The construction of the railway through the ghats to the east of Bombay, while being one of the great engineering achievements of the age, engendered terrible losses, through accident and disease. Pics courtesy/Railways and the Raj, Atlantic books

When we reach out to London-based railway historian Christian Wolmar, 68, on a weekday morning, he is busy preparing for a lecture on Indian Railway history at the Oxford Literary Society. With barely few hours left for the event, he tells us over phone, how he is looking forward to discussing his research, which took him over a year, and has now culminated in a voluminous historical non-fiction, titled Railways and The Raj (Atlantic Books). "There are too many shocking stories that need to be shared," Wolmar informs. What his new book also does is challenge, in many ways, the long-held notion that the British gave India its first-ever transport system.