Kenneth Hugh Staynor, who was born at Madhupur in 1927, has written extensively about the NWR whose headquarters were in Lahore, pictured here. “The Anglo-Indian staff who were the very lifeblood of the NWR and got on with the job of keeping the railways running,”he writes. “They were the drivers, guards, stationmasters and yardmasters, together with permanent way personnel, who kept the trains running come what may.”
During Partition, they ran the trains to transport the refugees. “However, these trains ran into blockades on the line or were deliberately stopped or derailed. This led to thousands of Hindus and Muslims being massacred by each other.”
Staynor knew one family on the NWR who lived in Saharanpur, and had a son who was on the engineering staff stationed at Lahore. Their son had to get a special permit to be with the family for Christmas. By accident, he overstayed in India by thirty-six hours. He was arrested by the Indian police, and held in prison for a week until ‘strings’ were pulled for his release and return to Pakistan, without the chance to apply for Indian citizenship and remain with his family.”
When the borders were finally put in place, the NWR lines were fragmented. For example, the Amritsar-Lahore (NWR Main Line) was cut between Atari (India) and Wagah (Pakistan). A considerable mileage of the old Jodhpur metre gauge railway line to Hyderabad (Sind) became part of the Pakistan Railway system.
This great railway started out as a number of disconnected railway systems. Over time, they were eventually joined up, and that is how the North Western Railway with its headquarters at Lahore was formed. It began with the Delhi Railway, 300 miles from Delhi to Amritsar. This section of what became the NWR remained in India following partition. Later, the Punjab Railway was constructed from Multan to Amritsar. Meanwhile the Scinde Railway was constructed 110 miles from Karachi to Kotri. Passengers and freight travelled by river steamer the 500 miles to Multan along the River Indus.