Jamalpur Rail Workshop

भारत की रेलवे कॉलोनियां – जॉन एल्टन प्राइस , जमालपुर (Railway Colonies in India – John Alton Price) – Jamalpur

by John Alton Price When quite a child in India I had gathered, from the odd word I happened to overhear, or the odd attitude one observed when the subject of Railways was mentioned there seemed to be an antipathy towards 'those Railway people'. This rather upset me and I thought the attitude was somewhat curious, not to say unfair. I found out as I grew older and a bit more knowledgeable that the Railway people were considered a bit 'Racy' and not quite up to the mark or shall we say a bit common. In much later days I was to discover for myself that these opinions were positively unfair and rather, or downright ignorant. I had in my 'growing up' days had very little contact with railway people in India, except for the occasional meeting through rail travel. During my service in the Military I was to be Posted to a quite important Railway Station called Jamalpur, in Bihar. It was early May 1942 and our Unit was transported to a wooded area to set up Camp. I was to discover th…

जमालपुर (Jamalpur)

Jamalpur in Bihar's Monghyr Disrict has one of the most remarkable Railway Workshops in the World, and the largest in India. Not even the US of A can surpass India's mammoth railway network, the busiest in the world. Jamalpur is a city and a municipality in Munger district in the Indian state of Bihar. Jamalpur is best known as a very large workshop on the East Indian Railway, employing over 30,000 people at one time. The town was established during the British Raj and the cultural hub at that time was the Railway Institute. The Railway Institute was huge - it had its own movie theatre, a six-lane swimming pool, eight tennis courts, four billiard rooms and a bowling lawn. Its dances were renowned and railway folk came from all over the East India Railway (EIR) to attend. Waterfall The waterfall is not a regular feature during the rainy season and usually a deer species known as neelgai in the local dialect is found near the same.The waterfall is approachable from the wat…

जमालपुर रेल कार्यशाला (Jamalpur Rail Workshop)

The Railway age in Eastern India started on August 15, 1854 The Railway age in Eastern India started on August 15, 1854, exactly ninety-three years before Independence. A locomotive, carriage and wagon workshop was set up in Howrah to put to commission imported rolling stock of EIR and also to render economic repairs to them. The railways spread very fast, perhaps faster than the anticipation of EIR. Within a short span of eight years, it became necessary to shift the site of shop, as there was hardly any scope for expansion at Howrah. Jamalpur Workshop The British chose Jamalpur as the new site of this workshop due to ready availability of skilled workers who were descendants of acclaimed gun makers and fabricators of weapons of steel for the Nawabs of Bengal and Orissa. Jamalpur is also geographically well located, on the western side of a hill range while the Ganges flow 7 KMs north of it. The workshop has a number of FIRSTS to its credit, a few of which are: - The FIRST to…