Who were the early manufacturers of IR stock?
Some early coaching stock was built in Great Britain and imported to India. This included ‘pattern’ coaches of the 1850s, many prototype steel coaches from 1913 and much EMU stock well into the 1960s until ICF’s production built up. However, most coaching stock was built on underframes which had been imported ready-made or in completely-knocked-down (CKD) form from Great Britain. Imperial preference excluded most other suppliers. Virtually all railway workshops with a woodworking capability built coaching stock until well after Independence. including Parel, (old) Perambur, Hubli, Gorakhpur, Moghalpura, and others. Many of the smaller works did too, and there was much rebuilding and rebodying, which went on until the early 1950s at least. In fact some of the shops in Saurashtra were rebodying MG 4-wheel stock until the early 1950s! A rebody can often be spotted because of its unusual size or shape. For example, the standard NG carriage underframe is 34′ 6″, and new stock built since it
