Shoranur-Cochin Railway
The Shoranur-Cochin Railway was first named the Cochin State Railway [1]
The line was opened in 1902. The metre gauge(MG) line linked Shoranur to the Ernakulam Terminus in Cochin(modern name Kochi), a distance of 62 miles (100km). The line was owned by the Princely Cochin State. Worked by Madras Railway up to 31 Dec 1907. Thereafter the working was undertaken by South Indian Railway(SIR) [2]
The railway and the Cochin Bridge were funded by the Maharaja (Diwan) of Cochin, of the Princely Cochin State who reigned from the year 1895 till 1914. The bridge was the first to ford the river that obstructed passage between Malabar and the southern states of Cohin/Travancore. The first freight train passed over the bridge on 2nd June 1902 and a few days later on the 16th the line opened to passenger traffic [3][4][5]
The following is recorded as being the statement of Mr J W Bhore, the Diwan of Cochin
“The line had been planned as part of the South Indian Railway(SIR) line from Madras to the West Coast in collaboration with the Railway Department of the Government of India. The Cochin State authorities had been informed that the line would be built by a certain date and it would be gauge(MG). The Cochin State built its line accordingly but had to wait for its connection, and when the SIR line did come to Shoranur it was to broad gauge, so all goods going either way had to be uploaded out of one set of trucks and loaded to another”.
[6]
From 1907 at Chalakudy, an intermediate station on the 'Shoranur-Cochin Railway', the timber from the Parambikulam Forest Area operation was transferred from the 'Cochin State Forest Tramway' - see separate page for information.
Later History
The metre gauge (MG) line was converted to broad gauge (BG) in 1938 [7]
It was only in 1938 that the ‘Cochin Harbour Extension Railway’ was opened as an extension to the ‘Shoranur-Cochin Railway’. This was constructed as a broad gauge(BG) line [8].
Records
An on-line search of the IOR records relating to this railway [9] gives the following: -
- L/F/8/17/1236 “ South Indian Railway Company Limited, Agreement for the working and maintenance of the Shoranur-Cochin State Railway His Highness Raja Sir Sri Rama Vurmah; 1908"
Further Information
See Madras Railway who worked the line up to up to 31 Dec 1907.
and South Indian Railway who worked the line from 1st Jan 1908.
References
- ↑ “Gazetteer of South India”, Volume 1, c.1907 by W. Francis, page 454; Retrieved 1 May 2018
- ↑ "Administration Report on the Railways in India – corrected up to 31st March 1918"; Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta; page 145; Retrieved 1 May 2018
- ↑ Blog "King's Railway" Dated November 28, 2009] Retrieved 9 Dec 2015
- ↑ Wikipedia "Ernaklam Terminus" Retrieved 9 Dec 2015
- ↑ "Cochin Bridge Information" Retrieved 9 Dec 2015
- ↑ Google Books “Revival: Southern India : Its Political and Economic Problems” by Gilbert Slater pdf pages 203-206; Retrieved 1 May 2018
- ↑ ‘The Hindu’ Newspaper Dec 2017; Retrieved 1 May 2018
- ↑ Wikipedia "Cochin Harbour Extension" Retrieved 9 Dec 2015
- ↑ “British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue” - Search; Retrieved 27 Jan 2016