On August 15, 1854, a five-coach train, pulled by a British-made locomotive, departed from Howrah at 8:30 am for Hooghly, marking a significant engineering achievement and the beginning of the first railway in eastern India.
However, this historic milestone, achieved by the then-East Indian Railway (EIR), which eventually reached Delhi by the 1860s, was preceded by a series of unfortunate events that delayed its operation and its impact on the country.
A new book, focusing on the birth and evolution of the EIR and the East India Railway Company, draws on multiple accounts from the 19th century, and details this railway and the individuals involved in its construction, brick by brick and steel by steel.
"Before the inaugural run, the EIR had already generated interest in Bengal with its first locomotive-only trial on June 29, 1854, from Howrah to Pandooh, followed by an experimental run on July 6, which included a single-coach train on the same route," says P K Mishra, author of ‘Rails Through Raj: The East Indian Railway (1841-1861)’.
Mishra, a senior officer in the Indian Railways and a strong advocate for heritage preservation, stated that the EIR's establishment in June 1845, as a London-based joint-stock company with an office in Calcutta (now Kolkata), predated the arrival of railways in India in 1853.
However, the "significant bureaucratic hurdles" that needed to be overcome before the company could be established, and the "delays" in land acquisition and logistical issues, may have contributed to the Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR) taking the lead in establishing India's first railways, according to the author.
India's first passenger rail service began on April 16, 1853, when the train ran from Bombay (now Mumbai) to Thane.
The "slow progress" of the EIR in the Bengal presidency drew criticism from local newspapers and public commentators, and the "Calcutta press blamed the EIR and its promoters for the delay," Mishra writes, citing archival documents.
He refers to a report in 'Delhi Gazette' published on May 13, 1854, on the delay, which reads, "The opening of the said Railway was intended to come off on the Queen's birthday, but this is now of course, put off", and criticizes Lord Dalhousie, the then-governor general of India.
In the chapter 'EIR: The Inaugural Journey (1854)', Mishra writes, "By early 1854, the tracks between Calcutta and Hoogly were complete and ready, but the locomotives had not yet arrived," adding, "The line and bridges were ready, but the locomotives were still en route."
The first set of locomotives arrived in Calcutta on the ship 'Kedgeree', which had sailed from England via Australia, and unloading these "massive iron machines" at Howrah, which lacked adequate facilities at the time, was a "triumph of improvisation", he adds.
A tragic event that occurred in the Bay of Bengal added to the drama surrounding the EIR's launch (which eventually evolved into the Indian government-run Eastern Railway, established in 1952 after independence).
The EIR had commissioned the ship 'Goodwin' to transport "first-class carriages and rolling stock from London" for the inaugural run, but as she approached the Bengal coast, she ran aground on a sandbank, and despite rescue attempts, the ship could not be saved, Mishra said.
"However, the loss did not halt progress. John Hodgson, EIR's locomotive engineer, resolved to rebuild. With the blueprints lost at sea, he designed new carriages from memory and sketches, commissioning prominent coach builders -- Messrs. Stewart & Co. and Seton & Co. -- to construct what had been lost," he writes.
The moment of reckoning arrived on August 15, 1854, when the train left from a modest temporary shed at Howrah (unlike the station today), and reached Hooghly in 91 minutes, covering 24 miles.
"Approximately 3,000 people applied to ride on the inaugural journey, 10 times the train's capacity," Mishra said.
On February 3, 1855, the Howrah-Raneegunj section was opened with a grand ceremony, with Lord Dalhousie himself present at the Howrah station to witness the historic moment.
The success of the EIR not only attracted the attention of the East India Company, but also inspired ordinary people, leading to the creation of a popular "street ballad in Bangla" celebrating the arrival of the train.
The meticulously researched, nearly 340-page book, with chronologically arranged chapters – each named with 'EIR' – is like a train journey, with each chapter representing a stop along the tracks.
In the first chapter, 'EIR: Birth Pangs (1841-44)', Mishra highlights some of the key figures who were instrumental in developing the idea into an institution, especially railway pioneer Rowland Macdonald Stephenson, who arrived in Calcutta in the 1840s, driven by a desire to bring the railway to India.
"Stephenson's proposal to launch railways across the Indian plains sounded fanciful, even delusional," Mishra writes.
"Journalism played a significant role in bringing railways to India. Stephenson, under the pseudonym 'Ferrum' (Latin for iron), penned editorials for 'The Englishman', extolling not just the commercial, but the military and administrative virtues of the railway," he said.
For his research, he primarily referred to the archives at the Calcutta University Library, West Bengal State Archives, Asiatic Society, and the British Library in Kolkata, besides archives of the Indian Railways in Delhi and elsewhere, and various online resources, Misra said.
"For me, accessing even a scanned copy of George Turnbull's diary, from a resource abroad, was a prized moment. He was the chief engineer who made the EIR a force to be reckoned with.
"When the Calcutta-Benares line was completed in 1862 with the Soane Bridge being a crowning engineering triumph, a grand durbar was held at Benares (now Varanasi) on February 7, 1863, to celebrate EIR's success," he said.
