Gwalior Light Railway (GLR) or Maharaja Railway was a

narrow-gauge A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with tighter curv ...

railway network in

Gwalior Gwalior (Hindi: , ) is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; It is known as the Music City of India having oldest Gwalior gharana, musical gharana in existence. It is a major sports, cultural, industrial, and political c ...

. It was set up for

Gwalior State The Gwalior State was a List of Maratha dynasties and states, state within the Maratha Confederacy located in Central India. It was ruled by the Scindia, House of Scindia (anglicized from Sendrak), a Hindu Maratha Confederacy, Maratha dynasty. ...

during the times of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

. Until its closure in 2020, the railway was the longest gauge railway in the world.

History

The Gwalior Light Railway was built by the Maharaja Madho Rao Scindia of the

. It was originally a 14-mile long private tramway. Construction began in 1895 of the 53 mile

–

Bhind Bhind is a city in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is the headquarters of the Bhind district. Geography Bhind is located at . It has an average elevation of 474 metres (1555 ft). Demog ...

line. By 1897 it was 34 miles long and was used to bring in supplies to relieve the famine. Both this section and the Gwalior–

Shivpuri Shivpuri, previously known as Sipri, is a town and a municipality in Shivpuri district, located in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. It is in the Gwalior Division of northwest Madhya Pradesh and is the administrative headquarters o ...

section opened on 2 December 1899 by

Lord Curzon George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston (11 January 1859 – 20 March 1925), known as Lord Curzon (), was a British statesman, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician, explorer and writer who served as Viceroy of India ...

the

Viceroy of India The governor-general of India (1833 to 1950, from 1858 to 1947 the viceroy and governor-general of India, commonly shortened to viceroy of India) was the representative of the monarch of the United Kingdom in their capacity as the Emperor of ...

. The Gwalior- Joura branch opened on 1 January 1904 and on 12 January 1904 the extension to Sabalgarh was opened. A further extension to Birpur opened on 1 November 1908 and the full line to

Sheopur Sheopur is a city in Madhya Pradesh state of central India. It is the administrative headquarters of Sheopur District. The City is situated on the right bank of the Seep River, a tributary of the Chambal. Thus the city derives its name from " ...

opened on 15 June 1909. In October 1900, the Indian Midland Railway Company agreed to operate the railway on behalf of the Maharaja. In 1942, the Gwalior Light Railway was renamed the Scindia State Railway. In 1951, the system was purchased by the Central Railway. The railway was initially worked with steam locomotives, but later diesel locomotives were used. There was a plan to electrify the railway in the 1920s from a generating station below the Nanakura Dam, but this scheme was abandoned.

Permanent way

The track was flat-bottomed steel rails laid on a mix of Sal wood and iron sleepers. The minimum radius curve on the line was and the steepest gradient was 1 in 40.

Locomotives

Rolling stock

In 1936, the company owned 28

locomotive A locomotive is a rail transport, rail vehicle that provides the motive power for a train. Traditionally, locomotives pulled trains from the front. However, Push–pull train, push–pull operation has become common, and in the pursuit for ...

s, 90 coaches and 363 goods wagons.

Classification

It was labeled as a Class III railway according to Indian Railway Classification System of 1926.

Conversion to broad gauge

The

–

section and the

–

section were 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 ...

in the early 2010s. The

–

Kalan section is under conversion to

as of 2020.Heritage narrow gauge rail track to chug into history
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gwalior Light Railway Transport in Gwalior 2 ft gauge railways in India Defunct railway companies of India Railway lines opened in 1899 History of Gwalior 1899 establishments in India 2020 disestablishments in India Railway lines closed in 2020