I have read from various IR Materials like Books, Internet Rail Sites and Museum Info that India's First Train was supposed to run from Howrah to Hooghly in 1853 but the coaches & steam loco had faced a ship wreak & were drowned into the sea(I don't remember if it was Pacific or Atlantic). The consignment was supposed to come from London and the 2nd one was for the Bombay - Thane Train run in 1854.
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Later, plans were changed and Bombay(I think Byculla as VT was opened in 1878) - Thane...
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Route met it's 1st Train Run in 1853, followed by Howrah - Hooghly in 1854. In Early 1850s, Howrah Station was established as a Hut like Building homing a Ticket Counter with a small waiting room + 2 tracks only. As years passed by, it was in 1854 that HWH Stn got it's First Stn Building made as seen in this photo(Blog Post 390264-2). Later in 1911, it was demolished & replaced by the building which is present till now & serves the ER Trains only. In around Late 1990s, HWH Stn got an Additional Stn Building along with it's ER Counterpart, which serves SER Trains now separately. This was done to decongest the ER Building, which was handling both ER & SER Trains since 1947 :-)