Delhi-Umballa-Kalka Railway
The Delhi-Umballa-Kalka Railway(DKR) Company was formed in 1889. The broad gauge(BG) line ran north from Delhi via Umballa+(Ambala) to Kalka in the Himalayan foothills where there was a connection to the DKR owned Kalka-Simla Railway narrow gauge(NG) line that opened in 1903. [1] [2]
The BG line was worked by the East Indian Railway(EIR) and taken over by the Government of India(GoI) in 1925.
+Note:Umballa is used in this text as it was the name of the Railway Company.
Amballa and Ambala are also recorded in different documents as various spellings .
None of these three place names appear in the The Imperial Gazetteer of India 1908 which is normally taken to be the definitive source
Records
Refer to FIBIS Fact File #4: “Research sources for Indian Railways, 1845-1947” - available from the Fibis shop. This Fact File contains invaluable advice on 'Researching ancestors in the UK records of Indian Railways' with particular reference to the India Office Records (IOR) held at the British Library
An on-line search of the IOR records relating to this railway [1] gives 23 references. The most important being:-
- L/F/8/13/945/1 “Delhi Umballa Kalka Railway Company Limited, Contract for the construction of the Delhi Umballa Kalka Railway; 1889”
- L/AG/46/9 “Records of the Delhi-Umballa-Kalka Railway Company; 1898-1907”
- L/AG/46/29 “Records of the India Office relating to the Delhi-Umballa-Kalka Railway; 1889-1926”
External Links
- Delhi-Kalka Line" Wikipedia