North Western State Railway

The North Western State Railway (NWSR) was formed in January 1886 from the merger of the Scinde, Punjab & Delhi Railway, the Indus Valley State Railway, the Punjab Northern State Railway, the eastern section of the Sind–Sagar Railway and the southern section of the Sind–Pishin State Railway and the Kandahar State Railway.^[2]

North Western State Railway

Logo of North Western Railway (1905-1947)
Overview
Locale	Punjab Province Sind Province North-West Frontier Province Baluchistan, Karachi, British Raj
Dates of operation	1886–1905
Predecessor	Scinde, Punjab & Delhi Railway Indus Valley State Railway Punjab Northern State Railway Sind–Sagar Railway Sind–Pishin State Railway Kandahar State Railway
Successor	North Western Railway (1905-1947) Pakistan Western Railway (1947-1971) Pakistan Railways (1971-Present) Eastern Punjab Railway[1]

1909 Map of the North Western Railway

History

Fortified North Western State Railway bridge over the Indus at Attock, 1895

The military and strategic concerns for securing the border with Afghanistan were such that, Francis Langford O'Callaghan (who was posted from the state railways as engineer-in-chief) was called upon for a number of demanding railway projects, surveys and constructions in the Northwest Frontier.^[3] What initially started off as military and strategic railway project, ended up becoming part of the North Western State Railway network upon its formation in 1886. The Bolan Pass railway was completed in 1886 and in 1887 the Khawaja Amran Railway Survey included the Khojak Tunnel and the Chaman Extension Railway.^[4] The Khojak Tunnel opened in 1891 and the railway reached Chaman near the Afghan border. By 1905, it was the longest railway under one administration and the strategic railway of the entire Northwest frontier. The North Western State Railway was renamed as North Western Railway in 1905.^[5] In 1947, much of the North Western Railway fell in Pakistan territory domain and became part of the Pakistan Western Railways, while railways in Indian territory became incorporated into the Eastern Punjab Railway.^[6]

Mergers

The North Western State Railway network was formed by merging several major and minor railways together. These included:

Major railways absorbed

• Scinde, Punjab & Delhi Railway
• Indus Valley State Railway
• Punjab Northern State Railway
• Sind–Sagar Railway
• Sind–Pishin State Railway
• Kandahar State Railway
• Trans–Baluchistan Railway

Minor railways absorbed

• Quetta Link Railway, opened in 1887
• Jammu–Sialkot Railway, opened in 1897
• Kasur–Lodhran Railway, opened in 1909, dismantled in 1917 and rebuilt in 1922
• Shorekot Road–Chichoki Railway, opened in 1910
• Trans–Indus Railway, opened 1913
• Sialkot–Narowal Railway, opened in 1915
• Shahdara Bagh–Narowal Railway, opened in 1926

Construction

The North Western State Railway undertook a major railway expansion program, which included:

• Amritsar–Patti Railway, opened in 1906 and extended to Kasur in 1910^[7]
• Bahawalnagar–Fort Abbas Railway, opened in 1928 and financed by the Princely Bahawalpur State
• Mari Indus Railway, opened in 1913
• Bannu Railway, under survey in 1909 but never constructed
• Dandot Light Railway, opened in 1905 to serve the Khewra Salt Mine
• Hyderabad–Badin Railway, opened in 1905, dismantled in 1917 and rebuilt in 1922
• Jacobabad–Kashmore Railway, opened in 1911
• Mari–Attock Railway, opened in 1891
• Kotri–Rohri Railway, opened in 1900 following the completion of Kotri Bridge in 1899
• Khanai–Hindubagh Railway, opened in 1921
• Khanpur–Chachran Railway, opened in 1911 and financed by the Princely State of Bahawalpur
• Khushalgarh–Kohat–Thal Railway
• Khyber Pass Railway, opened in 1925 as a strategic line to Afghanistan
• Larkana–Jacobabad Light Railway, opened in 1921
• Mandra–Bhaun Railway, opened in 1915
• Mushkaf–Bolan Railway
• Nowshera–Dargai Railway, opened in 1901
• Patti–Kasur Railway, opened in 1909
• Sirhind–Rupar Railway, opened in 1927
• Wazirabad–Multan Railway, opened in 1899
• Zhob Valley Railway, opened in 1921

Rolling stock

Tank locomotive, built around 1907 for service on the Bolān Pass.

In 1899 the North Western State Railway owned 602 steam locomotives, 2,121 coaches and 10,312 goods wagons.^[8] In 1906 a steam motor coach from Vulcan Foundry was purchased.^[9] By 1936, the rolling stock had increased to 1332 locomotives, 18 railcars, 1,494 coaches and more than 30,000 freight wagons.^[10]

Classification

It was labeled as a Class I railway according to Indian Railway Classification System of 1926.^[11][12]

See also

• History of rail transport in Pakistan
• Pakistan Railways
• Scinde, Punjab & Delhi Railway
• North Western Railway School
• Jhandi railway station, an abandoned city station on a narrow gauge track in Kohat

References

1. Directory of Railway Officials & Yearbook. Tothill Press. 1954. p. 114. It comprises the whole of the former North-Western system of British India except the lines in the south-eastern Punjab, now the Eastern Punjab Railway of India.
2. " Administration Report on the Railways in India – corrected up to 31st March 1918"; Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta; page 106; Retrieved 20 Dec 2015
3. Institution of Civil Engineers "Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers in Great Britain and Ireland - O'Callaghan, Francis Langford "; Retrieved on 9 Jul 2016
4. "The Imperial Gazetteer of India" v. 21, p. 14.; Retrieved on 13 Jul 2016
5. "North Western Railway (India) 1886 - 1947". Science Museum Group. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
6. Reed, Sir Stanley (1949). The Times of India Directory and Year Book. Times of India Press. Retrieved 26 November 2016. On that day the Indian portion of tile North-Western was constituted into Eastern Punjab Railway, and the parts of the Bengal- Assam in the province of Assam were formed Into Assam Railway.
7. " Administration Report on the Railways in India – corrected up to 31st March 1918"; Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta; page 110; Retrieved 16 Feb 2016
8. Evolution of the railway, Triumphs and wonders of the 19th century, A. J. Holman & Co., 1899; p. 645.
9. "Steam motor coach, N.W.R., India". Grace's Guide To British Industrial History. Retrieved 25 May 2022.
10. World Survey of Foreign Railways. Transportation Division, Bureau of foreign and domestic commerce, Washington D.C. 1936. p. 217.
11. "Indian Railway Classification". Retrieved 10 November 2022.
12. World Survey of Foreign Railways. Transportation Division, Bureau of foreign and domestic commerce, Washington D.C. 1936. pp. 210–219.

External links

• "British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue" - Search Archived 22 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine; Retrieved 30 May 2016
• "Grace’s Guide"; Retrieved 30 May 2016
• "National Archives from the RAIL collection"; Retrieved 30 May 2016
• North Western Railway Magazine - Monthly staff magazine. Some editorial content published in Urdu . No BL holdings. 2 copies (November 1942, December 1945) are held in the Berridge Papers, Cambridge South Asian Archive.
• Picture of the teachers and students of St. Andrew School, Pakistan Railways (then NWR) at Lahore, set up in the late 19th century panoramio.com
• Berridge, Percy Stuart Attwood. Couplings to the Khyber: the story of the North Western Railway. Newton Abbot: David & Charles, 1969.
• Terry Case, North Western Railway. Includes a section about Hal Waters (refer photograph album above)
• "History of Northern Railway", Northern Railway.
• Quetta to Lahore by Rail 1925 All Things Pakistan, now an archived website
• "Breakup of the North Western Railway and the Anglo-Indian community" by Kenneth Hugh Staynor. indiaofthepast.org
• Images of British Steam Locomotives used by North Western Railways Ghilzai:panoramio.com (part of this collection)
• An old photograph of a Railway Inspection trolley with removable sailboard used on NWR Hyderabad-Kotri, Sindh, Pakistan. Ghilzai:panoramio.com (part of this collection)
• Photograph of Troops travelling by train taken by Private J W Linley of the 2nd Battalion, The Northamptonshire Regiment compiled whilst serving in India 1923-1938. flickr.com/photos/northampton_museum
• Some railway personnel in 1898. Page 179 Quarterly Civil List for the Punjab: Corrected up to 1st October 1898 Archive.org