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*Europeans employed on State [[Railways]] were usually on the strength of the PWD and therefore a civil servant (eligible for pension etc). NB in this context, if your ancestor turns up on a railway in India and the record contains "PWD" in the note or description, then this does not refer to "Permanent Way Department" (as it would in a UK context) but to the Public Works Department!
==Departmental Structure==
The PWD around 1870 was headed by the PWD Secretary to the Government of India – a consultant engineer and advisor to [[Viceroy]] and Council.
Deputy Secretaries were responsible for the Departments of :
*Irrigation
*Railways and
*Military Engineering
Local Government had its PWD Secretary who was
*Advisor to [[Lieutenant Governor]] or [[Chief Commissioner]]
*Chief Engineer for his Province
Under him, Superintending Engineers were responsible for District, or a major project ie: a railway line.
Executive Engineers reported to the Superintending Engineers and were project managers for the single project. they would control:
*2 or 3 Assistant Engineers,
*5 or 6 European Overseer (NCO’s)
*8/10 Native overseers and
*Office staff
== Training==
Assistant engineers are drawn from Civilian staff or the Royal Engineers, Artillery or line Officers. They were trained at [[Rorkee]]
New officer to India spend a year at Rorkee serving with the [[Bengal Sappers and Miners]] for a year to acclimatise and become linguistically fluent.
Rorkee housed:
*Headquarters for the Bengal Sappers and Royal Engineers in Bengal
*Thomason College
*Foundry
Thomason College was a small trinaing college, with a staff of five. It offered:
*Engineering Course for potential Assistant Engineers - a two year course
*Quarter Master Course - seven month course
Appointments were town based for Military Building (architecture), or remote and rural for those chosing Irrigation, or Railway. Some became member of the Survey Dept
==FIBIS Resources==
:[http://www.archive.org/stream/professionalpap00regoog#page/n9/mode/1up Second Series Volume 2 1873], [http://www.archive.org/stream/professionalpap01regoog#page/n9/mode/1up Second Series Volume 5 1876], [http://www.archive.org/stream/professionalpap00regoog#page/n9/mode/1up Second Series Volume 7 1878], [http://www.archive.org/stream/professionalpap02brangoog Second Series Volume 8 1879] Archive.org
*[http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3VQTAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&lr=#PPP24,M1 India List & India Office List 1905] Your railway ancestor may be here.
*[http://www.archive.org/stream/indiaindianengin00medlrich#page/38/mode/2up India and Indian Engineering] by J G Medley 1873 ex Principal of Tomason College, Rorkee. Good description of the life and work of engineers in India.
[[Category:Occupations]]
