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 Empress Bridge over the Sutlej River Bridge opened in 1878.

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).

• 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

Further Information

See North Western Railway