Category:Railways

The early railway companies were UK companies operating in India. Later the British Government of India owned the majority and either managed them directly or leased them back to private management. From circa 1925 most railways were both managed and owned by the Government. The railways in India were subject to constant changes of ownership, amalgamations and adjustments over the years.

• Guaranteed Railways included the 8 railway companies, formed by 1859, to which the East India Company, later the British Government in India, guaranteed a fixed return on capital.

• Only two Un-guaranteed Railways were ever formed and both were re-constituted by 1870.

• State Railways were those where the British Government in India exercised its right to assume ownership (which it did gradually between 1879 and 1907). In 1944, all the State Railways were nationalised.

• Railways of the Indian Princely States were integrated into the newly formed Indian Railways after Independence in 1947.

Records

It is important to bear in mind that railway staff records created in India before 1947 remain in India, as do the records of railways built, owned or operated by the Indian Princely States. The records that survive today in the collections held at the British Library do so because they were originally created in the UK.

Recommended Reading

Hyde Clarke, Colonization, Defence, and Railways in our Indian Empire (London: John Weale, 1857).

J.N. Westwood, Railways of India (Newton Abbot: David & Charles Ltd, 1974) [out of print; a general history of the railways of India from pre 1840 to the 1970s.]

Ian J Kerr, Building the Railways of the Raj 1850-1900 (Delhi; Oxford: OUP, 1995) [out of print; a detailed, academic examination with full bibliography.]

Ian J Kerr, Engines of Change : the Railroads that made India (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 2007).

External Links

The Imperial Gazetteer of India : New edition . . . in Council (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908-1931 [v. 1, 1909])

Indian Railways, "Evolution of Indian Railways - Historical Background," Indian Railway Administration and Finance

The Indian Railways Fan Club