Records of the Indian Guaranteed Railway Companies and other material relating to...

The Series comprises mainly the records produced by the Indian Guaranteed Railway Companies in London (minute books, accounts, correspondence, lists of shareholders, UK appointments to posts in India etc), also records of the India Office relating to those companies, together with miscellaneous government reports and papers on railway administration in India. Number IOR/L/AG/46/26, 36, 46 amd 55 were not used.

For a detailed note on the history and development of the Indian railways see 'The Imperial Gazetteer of India', Oxford 1907, Vol 3, pp 365-401 [OIH 915.4]; A useful introduction for the general reader is 'Railways of the Raj' by Michael Satow & Ray Desmond, London 1980, [OIP 385.095]

Unrestricted

Railways came comparatively late to India - the first fully operating railway (ie carrying both freight and pasengers) was the Bombay-Thana branch of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway which was opened in 1853. Between 1845 and 1869 the East India Company/India Office entered into agreement with a number of private companies for the construction of railway lines in India - these companies were known as guaranteed companies because the Government guaranteed companies because the Government guaranteed a minimum return on their capital. They were managed by a Board of Directors in London and represented in India by and Agent. When the original contracts terminated most of these railways were purchased by Government and were either leased back to private management as 'State lines worked by Companies' or became State Railways in the full sense of the word, ie lines both owned and operated by the State. In a few cases however the original contract was extended for a further number of years. The guarantee system had fallen out of favour by 1870 but it was revived in a somewhat different form in the 1880s and 1890s when several new guaranteed companies were established. By the time of Indian Independence in 1947 most railways in India were both owned and operated by the State.