahratta Railway(SMR) at Shimoga where it was transhipped and conveyed via Londa junction and the West of India Portuguese Railway(WIPR) to Mormugoa harbour for export to UK [3].
The records show that at eight 2ft 0in NG locomotives were operational from the opening in June 1907 [3].
IOR Records
An on-line search of the India Office Records (IOR) records held at the British Library relating to this tramway [4] gives the following:-
- R/2/Box18/107; “File 432 1905 Proposed construction of a tramway from the Shimoga Railway Station to the Manganese mines at Kumsi. History of the above mines. Information required by the Portuguese General Consul at Bombay as to the Manganese mines in Mysore”; 1905-1923
References
- ↑ "Imperial Gazetteer of India, 1908" v. 18, p. 225.; Retrieved 23 Dec 2015
- ↑ Forgotten Books "Census of India: Mysore, Vol. 21 (Original work published 1912) Paragraph 46, page 20; pdf page 35; Retrieved 23 Dec 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 “Industrial Railways and Locomotives of India and South Asia” compliled by Simon Darvill. Published by ‘The Industrial Railway Society’ 2013. ISBN 978 1 901556 82-7. Available at http://irsshop.co.uk/India. Reference: Entry KA28 page ....
- ↑ “British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue” - Search; Retrieved 26 Feb 2017
