William Edge
The photographs shown here, provided by David Edge, have previously appeared on the Railways of the Raj blog by Ravindra Bhalerao. The text here is based on material from David Edge and Ravindra Bhalerao.
If you ever travel up to Shimla by the Kalka-Shimla narrow-gauge train, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it will be good to remember William Edge, its one-time Chief Engineer, who did pioneering work with the re-construction and repair of this line.
David Edge, William's grandson, has shared the following details with us about his grandfather, along with a set of vintage railway photographs from the albums of William Edge.
William Llewellyn Edge as a boy grew up in British India, his father Richard Curson Edge having been posted there in 1866 as a sergeant in the 2nd Battalion, 1st Royal Scots Regiment of Foot. The family was at various times stationed at Nusserabad, Jhansi, Shahjehanpur, Ranikhet, Moradabad, Agra, and Deolali. William Edge studied civil engineering, and joined the railways in India.
In 1885, he was recruited by General Kitchener to lead the Suakin Berber Railway Corps which was formed under the control of 17th Squadron of the 22nd Engineer Regiment of the British Army, and charged with the daunting task of building a railway from Suakin on the Red Sea to Berber on the Nile, to help relieve General Gordon and the siege of Khartoum. The expedition landed on Quarantine Island, Suakin, and the Suakin Berber Railway Corps comprised 1240 platelaying Indian workers, six timekeepers, 12 warrant officers and two captains, Edge being one of them.
The distance for the railway was to be over 300 miles, however only a short length of 15 miles to Otoa was built before the project was cancelled. William Edge was awarded a medal from the then Shah of Egypt for his work.
He returned to India and was posted to the north-west frontier of India to reconstruct the railway through the Bolan Pass to Quetta on the frontier with Afghanistan. Quetta was a fortified town on the border, strategically important in preventing the Russians from invading India from Afghanistan. The former track had been laid on the valley floors and was subjected to washaways due to spates which were sudden floods caused by monsoon rains falling elsewhere. The whole line had to be lifted to a height clear of this problem. This railway was featured on the BBC program Great railway journeys of the World in the episode titled Karachi to the Khyber Pass. See also an article on the Bolan Pass Railway elsewhere on this site. A station on the line was named Edgenuga (Edgenagar) for him.
He was then posted to Rawalpindi as engineer on the main line to the northern Punjab. While he was in Rawalpindi he was the architect for the building of the Masonic Lodge. He was subsequently posted to Ambala, and then later to Lahore.
In 1915, he was moved again and became the sole engineer in charge of the Kalka Simla railway. This railway climbed to some 7000 feet above sea-level in 60 miles. It was one of the most important railways in India as every year during the northern summer months, to escape the heat, Simla became the seat of government. This meant the transfer of all administrative bodies to this summer capital. As Chief Engineer, he reconstructed the railway line successfully so that railway accidents were quite rare. Nevertheless great problems arose annually during the monsoon season when landslides destroyed large sections of line.
William Edge retired in 1924 to Australia where within a year he died of pneumonia.
His grandson, David Edge, has generously shared some photographs from his grandfather's photo albums; these are reproduced below.
Photographs are from the collection of David Edge, who holds copyright to them.
Text based on material from David Edge and Ravindra Bhalerao (Railways of the Raj).