History Of Indian Railways

There is no better way to witness India, than to view the changing scenes from a carriage window of a train. Though British laid most of the 38,525 miles (62,000-kms) of track, it was assumed the end of colonial rule in India, marks the beginning of travel as you please.

The first train run in India took place on April 16th, 1853, when a train with 14 railway carriages and 400 guests left Bombay's Bori Bunder for Thane, with a 21-gun salute. It was hauled by three locomotives: Sindh, Sultan, and Sahib. The journey took an hour and fifteen minutes to complete. This, however, was just the first commercial passenger service in India. In fact, a steam loco, Thomason, was already in use for hauling construction material in Roorkee for the Solani via duct in 1851.

The second locomotive to arrive in India was Falkland (named for a governor of Bombay), used by the contractors of the GIPR for shunting operations on the first line out of Bombay that was being built. It later became GIPR loco #9. A third locomotive, Vulcan, is said to have been used by the GIPR for material hauling and shunting duties in 1852 as well.
Discovering Indian Railways
The first passenger train steamed out of Howrah station for Hooghly, a distance of 24 miles, on 15th August, 1854. This was the first section of the East Indian Railway that was opened to public traffic, inaugurating the beginning of railway transport on the Eastern side of the sub-continent.

In south the first line was opened on Ist July, 1856 by the Madras Railway Company. It ran between Veyasarpandy and Walajah Road (Arcot), a distance of 63 miles. In the North a length of 119 miles of line was laid from Allahabad to Kanpur on 3rd March 1959. The first section from Hathras Road to Mathura Cantonment was opened to traffic on 19th October, 1875. These were the small beginnings which in due course developed into a network of railway lines all over the India. By 1880 the Indian Railway system had a route mileage of about 9,000 miles.