Current Science

Open Access Open Access  Restricted Access Subscription Access

The Vadavãr Railroad in Tanjãvûr District, Madras Presidency, reported in 1836


Affiliations
1 Charles Sturt University, PO Box 883, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia
2 C-23, MES Colony, Venkatapuram, Secunderabad 500 015, India
 

The Madras Journal of Literature and Science (MJLS, 1836, 4) carries a four-page article entitled ‘An account of a railroad laid in the Vaddavaur district’. This article refers to a temporary, c. 500-yard long railroad built in Vaddavaur (read as Vadavãr) located at the confluence of Kôllidam and Vadavãru rivers. This railroad was laid to move building materials necessary for the construction of a dam – referred as the Vadavãr dam – supervised by the Madras construction engineer Arthur Thomas Cotton in the 1830s. Since this article was published in the July–October issue of MJLS 1836, the logical deduction would be that this railroad was completed before July 1836. This human-pushed railway, therefore, precedes the presently recognized earliest goods-transporting Red Hills Railway, at least by a year, which operated between Chintãdaripét and Red Hills in Madras from 1837. The 1836 MJLS article on the Vadavãr-railroad provides fascinating details of railway engineering of the day in the Madras Presidency that are highlighted in the present note.

Keywords

No Keywords.
User
Notifications
Font Size

  • Lewis, M. J. T., Early Wooden Railways, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, UK, 1974, p. 439.

  • Raidabaugh, G. P., Origin and Development of the Railway Rail: English and American Wood, Iron and Steel, Pennsylvania Steel Company and Maryland Steel Company, Pennsylvania, USA, 1915, p. 54.

  • Woodcock, L. H., Trans. Newcomen. Soc., 1970, 43, 175–181.

  • Rattenbury, G. and Lewis, M. J. T., Merthyr Tydfil Tramroads and their Locomotives, Railway and Canal Historical Society, Oxford, UK, 2004, p. 88.

  • Hibbeler, R. C., Engineering Mechanics: Statics and Dynamics (14th edition). Pearson Education, New York, USA, 2015, p. 1440.

  • Reports from Committees, East India Company’s affairs, II. Finance and Accounts – trade, Session 6, December 1831–16 August 1832. British Parliament, London, UK, 1832, vol. X(II), pp. 673–676.

  • Andrew, W. P., Indian Railways and their Probable Results with Maps and an Appendix Containing Statistics of Internal and External Commerce of India (3rd edition), T. C. Newby, London, UK, 1848, pp. 150 + xxv.

  • Anon., Herepath’s Railw. Commer. J., 1846, 8(353), 381–382.

  • Anon., Asiat. J. Mont. Reg. Br. For. India, China, Australia, 1836, XXI (New Series), 79.

  • Darvill, S. D., Industrial Railways and Locomotives of India and South Asia, Industrial Railway Society, Melton Mowbray, 2013, p. 556.

  • Hope, E. R. and Digby, W., General Sir Arthur Cotton, R.E., K.C.S.I., his Life and Work with Some Famine Prevention Notes, Hodder & Stoughton, London, UK, 1900, p. 599.

  • Weaver, B. L., Contrib. Mineral. Petrol., 1980, 71, 271–279.

  • Thurston, E., The Madras Presidency with Mysore, Coorg and the Associated States, Provincial Geographies of India, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1913, p. 293.

  • Kennedy, J. P., Memorandum on the Question of General System of Railways for India. The House of Commons of the United Kingdom of Britain and Ireland, London, UK, 1854, p. 32.

  • Anon., Madras J. Lit. Sci., 1836, IV, 346–350.

  • Ramkumar, Mu. et al., Archaeol. Prospect., 2019, 26, 73–88.

  • Anon., Ind. Inf., 1941, 9, 452–453.

  • Sim, D., In Reports, Correspondence and Original Papers on Various Subjects Connected with the Duties of the Corps of Engineers, Madras Presidency (ed. Smith, J. T.), printed by R. W. Thorpe, Vepery Mission Press, Madras, 1839, vol. I, pp. 131–147.

  • Sinclair, A., Development of the Locomotive Engine, Angus Sinclair Publishing Company, New York, USA, 1907, p. 680.

  • Pendred, L. St. L., Trans. Newcomen Soc., 1921, 2, 118–120.

  • Bierlein, J. C., Sci. Am., 1975, 233, 50– 67.

  • Howard, W., J. Franklin Inst., 1829, III(N. S.), 66–70.

  • Winans, R., J. Franklin Inst., 1829, III(N. S.), 56.

  • Sullivan, J. L., J. Franklin Inst., 1829, III(N. S.), 232–240.

  • White, J. H., The American Passenger Car, Part 2, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, USA, 1985, p. 690.

  • Barlow, W. H., Min. Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng., London, 1850, 9, 387–401.

  • Grant, H. R., The Railroad: The Life Story of a Technology, Greenwood Publishing Group, Westport, CT, USA, 2005, p. 182.

  • Balakrishna, A., Nageswara Rao, D. and Rakesh, A. S., Composites, Part B, 2013, 55, 479–485.

  • Li, X., Leavengood, S., Cappellazzi, J. and Morrell, J. J., Maderas Cienc. Tecnol., 2018, 20, 353–358.

  • Prescott, J. A., Eur. J. Soil Sci., 1954, 5, 1–6.

  • Cole, R., Madras J. Lit. Sci., 1836, III, 100–116.

  • Raman, A., Curr. Sci., 2017, 113, 984– 989.

  • Rice, B. L., Mysore, A Gazetteer Compiled for Government (Vol. I, Mysore in General), Archibald Constable & Company, Westminster, 1897, p. 834, public domain.


Abstract Views: 336

PDF Views: 150




  • The Vadavãr Railroad in Tanjãvûr District, Madras Presidency, reported in 1836

Abstract Views: 336  |  PDF Views: 150

Authors

Anantanarayanan Raman
Charles Sturt University, PO Box 883, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia
Vancheeswar Balakrishnan
C-23, MES Colony, Venkatapuram, Secunderabad 500 015, India

Abstract


The Madras Journal of Literature and Science (MJLS, 1836, 4) carries a four-page article entitled ‘An account of a railroad laid in the Vaddavaur district’. This article refers to a temporary, c. 500-yard long railroad built in Vaddavaur (read as Vadavãr) located at the confluence of Kôllidam and Vadavãru rivers. This railroad was laid to move building materials necessary for the construction of a dam – referred as the Vadavãr dam – supervised by the Madras construction engineer Arthur Thomas Cotton in the 1830s. Since this article was published in the July–October issue of MJLS 1836, the logical deduction would be that this railroad was completed before July 1836. This human-pushed railway, therefore, precedes the presently recognized earliest goods-transporting Red Hills Railway, at least by a year, which operated between Chintãdaripét and Red Hills in Madras from 1837. The 1836 MJLS article on the Vadavãr-railroad provides fascinating details of railway engineering of the day in the Madras Presidency that are highlighted in the present note.

Keywords


No Keywords.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv119%2Fi7%2F1216-1221