Matheran railway marks 119 years since its 1907 opening

Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy put Rs 16 lakh into a railway that would climb 21 km from Neral to Matheran, at a time when some visitors still made the ascent by palanquin.

Work began in 1904 on the two-foot narrow-gauge route through the Sahyadris. With no aerial surveys or modern construction machinery, workers cut through the hills by hand to establish the line’s gradient. Peerbhoy’s son, Abdul Hussain, helped plan and oversee the work; the railway opened for traffic in 1907.

Peerbhoy had proposed the line in 1901 after travelling to Matheran on horseback. He wanted to make the hill station more accessible to Indian travellers. As visitor numbers initially remained limited, he went on to build inns and hotels in Matheran.

Four German-made Orenstein Koppel steam engines powered the railway from its opening until 1982. Engine 738 hauled the first train to Matheran; two original engines are preserved at Neral and Matheran.

For today’s visitors, regular passenger services on the Neral-Aman Lodge section are suspended from June 15 to October 15 because of monsoon safety concerns. Trains continue to run between Aman Lodge and Matheran.