Western Rajputana State Railway

Western Rajputana State Railway

The India Office Records(IOR), see below, show that the Western Rajputana State Railway existed in 1874-75 and certainly up to 1878-79. Henry Bawn Addis from the Public Works Department, is recorded as breing deployed as Assistant Engineer to this railway .

There is a brief reference in a diary of that time referring to the town of Palanpur quote ‘The Western Rajputana Railway, completed in 1879, passed some little distance away, with a metalled (or broken stone) running between the town and the station.’

No other information has been found and examination of the IOR records should provide more information.

It seems most likely that the Western Rajputana State Railway was amalgamated Into the Rajputana-Malwa State Railway(RMSR) which was created in 1881-82, joining under single management, existing State Railways:-

• Rajputana State Railway
• Holkar State Railway
• Scindia-Neemuch Railway
• Neemuch Nasirabad State Railway

All these railways were worked by Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway(BB&CIR) State Railways.

In 1900 the RMSR was merged into the Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway(BB&CIR), becoming the latter's Metre Gauge(MG) section; known as Ratlam Division of BB&CIR.

Records

An on-line search of the India Office Records (IOR) records held at the British Library relating to this railway gives the following:-

• V/24/3588; “India. Public Works Department: Annual progress report of the Western Rajputana State Railway, 1874/75”
• R/V/24/3590; "Public Works Department: Railways" which includes "Annual progress report of the Western Rajputana State Railway, 1878/79”

These records have not been examined.