Indus Valley State Railway

The Indus Valley State Railway was formed between 1870 and 1871 to replace the Indus Flotilla by providing a rail link between Kotri and Multan. .

The survey of the line in 1869-70 was undertaken by John Brunton, the Chief Resident Engineer of Scinde Railway, assisted by his son William Arthur Brunton.

The Empress Bridge, originally known as the Sutlej Bridge, near Bahawalpur, Punjab (now in Pakistan). The bridge, which opened in 1878, carried the Indus Valley State Railway over the Sutlej river between Ferozepur (Firozpur) (south of Lahore) and Kazur. The Engineer-in-Charge of the construction was William St. John Galwey, assisted in 1873 by Hugh Lewin Monk from the Public Works Department(PWD) Railway Branch of PWD.

The Indus Valley State Railway had reached Sukkur in 1879 and the steam ferry that transported eight wagons at a time across the Indus between Rohri and Sukkur was found to be cumbersome and time-consuming. The opening of the Lansdowne Bridge in 1889 solved this bottleneck and thus port of Karachi was connected to the railway network.

With others, the Indus Valley State Railway was merged with the Sind, Punjab and Delhi Railway in 1886 to form the North-Western State Railway (later the North Western Railway).

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 > gives 10 references. The most important being:-

• V/24/3590; "Public Works Department: Railways" which contains " Administration report on the construction of the Indus Valley State Railway, 1878/79"
• L/AG/46/34; “Records of the India Office relating to the North Western State Railway". The following appears on this IOR record:- 'The North Western State Railway was created in 1886 by the amalgamation of the Scinde-Punjab-Delhi Railway, the Indus Valley State Railway and the Punjab Northern State Railway’

Personnel Records

Unfortunately, there are no Indus Valley State Railway Staff agreements held at the British Library in the India Office Records(IOR).

However the following have been identified from other sources:-

• Frederick Ewart Robertson fromPublic Works Department State Railways Department; 1869-70, employed on the survey; 1870, Engineer-in-Charge of the construction division in Upper Sind until the IVSR was opened for traffic in 1877; 1879, In-charge of a sub-division of the IVSR. He established the railway ferry over the Indus at Sukkur. The ferry was successfully worked until it was replaced by the Lansdowne Bridge; 1887, Lansdowne Bridge, of the cantilever type, with a 820 feet(248M) span, involved his design of novel and suitable plant for its erection. The whole of the work was successfully carried out by him, and the bridge was opened in 1889; 1889, appointed Engineer-in-Chief of the IVSR, which included the Khojak Junction under construction;1889, resigned and became Chief Engineer East Indian Railway .
• Middleton Rayne, 1876-79 Engineer-in-chief
  • IOR Mss Eur D904; "Middleton Rayne papers" with the catalogue contents 'Papers of Middleton Rayne (1830-82), Public Works Dept, Government of India 1868-79, Engineer in Chief, Indus Valley State Railway 1876-79, comprising diaries, sketchbooks, letters and photographs; also two diaries, dated 1871 and 1883, of his wife Annie.'
• Frederick Lewis Dibblee, 1874-78 Superintending Engineer.
• Hugh Lewin Monk, 1869 as an Assistant Engineer. Then 1874-79 as Executive Engineer assisting in the construction of the Empress Bridge
• William St. John Galwey, 1873 Engineer-in-charge of the Empress Bridge construction over the River Sutlej.
• Henry Francis Storey, 1879 as Engineer. 1881 as Engineer-in-Chief and promoted to Superintendent of Way and Works until trasferred in 1886

The 1905 Civil List records the following from the Public Works Department - State Railways being deployed to the SIR  :–

• James Arthur Anderson, Executive Engineer, employed on IVSR dates unspecified but between 18712 and 1890
• James Condor, Traffic Superintenent IVSR, 1878-81 .
• Henry Thomas Geoghegan, Superintending Engineer IVSR, 1877-79 .
• Robert Trefusis Mallet, Engineer-in-Chief IVSR, 1879-80; and later Engineer-in-Chief of IVSR Empress Bridge, 1885-86 .
• William Michell, Executive Engineer IVSR, 1883-87, where he held charge from time to time of the Jacobabad, Kandahar and Northern divisions .
• James Ramsay, Engineer-in-Chief IVSR, 1880 .

Thacker's Directories The following for Indus Valley Railway Personnel have been indexed in Grace's Guide -

• "1872 Thacker's Indus Valley Railway Personnel"

Further Information

See North Western Railway from 1886 onwars.