East Indian Railway

East Indian Railway
Howrah Station, Calcutta
Line of route
Howrah (Calcutta) to Delhi Allahabad to Jubbulpore
Gauge / mileage
Broad gauge	1962 miles (1905)
Timeline
1849	Guarantee agreed with East India Company
1851	Construction begun
1854 1867 1871	First train between Howrah and Hooghly First through train to Delhi First through train to Bombay via Jubbalpore
1880	Line acquired by State
Key locations
Presidency	Bengal
Stations	Agra, Benares, Hooghly, Mirzapur, Patna
System agency
1880	worked by East Indian Railway Company
How to interpret this infobox

East Indian Railway
East Indian Railway device
System timeline
1880	EIR re-formed to work line now owned by State
1925	Management of system taken over by State
Constituent companies / lines
1880	East Indian Railway
1889	Delhi-Umballa-Kalka Railway
	South Behar Railway
1885	Tarkessur Railway
	Jind-Panipat Railway
1925	Oudh and Rohilkhand merged into EIR
Key locations
Headquarters	Calcutta
Workshops	Jamalpur, Liluah
Major Stations	Agra, Benares, Howrah, Patna
Successor system / organisation
1947	Eastern Division, Indian Railways
1952	split between Eastern & Northern Railways (IR zones)
System mileage
Broad gauge	2225 miles (1905) 4011 miles (1943)
Associated auxiliary force
East Indian Railway Regiment
How to interpret this infobox

Built on the same terms and conditions as the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR), the East Indian Railway (EIR) was a British company, registered in London, privately owned and financed, operating under license and guarantee from the (British) Board of Control in India and the East India Company (EIC).

By 1859, the arrangements were "the construction and working of lines from Calcutta to Delhi, and from Allahabad to Juppulpore - total, about 1,400 miles. Capital - 12,731,000l. This amount has been sanctioned for the works specified, but it is probable that a larger sum will be required. Rate of Interest Guaranteed - 5 per cent. on 11,553,000l. capital; 4½ per cent. on 1,178,000l. debentures, convertible into shares." ¹

History

Formed in 1845, the EIR was not contracted by the EIC to begin railway construction until 1849 when it became one of the three original guaranteed companies sanctioned to construct experimental lines. It was not until 1854 that the EIR opened its first section from Howrah to Hooghly. By 1864, the EIR had arrived in Delhi although it was not until 1871 that the Bombay-Calcutta route was completed when the GIPR reached Juppulpore.

In 1862, the Jamalpur Locomotive workshops were established. On 15 January 1935, the workshops along with the entire railway colony were destroyed by an earthquake. It took 3 years to rebuild the facility.

The Government of India (GoI) acquired the assets of the EIR on 31 December 1879 while leaving the management to the private company.

The GoI took over the direct running of the EIR on 1 January 1925.

Indian Railways

In 1952, the EIR was split to form two zones of Indian Railways. The Moradabad, Lucknow & Allahabad Division was subsuned into Northern Railway while the remainder was merged with the Bengal-Nagpur Railway (BNR) to form Eastern Railway. This latter merger was not considered a success as, in 1955, BNR was demerged to form South Eastern Railway.

Organisation

By 1914, EIR was organised into the following departments, each with its own workshops with the main ones shown.

1. Agency
2. Audit & Accounts
3. Carriage & Wagon
   1. Lilloah
   2. Allahabad
4. Colliery
5. Electrical
6. Engineering
7. Locomotive
   1. Allahabad
   2. Asansol
   3. Dhanbaid
   4. Dinapore
   5. Jamalpur
   6. Tundla
8. Medical
9. Printing
10. Provifent Institution
11. Stores
12. Traffic
    1. Calcutta (Head Office)
    2. Allahabad
    3. Asansol
    4. Cawnpore
    5. Howrah
    6. Howrah Goods
    7. Delhi
    8. Dhanbaid
    9. Dinapore
    10. Gaya
    11. Sahebgunge
    12. Tundla

Schools

The EIR operated many schools, of which probably the best known was Oak Grove School at Mussoorie. Oak Grove School is still associated with Indian Railways and Northern Railway.

Records

The following are held in the India Office Records at the British Library.

• L/AG/46/11/133-137 : Contracts of appointment, c1858-1925 (possibly not all included)

The above is indexed in

• Z/L/AG/46 : Index to UK Appointments to Indian Railways (1849-1925)

The following is not included in the index Z/L/AG/46.

• L/AG/46/11/138-141 : Half-yearly staff lists, 1861-1890 & 1911-1922 (giving ages from 1886).

Recommended reading

• George Huddleston, History of the East Indian Railway (Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co, 1906). Archive.org. [A second part, published in 1939, took the history to 1924.]

• Blair Williams, "EIR at Jamalpur - Anglo-Indian Railway Officers", The International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies (Vol 6, No 2, 2001).

External Links

• East Indian Railway logo

• Science & Society Picture Library

• "History of Eastern Railway", Indian Railways Fans Club.

• Williams, Blair, "EIR at Jamalpur - Anglo-Indian Railway Officers", The International Journal of Anglo-Indian Studies, Vol 6, No 2, 2001.

Historical books online

• "The East Indian Railway", page 358 from Bengal and Assam, Behar and Orissa: their history, people, commerce and industrial resources by Somerset Playne and J W Bond 1917 Archive.org
• History of the East Indian Railway by George Huddleston 1906 at Archive.org

Published books

• Mukherjee, Hena. The Early History of the East Indian Railway 1845-1879. Published by Firma KLM Private Limited, Calcutta 1994.

Notes & References

¹ "Money Market and City Intelligence", The Times, Wednesday, 15 June 1859, #23333, 7a.

² "The Carriage and Wagon Workshops of the East Indian Railway", "The Indian Railway Gazette", 1st February 1908, page 33-35.

³ "Development of the East Indian Railway", "Railway Age Gazette", 1st August 1913, Vol.55, No 5, page 191-195.