[1] The Court of Directors of the East India Company appointed James John Berkeley[2] as Chief Resident Engineer and Charles Buchanan Ker and Robert Wilfred Graham as his assistants.

[3] It was India's first passenger railway, the original 21 miles (33.8 km) section opening in 1853, between Bombay (Mumbai) and Tanna (now Thane).

The Great Indian Peninsula Railway was incorporated as a company in 1849 by John Chapman, with its head office in London.

[5] The line was initially proposed to run for a length of 1,300 mi (2,100 km), to connect Bombay with the interior of the Indian peninsula and to the major port of Madras (Chennai) on the east coast.

It was intended to connect the towns of Poona (Pune), Nassuek (Nashik), Aurungabad (Aurangabad), Ahmednuggur (Ahmednagar), Sholapoor (Solapur), Nagpur, Akola (West Berar), Oomrawutty (Amravati), and Hyderabad.

The original 25 person board consisted of people such as John Stuart-Wortley and William Hamilton (both MPs from Britain who became the company's chairman and deputy chairman), Frederick Ayrton (ex-East India Company), cavalrymen such as Major Clayton and Major-General Briggs, Bombay residents John Graham, Col. Dickenson, Hon.

[8] An year after the passing of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway Company Act in 1849, the first sod was turned ('Bhoomipujan' was done) of the first rail line at Sion on 30 October 1850, by the Chief secretary of Bombay Government, John P. Willoughby.

In the end, the Government of Bombay asked to retain the 'double line' option, owing to complications in contracts and finances.

This Locomotive was named "Lord Falkland" after the then Governor of Bombay, Lucius Bentinck Cary, who reportedly left the city on the eve of the occasion.

This locomotive was a tank engine, meaning that it had all its fuel, water and boiler on the same frame, not having an external tender wagon.

On both trips the loco was stopped briefly, to correct some small matters; however, the engine was found to be in proper order.

When it began its operations, sometimes carrying twelve wagons of Ballast up the steep slopes, the natives standing in the way in astonishment.

Not satisfied by watching from sides, the crowds would come extremely close to the operating locomotive, only paving way when the loco came a few meters away.

This journey paved the way for the first official run, the following year, on 16 April 1853, that formally began the era of the Indian Railways.

Three locomotives named Sultan, Sindh and Sahib of the GIP-1 class pulled the 14 carriages carrying 400 passengers on board.

The other was extended up to Jubbulpore (present day Jabalpur) to connect with the Allahabad-Jubbulpore branch line of the East Indian Railway which had been opened in June 1867.

The Howrah-Allahabad-Mumbai line was officially opened on 7 March 1870 and it was part of the inspiration for French writer Jules Verne's book Around the World in Eighty Days.

At the opening ceremony, the Viceroy Lord Mayo concluded that "it was thought desirable that, if possible, at the earliest possible moment, the whole country should be covered with a network of lines in a uniform system".

The line was opened to traffic after Sir L. Wilson signalled to the power station at Wadi Bunder to connect the conductor wire into the circuit.