Mysore State Railway (MSR) was a railway company which was operated by the government of the

Kingdom of Mysore The Kingdom of Mysore was a geopolitical realm in southern India founded in around 1399 in the vicinity of the modern-day city of Mysore and prevailed until 1950. The territorial boundaries and the form of government transmuted substantially ...

. After India's constitution into a republic, MSR became part of Southern Railways of the

government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

on 14 April 1951.

History

In 1879, the Madras Railway Company constructed a railway line from Royapuram in

Madras presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

to Bangalore city. At that time, Maharaja Chamaraja Wadiyar X established a separate railway organisation to carryout extension lines from

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

. This establishment came to be known as Mysore State Railway. The Mysore- Nanjangud track stretching for 25.51km was opened for traffic in 1891. The 60.74km Birur-

Shimoga Shimoga, officially Shivamogga, is a city and the district headquarters of Shimoga district in the Karnataka state of India. The city lies on the banks of the Tunga River. Being the gateway for the hilly region of the Western Ghats, the city ...

line was opened for traffic in 1899. Another important line was Yeshvantpur to Hindupur which was opened for traffic in 1892-93. In 1911-12, the Government of Mysore decided the formation of the State Railway Construction Department and it was put under the control of Sir E.A.S. Bell, the chief engineer. The

Talaguppa Talaguppa or Taalaguppa is a village located in Sagara Taluk in Karnataka State, India. The National Highway No.206 (Bengaluru - Honnavara) passes through Talaguppa village. The village is 14.37 km from the taluk's center Sagara, 77.68&n ...

section was laid in 1930. In 1951, it merged with Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway to form the Southern Railway. Mysore State Railway started laying the Shivamogga–

line in the year 1930 to provide access to Jog Falls. Another purpose was to transport wooden logs from the forests of the Malnad region to make wooden sleepers and also to be used as a fuel in the furnaces of the Mysore Iron Works at Bhadravathi. In 1938, Sir Mirza Ismail took the maiden journey on this line to visit Sagara city. The final section of the line from Sagara to Talaguppa was inaugurated on 9 November 1940. Some of the prominent people who have used this line to visit Jog Falls include Maharaja Krishnaraja Wadiyar IV, Maharaja

Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar (18 July 1919 – 23 September 1974), sometimes simply Jayachamaraja Wadiyar, was the twenty-fifth and last ruling Maharaja of Mysore, reigning from 1940 to 1950, who later served as the governor of Mysore until 1964 an ...

, Sir M. Visvesvaraya,

Lal Bahadur Shastri Lal Bahadur Shastri (; born Lal Bahadur Srivastava; 2 October 190411 January 1966) was an Indian politician and statesman who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India from 1964 to 1966. He previously served as Minister ...

, and

Morarji Desai Morarji Ranchhodji Desai (29 February 1896 – 10 April 1995) was an Indian politician and Indian independence activist, independence activist who served as the Prime Minister of India, prime minister of India between 1977 and 1979 leading th ...

. Socialist leader, Ram Manohar Lohia travelled in a train on this line to participate in the '' Kagodu Satyagraha'' but was arrested at Sagara station. In 1990s, the train on the Shivamogga-Talaguppa line was replaced by a

railcar A railcar (not to be confused with the generic term railroad car or railway car) is a self-propelled railway vehicle designed to transport passengers. The term "railcar" is usually used in reference to a train consisting of a single coa ...

. The railcar could accommodate 52 passengers and took 3:45 hours to cover the distance of 82km, a journey which took considerably lesser time to cover by road. It was one of the few trains with conductors on board and tickets could be bought on the train itself, whereas the normal practice followed in

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

, was that passengers should buy tickets before boarding a train. Once the railcar reached Talaguppa, the rail car had to be reversed using a

turntable A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding phys ...

, so that it could start its return journey.

Rolling stock

In 1936, the company owned 39 locomotives, 216 coaches and 754 goods wagons.

Classification

It was labeled as a Class II railway according to Indian Railway Classification System of 1926. Later, it was classified as Class I.

Conversion to broad gauge

The Bangalore-Shimoga line was converted to

broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the used by standard-gauge railways. Broad gauge of , more known as Russian gauge, is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries ...

starting from late 1990s to early 2000s. Finally, the Shimoga-Talaguppa line was converted to

in 2007.

References

{{coord missing, Karnataka Metre-gauge railways in India Defunct railway companies of India Rail transport in Karnataka Transport in Mysore Railway companies established in 1879 Railway companies disestablished in 1951 1891 establishments in British India 1951 disestablishments in India Mysore railway division Shimoga Indian companies established in 1879