Villupuram-Nellore Railway

Villupuram-Nellore Railway

The Villupuram-Nellore Railway was a route operated by the South Indian Railway(SIR) until re-organisation on 1 Jan 1908 (see below). It was not an actual railway.

The route from Villupuram to Nellore was a metre gauge(MG) track of ........miles(133km). The route from Villupuram was via Katpadi, Pakala, Renigunta and Gudur and on to Nellore. The route was fully opened by 1893 and was worked by SIR as a north-south route avoiding Madras.

The route comprised a number of sections:-

• The 'Villipuram-Katpadi MG Section', was part of the 'Villupuram-Guntakal State Railway'. This was a State Railway, worked by SIR from Villupuram and opened in stages from Nov 1890, reaching Katpadi in Mar 1891 . The operation of this Section remained part of the SIR network after re-organisation on 1 Jan 1908 (see below).

• The 'Katpadi-Pakala MG Section', continued northward from Katpadi reaching Pakala in Mar 1891

. The operation of this Section was transferred from SIR to the newly formed 'Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway'(M&SMR) after 1 Jan 1908 (see below)

• The 'Pakala-Gudur MG Section'. The line from Pakala to Gudur was completed in 1897 . The operation of this Section was transferred from SIR to the newly formed M&SMR after 1 Jan 1908 (see below)

• The 'Gudur-Nellore' Section', 24 miles(38km) was opened in 1888 as a metre gauge(MG) line. In Nov 1899 this section was taken over by Madras Railway and converted to

broad gauge(BG) later to become part of the M&SMR 'North-East Mainline BG'.

Thus from Nov 1899 the 'Villupuram-Nellore Railway' ceased to exist and stopped at Gudur.

On 1 Jan 1908 the Government re-allocated a number of lines. The newly formed 'Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway'(M&SMR) was given the lines north of Katpadi which had previously been worked by the SIR.
As a consequence the ‘Villupuram-Guntakal State Railway’ ceased to exist and the line divided:-

• The section from Villupuram to Katpadi retained by SIR and became the ‘Villupuram-Katpadi Railway Section’ of the SIR metre gauge(MG) system.
• The section from Katpadi to Guntakal, was transferred to M&SMR to become their ‘Kalpadi-Dharmavaram Branch’ and part of their ‘Guntakal-Mysore Frontier Branch’