Central Province Railway / Shakuntala Railway British India Era, 1912 Photo
Rare 1912 photos of the Central Province Railway (CPR) / Shakuntala Railway in the British India era. It was more commonly known as Shakuntala Railway. Owned by the British India era company, Killick, Nixon & Company, it was notably the only private railway in India. The CPR railway was established in 1910, during the time of the great cotton boom, to carry raw cotton from the deep interiors of Maharastra to Bombay (Mumbai) port.
After independence, India nationalized all the British-era railways in 1952. However oddly, this privately owned Central Province Railway was overlooked for some reason. There are four interesting photos of the Shakuntala Railway. The first shows the new steam locomotive. The second is of the passenger carriage. The third photo shows Killick, Nixon & Co. officials, and workers after a hunt probably en route.
The Shakuntala Railway is narrow-gauged, that ran a stretch of 188 km—from Achalpur to Yavatmal and back. The railway service is believed to have ceased operations between 2017 and 2020. Even though it was a big boon for the villagers despite its travel time of 20 hours one way. Its steam locomotive, which was in use for 78 years, was scrapped and replaced with a diesel locomotive in 1994. Click on the image to enlarge view.
Read more The Little Known Story of Shakuntala Railways. See post Cotton Bales At Bombay Terminus – Old Print 1862.
Did you know- Shakuntala still pays a royalty to “Killick, Nixon and Company” of more than one crore a year.
From the collection- 11 Picture Postcards On Raja Ravi Varma Oil Paintings., Santa Cruz Airport Bombay – Old Postcard 1949., Bandra Near Bombay – Old Print 1882., Nazi Germany’s Map of Bombay With Eagle & Swastika 1940s
