The Indus Valley State Railway was a railway founded in 1871 to provide a rail link between

Kotri Kotri ( sd, ڪوٽڙي, ur, ) is a city and the headquarters of the Kotri Taluka of Jamshoro District of Sindh province in Pakistan. Located on the right bank of the Indus River, it is the 29th largest city in Pakistan by population. Name The ...

and

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the List ...

and to replace the Indus Steam Flotilla. The opening of the line thus connected

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

with

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is the capital of the province of Punjab where it is the largest city. ...

History

The survey of the Indus Valley railway line began in 1869 and was undertaken by John Brunton, the Chief Resident Engineer of

Scinde Railway The Scinde Railway was one of the pioneering railway companies that operated in Sind Province (1936–55), Sind during the British Raj between 1855 and 1885. History The Scinde Railway was first established by deed of settlement in March 1855 ...

, and assisted by his son William Arthur Brunton. The Empress Bridge, opened in 1878, carried the IVSR over the Sutlej River near Bahawalpur. The Indus and Sutlej rivers were seen as major impediments in the expansion of the railways. The IVSR had reached

Rohri Rohri (Sindhi: روهڙي; ur, ) is a city of Sukkur District, Sindh province, Pakistan. It is located on the east bank of the Indus River, located directly across from Sukkur, the third largest city in Sindh. Rohri town is the administrative ...

in 1879 and a steam ferry would transport eight wagons at a time across the

Indus River The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in Western Tibet, flows northwest through the disputed region of Kashmir, ...

between from Rohri to

Sukkur Sukkur (; ) is a city in the Pakistani province of Sindh along the western bank of the Indus River, directly across from the historic city of Rohri. Sukkur is the third largest city in Sindh after Karachi and Hyderabad, and 14th largest ci ...

. This was found to be cumbersome and time-consuming. The opening of

Lansdowne Bridge The Lansdowne Bridge is a heritage-listed road bridge that carries the northbound carriageway of the Hume Highway (route A22 at this point) across Prospect Creek between Lansvale and Lansdowne. Situated in southwestern Sydney it is located on ...

in 1889 solved this bottleneck, as rail traffic could now travel from Karachi uninterrupted to Lahore. The Indus Valley State Railway was merged in 1886 to form the

North Western State Railway The North Western State Railway (NWR) 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 ...

. Today, this line forms a section of the Karachi-Peshawar Railway Line.

Personnel

*Frederick Ewart Robertson, 1869–70, deployed from

Public Works Department This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

State Railways Department; 1869-89. 1869, employed on the IVSR survey; 1870, Engineer-in-Charge of the construction division in Upper Sind until the IVSR was opened for traffic in 1877; 1879, In-charge of a sub-division of the IVSR. He established the railway ferry over the Indus at Sukkur. The ferry was successfully worked until it was replaced by the

; 1887,

, of the cantilever type, with an 820 feet(248M) span, involved his design of novel and suitable plant for its erection. The whole of the work was successfully carried out by him, and the bridge was opened in 1889; 1889, appointed Engineer-in-Chief of the IVSR, which included the Khojak Junction under construction; 1889, resigned. *Hugh Lewin Monk, 1869-79. 1869 as an Assistant Engineer. Then 1874-79 as Executive Engineer assisting in the construction of the Empress Bridge *Joseph Bonus, 1870–77, Executive Engineer, Engineer-in-Chief and then Superintending Engineer IVSR. *

James Arthur Anderson James Arthur Andersons first published short story appeared in Andrew J. Offutt's '' Swords Against Darkness V'' anthology in 1979. He has since published stories in Lin Carter's '' Weird Tales 4'', ''Elditch Tales'', ''Fantasy Tales'', and ''Ha ...

, c.1871-c.1890 dates unspecified. Executive Engineer deployed from PWD to IVSR *William St. John Galwey c.1872-78, Engineer-in-Chief for the construction of the Empress Bridge, opened in 1878, deployed from the

(PWD) Railway Branch. *C. Campbell, 1872, Engineer-in-Chief, Multan Division."1872 Thacker's Indus Valley Railway Personnel"
Retrieved on 19 Aug 2016 *J. Collet, 1872, Superintending Engineer, Multan Division. *R. Heenan, 1872, Executive Engineer, Multan Division. *W. Scott, 1872, Executive Engineer, Multan Division (Soojabad). *F. M. Avern, 1872, Executive Engineer, Multan Division (Satlaj Bridge). *H. C. Graham, 1872, Executive Engineer, Multan Division (Bhawalpur). *W. Nethersole, 1872, Superintending Engineer, Rohree (Sakkhar) Division. *T. T. Ryan, 1872, Executive Engineer (Khanpur), Rohree (Sakkhar) Division. *C. E. Pridden Lieut., 1872, Executive Engineer, Rohree (Sakkhar) Division (Upper Scind). *Archibald Cuthbert Bigg-Wither 1872-96?, deployed from Railway Branch - PWD to IVSR, dates unspecified ‘Served chiefly on the Indus Valley State Railway'. *William St. John Galwey, 1873 Engineer-in-charge of the Empress Bridge construction over the River Sutlej. *Frederick Lewis Dibblee, 1874-78 Superintending Engineer. *Frederick Nicholas Gutersloh, 1874-78, deployed from PWD - Railway Branch - PWD as Assistant Engineer. *George Winmill, 1875-88 deployed from

(PWD) on joining as 2nd sub-Engineer. *Middleton Rayne, 1876-79, Engineer-in-chief. See

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

IOR The abbreviation IOR may refer to: * Importer of record, term in import and export * inclusive or - as opposed to XOR (exclusive OR) * Independent Order of Rechabites * Index of refraction * India Office Records * Indian Ocean Region * Indian Ocea ...

IOR Mss Eur D904; "Middleton Rayne papers" with the catalogue contents 'Papers of Middleton Rayne (1830–82), Public Works Dept, Government of India 1868-79, Engineer in Chief, Indus Valley State Railway 1876-79, comprising diaries, sketchbooks, letters and photographs; also two diaries, dated 1871 and 1883, of his wife Annie. *James Condor, 1878–81, Traffic Superintenent IVSR. *Henry Thomas Geoghegan, 1877–79, Superintending Engineer IVSR. *Henry Francis Storey, 1879-86. 1879 as Engineer, 1881 as Engineer-in-Chief and promoted to Superintendent of Way and Works until transferred in 1886 *Robert Trefusis Mallet, 1879–80, Engineer-in-Chief IVSR; and 1885-86 Engineer-in-Chief of IVSR Empress Bridge, 1885-86. *

William Michell William Michell (14 February 1796 – 4 November 1872) was a British physician and Member of Parliament. The son of Bennet Michell, he was born in Bodmin in 1796. He wrote a paper on the use of ergot in childbirth in 1828; that year he was al ...

, 1883–87, Executive Engineer IVSR where he held charge from time to time of the Jacobabad, Kandahar and Northern divisions. *James Ramsay 1880-? Engineer-in-Chief IVSR.Google Books " India List and India Office List, 1905" page 595 (pdf page 558)
Retrieved on 19 Aug 2016

References

{{reflist

External links

"British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue" - Search
Retrieved 23 Jan 2016 gives 10 references. The most important being:- **V/24/3590; "Public Works Department: Railways" which contains " Administration report on the construction of the Indus Valley State Railway, 1878/79" **L/AG/46/34; "Records relating to the North Western State Railway". The following appears on this IOR record:- 'The North Western State Railway was created in 1886 by the amalgamation of the Scinde-Punjab-Delhi Railway, the Indus Valley State Railway and the Punjab Northern State Railway’ * W P Andrew
The Punjaub Railway
(London: W H Allen, 1857).
"Karachi to Kotri: The First Railways in Pakistan"
17/09/2009. All things Pakistan, now an archived website
"The Scinde railway, and its relations to the Euphrates valley, and other routes to India"
by W P Andrews, Chairman of the Scinde Railway Company 1856 Google Books
"Report of proceedings of an extraordinary general meeting of the Scinde Railway Company, held on Friday the 24th July, 1857"
Google Books *Brunton, John, "Description of the Line and Works of the Scinde Railway". 1863. Available in
Full View Google Books
o
pdf
from Panhwar.com *"Money Market and City Intelligence", ''The Times'', Wednesday, 15 June 1859, #23333, 7a. Defunct railway companies of Pakistan Railway companies established in 1870 Railway companies disestablished in 1885