Construction of Darjeeling Hill Road - 1865 Part - 1

Photograph from the album of views showing the Construction of the Darjeeling Hill Road taken by an unknown photographer in 1865. The road connecting Darjeeling with Siliguri on the plains was initiated in 1861 largely as a result of the sudden expansion of tea plantations in the mountains. Constructed and maintained by the Public Works Department, it was 48 miles long, 25 feet wide and cost around £6,000 per mile to build. This road was very difficult to build: the thickly forested hills were hard to clear, the ground was rocky and precipitous, the blasting was greater than originally expected (at times the gun powder ran out) and cuttings had to be made into large solid rocks. By 1865 the upper section of the road from Darjeeling to Kurseong was completed and the lower section from Kurseong to the plains was completed in 1869. This was a popular tourist route owing to the spectacular scenery it passed through, but was later superseded by the railway.

  Jora, at the 5th mile above Kurseong

Road at 8th mile above Kursiong

  Two miles above Gyabarry, looking North East

View in Pearson's Cutting No. 2

Half mile below Kursiong

 Damage of June 13th, 1865, at 3 mile above Kurseong

 Kurseong Dawk Bungalow

 Repairs at 3 mile above Kurseong

 Road at 9th mile above Kursiong

 Darjeeling Hill Road. Three-quarter mile below Kurseong

Source: British Library Website

Jamalpur Railway Workshops - 1897 Part - 2

Photograph of a view in the Turning Shop

Interior view, looking along rows of turning machines

View showing the Viceregal party walking along Steam Street at the East Indian Railway Workshops, Jamalpur taken by Basil J. Elias, December 1897

Interior view, showing rolling machinery

View from entrance gateway of the Principal District Locomotive Superintendent's Residence at the Railway Workshops, Jamalpur, which was completely wrecked by Earthquake on 12th June 1897

Photograph of the interior view of the Point, Crossing and Signal Shop

General view of the Mechanics Institute at the Jamalpur Railway Workshops

Photograph of the Locomotive Superintendent's Residence near the Jamalpur Railway Workshops taken by an unknown photographer, c. 1897. This is an imposing two storey brick building with stucco pilasters on the upper floor. Railway-related motifs have been incorporated in the building in the roof and porte-cochere, both of which have been constructed from sections of corrugated iron in the manner of station platform roofs.

Photograph of the interior view of the iron foundry

Photograph of the Boiler-making machinery

Source: British Library Website (bl.uk)

Jamalpur Railway Workshops - 1897 Part - 1

Jamalpur (जमालपुर, बिहार) is a town and a municipality in Munger district in the Indian state of Bihar.

Jamalpur is best known for its large railway workshop in the Eastern Railway Zone (India) and the railway institute IRIMEE (The Indian Railways Institute of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering). These were the main workshops of the East India Railway Company, built in 1862 at Jamalpur, some 300 miles north-west of Calcutta. They were designed to undertake every aspect of the overhaul and repair of the Company’s railway locomotives and from the 1880s they started building new locomotives here, making all the parts except the wheels which were imported. By the 1880s the workshops employed 5,000 people and by 1906 the number was close to 10,000. Victor Alexander Bruce, the 9th earl of Elgin, 1849–1917, was Viceroy of India (1894–99) and served as colonial secretary from 1905 to 1908.

Here are some photographs os Jamalpur Railway Workshops dated 1897.

Types of Engines - First 1854. - Latest 1897

The locomotive on the right is an earlier, smaller type (named Multum in Parvo on the wheel casing), the one on the left, numbered 223 is a later one. This view was taken at the Jamalpur Railway Workshops in north-east India by an unknown photographer, c. 1897 from the Elgin Collection: 'Presented to His Excellency the Earl of Elgin & Kincardine...as a Memento of His Excellency's Visit to the East Indian Railway Workshops at Jamalpur November 30th 1897'. Early locomotives (late 19th century) in India were almost all imported, mainly from the UK. The first steam locomotive to be built in India was in 1895 at workshops at Ajmer. The first locomotive to be produced at Jamalpur was the ‘Lady Curzon’ in 1899. In 1854 the first commercial railway line run by the East India Railway Company ran from Howrah to Hooghly, a distance of 24 miles.


The Visit of His Excellency The Earl of Elgin & Kincardine...to the East Indian Railway Workshops at Jamalpur. December 3rd 1897

View showing the Viceregal party at the East Indian Railway Workshops, Jamalpur taken by Basil J. Elias, December 1897 from the Elgin Collection: 'Presented to His Excellency the Earl of Elgin & Kincardine...as a Memento of His Excellency's Visit to the East Indian Railway Workshops at Jamalpur November 30th 1897'.

The Largest and Smallest Locomotives on the line. The small locomotive on the left is called Phyllis, the larger one is numbered 207.

Steel foundry

General exterior view of the steel foundry at the Jamalpur Railway Workshops taken by an unknown photographer, c. 1897 from the Elgin Collection.

Standard Express Passenger Engine

Profile view of a locomotive, with a plaque on the wheel casing reading 'Neilson & Co. 4546 Glasgow 1893'. This print was taken at the Jamalpur Railway Workshops in north-east India by an unknown photographer, c. 1897 from the Elgin Collection.

General exterior view of the iron foundry at the Jamalpur Railway Workshops

Native Workmen leaving Workshops after work

Source: British Library Website (bl.uk)

Bibi-ka-Maqbara Aurangabad Maharastra - 1860

This photograph was taken in the 1860s for the Allardyce Collection. It shows the Bibi-ka-Maqbara or Queen's Tomb (1678), the most famous building in Aurangabad. After the death of his wife Rabia Durani in 1657, the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (reigned 1658-1707) ordered his son Azam Shah to build a mausoleum for her. It was designed by the architect Ata Aula as an imitation on a reduced scale of the Taj Mahal at Agra. Lack of funds meant that it fell short of the original plan. The mausoleum is situated in the centre of a walled enclosure with a garden surrounded by a crenellated wall with bastions. It is a square building with a pointed arch to each front covered by a large dome with four corner minarets. This print was taken by an unknown photographer in the 1860s.

Gond Rajah's Tombs at Chandah in Maharashtra - 1865

Photograph of the Gond Rajah's Tombs at Chandah in Maharashtra from the Allardyce Collection: Album of views and portraits in Berar and Hyderabad, taken by an unknown photographer in the 1860s. In the Central Provinces List of 1897, Henry Cousens wrote, "Chanda is a large walled town situated in the fort between the Jharpat nala [river] and the Erai river...The walls were built by the Gond Raja Khandkia Ballal Shah, the contemporary of Akbar...The only buildings of any consequence are some temples and the tombs of the later Gond kings, the last are plain and substantial buildings, but rather heavy in appearance. The gateways offer good specimens of Gond art, as they are ornamented with sculptures of the fabulous monster lion overpowering an elephant, which was the symbol of the Gond kings...The Gond tombs are eight in number, and belongs to...kings and queens...".

Source: British Library Website

Interior of Ajanta Cave 26 - 1865

Photograph of the interior of Cave 26 at Ajanta from the Allardyce Collection: Album of views and portraits in Berar and Hyderabad, taken by Robert Gill in the 1860s.

The remarkable cave temples of Ajanta are situated in a horse-shoe valley of the Waghora River in West India and consist of prayer halls (chaityas), or monasteries (viharas), built for the Buddhist community who lived there. The caves were in use for about eight centuries, and can be divided into two groups according to the early Hinayana and later Mahayana phases of Buddhist art. The first group was excavated between the 2nd-1st centuries BC. After a period of more than six centuries, the excavations restarted around the 5th century AD, in the Vakataka period. Cave 26 is a large and elaborately decorated chaitya hall that belongs to the 5th century AD. A columned verandah, now almost destroyed, preceded the courtyard before the cave. The facade is dominated by a large shoe-shaped window above a columned entrance, decorated with rows of carved figures of Buddhas. The interior of the cave comprises two rows of fluted columns decorated with bands of floral patterns. At the end of the central nave there is a stupa with a sculpture of a seated Buddha figure.