East Indian Railway: 1906 History of the EIR - Chapter II
Note: This is a sub-section of the East Indian Railway
The History of the East Indian Railway by George Huddleston. Published 1906 by Tracker, Spins and Co
CHAPTER II. PROGRESS OF CONSTRUCTION - EFFECT OF THE MUTINY - VISIT OF MR. A. M. RENDEL TO INDIA.
WE have seen that the first contract with the East India Company was dated the 17th August 1849, that Mr. Stephenson proceeded to India shortly afterwards, and in conjunction with the Government Engineers, decided upon the route the experimental line should follow, and that in 1854, or within three-and-a-half years of the time in which the land necessary for the purpose had been made over, the Railway was opened as far as Hooghly, and shortly afterwards as far as Raneegunge. Considering that all the permanent-way, rolling-stock and other stores had to be transported from England, in sailing ships via the Cape, the time taken was by no means long. By 1856, contracts had been entered upon for all the rails that would be required to construct the line from Calcutta to Delhi, a distance of about 1,000 miles. That is to say a line which would be about as long as from Land's End to the North of Scotland and back again.
During the eleven months of 1855, in which the line was open from Calcutta to Raneegunge, no fewer than 617,281 passengers were carried, an amount of traffic quite sufficient to satisfy the most sceptical of the travelling propensities of the natives of India, and beyond this there was an immediate development of the goods traffic. Contracts were entered upon to carry over 100,000 tons of coal from Raneegunge to Calcutta, and a quantity of ordinary merchandise was transported, which, though comparatively small, gave hope for the future. In the second half of 1855, the revenue from coaching traffic was £25,000, from goods traffic £6,385, from coal £7,856, and the working expenses amounted to 42 per cent. of the gross traffic receipts. During 1856 the traffic continued to develop, and the working expenses were considerably reduced. In this year Mr. Stephenson's health failed, and he was compelled to relinquish his duties as Agent of the Company in India, to be succeeded in 1857 by Mr. Edward Palmer who had had a training on the Great Western and Great Northern Railways of England. Mr. Stephenson now joined the Board of Directors in London.
The Company's Consulting Engineer, Mr. James Meadows Rendel, who had rendered most valuable service to the Company, and had always expressed the greatest faith in its prospects, died in 1857 and was succeeded by his sons, Messrs. A. M. and G. Rendel, but the latter shortly afterwards joined the firm of Messrs. Armstrong, leaving the work of the East Indian Railway entirely in the hands of Mr. A. M. (now Sir Alexander) Rendel, who has continued to be the Company's Consulting Engineer ever since. Proposals were under consideration at this time for two most important extensions of the Railway, the first from Mirzapore to Jubbulpore to connect with the Great Indian Peninsula Railway running from Bombay, the second from Delhi to Lahore.
In the spring of 1857 it was that the Great Mutiny broke out, and, as a consequence, a large portion of the work of construction was delayed, while all new projects had to stand over.
The Board's report to the shareholders dated the 29th of October 1857, gives some account of the Company's affairs in that memorable year, and the following extract from it will be read with interest:
"The unfortunate events occurring in India at the present time have, doubtless, created some anxiety as to the effect which they may have had on the progress of the Company's operations, and the Board avail themselves of this opportunity of making the Proprietors acquainted with the circumstances of the Company to the latest date They beg to report that, whilst in common with the rest of the community, the Company has suffered by the mutiny, it has not sustained that serious amount of damage which might have been feared; as, irrespective of the sacrifice of valuable lives, which the Board most deeply lament, the chief loss it will have to deplore will be that arising from the temporary stoppage of the principal portion of the works and the consequent delay in their completion. In the Lower Provinces, for instance, the damage done to the Company's property has been mainly confined, as far as the Board is aware, to certain station works, and the preparations made for the Soane bridge; and in the Upper Provinces and on the River to the destruction of some of its buildings, machinery and tools. It has been a source of sincere gratification to the Board to observe the praiseworthy efforts which have been made by the members of the Staff to protect the Company’s property, surrounded as in many cases they have been with great personal dangers. It would be invidious, where all have conducted themselves so well, to particularize individuals, but the Board cannot refrain from noticing in terms of the highest commendation the conduct of Messrs. Boyle and Kelly in the gallant defence at Arrah, and in doing so they are satisfied that they only echo the feelings of the entire executive in India."
The "gallant defence at Arrah" was one of the most glorious episodes of the mutiny, and the name of Vicars Boyle, the East Indian Railway engineer who rendered the defence possible, will ever be remembered, recorded as it is in every history of the great struggle. It need only be said here that among his colleagues he was always afterwards known as "Victor Boyle."
Although the mutiny retarded the work of construction, the traffic on such portions of the line as were already opened for traffic continued to develop, and there was a very great growth in the revenue, the total receipts. for the year 1857 being £132,434 2s. 11d. against £96,100 10s. 2d. in 1856.
In 1858 the terms for constructing the branch to Jubbulpore were concluded, and were, generally speaking, precisely the same as for the remainder of the line. Interest on. the additional capital required was guaranteed by Government at 5 per cent. per annum, and it was stipulated that the accounts were to be kept altogether distinct from those pertaining to the line to Delhi.
During 1858 considerable progress was made, and the line between Allahabad and Cawnpore was completed. In this year also Mr. Meadows Rendel sailed for Calcutta in order to have an opportunity of becoming personally acquainted with the local conditions of the country. Mr. Rendel returned to England before the close of the year, having inspected the works along the entire length of the Railway as far as Cawnpore, beyond which it was not safe to proceed, and the Board had every reason to be satisfied with the result of his journey. Among other matters dealt with by him, a very considerable saving was effected by his decision to introduce iron girders instead of brick arches in the construction of bridges, while a difficulty which had arisen in the transport up-country of materials, stores and rolling-stock was overcome, at his suggestion, by building light draught steamers and flats for the transport service of the Company. Some of these vessels were built in England and some in Calcutta, and a means of relief afforded which could not otherwise have been effected.
We must now go back a few years to give a brief account of a project which will be referred to again elsewhere but should also be mentioned here. In 1856 the Board of Directors, hearing that a plan for constructing a bridge over the river Hooghly was under consideration, and that a new Port subsidiary to Calcutta, was about to be established on the river Mutlah, offered to make the surveys of a line of railway to connect that Port with the Company’s line.
The Court of Directors of the East India Company, having considered the matter, took the view that it was then premature to connect Mutlah with Calcutta by railway, and told the Board so.
In the meantime, however, another Company was established for the express purpose of making this railway, and proposed to raise the necessary capital without any guarantee of interest. On this the Secretary of State for India invited the Board to express their views. They replied in these terms "in the present state of the question of bridging the Hooghly, they are not prepared to recommend the Proprietors to undertake the construction of the Railway in question, but if any concession for the line should be made to third parties, it is their conviction that a clause should be inserted, requiring the sale of the line to the East Indian Railway Company hereafter, on terms to be settled by arbitration, should the public interests render such a course desirable," and so the question of directly connecting the East Indian Railway with a subsidiary port to Calcutta on the river Mutlah remained in abeyance until it was re-opened by Col. Gardiner, Agent of the Company, many years afterwards.
At this time it had been proposed to entrust the construction of an extension of the Railway from Delhi to Lahore to the East Indian Railway Company, and surveys were taken by the Company's Officers of the river Sutlej, with a view to determining the best point at which that river should be crossed, but in 1859, the Government decided to make this section over to another Company, then known as the "Punjab Railway" and the Board relinquished their claim.
In the meantime the survey of the Jubbulpore branch was being pushed on, and it may here be mentioned that, while in the prosecution of this work, Mr. Evans, the Chief Engineer, and Mr. Limnell, his Assistant, were attacked and murdered by a party of rebels. Mr. Limnell "whose qualifications," in the words of the Board, "were reported to be of the highest order, had but lately joined the service, but Mr. Evans was one of the oldest and most respected of the Company's officers, and had only recently been promoted to the post which he held at the time of his death." Some details of this incident taken from an account given me by Mr. H. Wenden, now Agent of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway, but at the time a young engineer on construction work, supplemented by an account by Mr. John Lewis, who was an engineer on the Jubbulpore line shortly after the occurrence, are of considerable interest.
During the cold season of 1858-9 Mr. Evans, Chief Engineer of the Allahabad-Jubbulpore extension survey party, together with Messrs. Limnell and Colin Campbell, two of his assistants, were in camp in Rewah territory at a place called Entowah. They had just finished their midday meal when Campbell hearing a "bobbery" looked out of his tent and saw a posse of armed natives bearing down on the camp. His sais, an old grey-bearded Mahomedan, ran up to Colin Campbell with his grey horse saddled and got him on to it. By hard riding he managed to reach Manickpore in safety, though chased for many miles by sowars, and the next day went on to Allahabad where he reported the tragedy.
Mr. John Lewis says, "Colin Campbell took me over the route of his escape, and how he stuck on his horse over such a country is one of the marvels of horsemanship." The men who made the attack on the camp were part of a band of outlaws cast off from Tantia Topee's force and led by a mutineer named Runmust Singh, who, after Evans' head had been cut off, ordered Limnell to carry it.
Limnell carried it until he was exhausted and then Runmust Singh ordered some of his men to kill him; this they refused to do saying they had killed one sahib, he must kill the other, which he did by shooting him down.
The country was scoured by a body of Alexander's Horse and some Gurkhas, and shortly afterwards Runmust Singh was captured and hanged in Rewah.
Throughout 1859, construction proceeded apace, work progressed along several sections of the Railway simultaneously: The chief difficulty lay in the transport of material up country, and another trouble of a more temporary nature was a terrible cholera epidemic which ravaged the Rajmahal District during October and November of that year. For some weeks no less than eight to ten per cent. of the coolies employed died weekly, and the disease did not altogether disappear until the middle of December. During the epidemic it is estimated that over 4,000 labourers succumbed, and the reports of the engineers engaged on construction shew what a trying time they had.
But by the close of 1859, considerable progress had been made. The 24 miles between the river Adjai and Sainthea station, the remaining portion of the South Beerbhoom District, had been opened for traffic, while the section to Rajmahal was almost completed. From Rajmahal also, as far as Colgong, the works were in a forward state, and good progress was being made with sections beyond as far as Monghyr, the Jamalpur tunnel was in course of construction, and the only bar to progress further north was the want of bridge and permanent way material which could not be forwarded sufficiently quickly.
In the North-West Provinces also work was already going on as far as Agra, while arrangements were in progress for getting possession of the necessary land for the entrance into Delhi. The Board reported that "the great difficulty still to be overcome is the transport of permanent-way materials from Calcutta to the works", but they had every confidence that "when the line is opened to Rajmahal, and their steam flotilla is fairly at work, this last remaining bar to, completion will be removed."
Let us now glance at the traffic being carried in these early days.
During the year 1859, the number of passengers carried was 1,388,714 against 1,172,852 in the previous year.
The weight of goods carried was 299,424 tons against 190,566 tons in 1858, and the increase in the mineral traffic was so great that it was decided to extend what was then known as the branch to the collieries, from Raneegunge to Barrakur.
The net traffic receipts, converted into pounds sterling at. the rate of 2s. the rupee, are shewn in the following table:
- 1855 - £31,252-12s-9d
- 1856 (121 miles) £57,060-1s-6d
- 1857 (121 miles) £82,770-11s-6d
- 1858 (142 miles) £88,148-2s-10d
- 1859 (166 miles) £128,534-8s-6d
In 1855, the net receipts per mile open per week were £4 19s. 4d., in 1859, £16 9s. 7d.
The percentage of working expenses to receipts were, in 1855, 53.26, in 1859, 44.85.
The number of passengers and tons of good& carried compared:
- 1855. Passengers 790,281. Goods 27,213 Tons
- 1859. Passengers 1,388,714. Goods 299,424 Tons
At the end of 1859, there were 19 passenger and 30 goods engines running on the line, and 8 passenger and 20 goods engines under construction or repair, the whole of the coaching stock amounted to 228 vehicles, while the goods stock only totalled 848 wagons.
See Also
Sources of Information