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Unique collection of Photographic albums, work pamphlets from Burn and Company's, India

An almost unique collection of Photographic albums, and work pamplets from the 1930's of the Burn and Company's operations at Hirapur, India

Burn & Company came into existence in 1871 at Howrah, by a retired Colonel Archibald Swinton

Burn & Co which had the experience of building many an important structures in Calcutta like St. Andrew's Church in 1818, the 152 high Ochterlony Monument (now known as Shahid Minar) in 1828, its Construction business was taken over by Sir Rajen Mukherjee's Company Martin & Co ( founded in 1890, which has to its credit of building waterworks at Palta, Ahmedabad, Lucknow and Benares. But its major contribution are architectural marvels like Esplanade Mansion near Raj Bhavan/Great Eastern Hostel, Standard Chartered Building, South Eastern Railway Headquarters in Garden Reach, Tipu Sultan Mosque, the Victoria Memorial).

In 1927 and the two together went on dotting the city with buildings like St. Xaviers' College, Oriental Seminary, Belur Math, the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission, Darbhanga House - the Calcutta residence of Darbhanga Raj, Assembly House, Grand Hotel Arcade, United Bank Building, New Secretariat Building, Club House at Eden Gardens.

The ever increasing traffic movement between the twin cities of Calcutta & Howrah demanded a wider and stronger bridge in replacement of the then existing pontoon bridge. The authorities accordingly decided on building a cantilever bridge across the river Hooghly. The job called for greater expertise. So the three engineering giants - Braithwaite, Burn & Jessop - came together with their vast experiences and floated a new company and constructed today's iconic Howrah Bridge.

In 1946 ‘Burn & Co Ltd’ merged with ‘Martin & Company’ to form ‘Martin, Burn & Company’

The Martin Burn company even operated a rail line from Dum Dum to Baguiati till it closed down in 1955.

The city of Calcutta - is sometimes also referred to as Martin Burn City for this reason.

The Burnpur works, earlier Indian Standard Wagon Ltd., Burnpur, - since its early days developed excellence in manufacturing Railway wagons.

During the early days, Burn & Company undertook building and contracting work. Subsequently in the 1950s of the last century, it ventured into the field of Railway Engineering, altogether new development in the country's economy . With the rapid expansion of Railways, Burn & Company started manufacturing Railway rolling stock at Howrah to cater to the increasing demand.

Burn Standard Company Limited In 1975 ‘Burn & Co Ltd’ merged with the ‘Indian Standard Wagon Co Ltd’ (founded in 1918, at Burnpur) to become the ‘Burn Standard Company Limited’ and developed excellence in manufacturing Railway wagons, forged components, springs etc.

Burn Standard Company Ltd., is one of the oldest and a leading wagon builder in India. The wagon building activities are carried out at two Engineering Units at Howrah and Burnpur situated in West Bengal, India.

‘Burn & Co’ were also Managing Agents for a number of businesses.

Indian Standard Wagon Co Ltd founded in 1918 at Burnpur as a specialist company manufacturing railway wagons, carriages and railway equipment. The company was established after the Government of India made public their intention of annually buying a larger quantity of rolling stock from private companies in India

Indian Iron and Steel Company established in 1918 in the town of Hirapur, the name of the town was changed to Burnpur (date unknown) but the works are still known as the ’Hirapur Works’

Raniganj Pottery Works Railway, the Pottery Works at Raniganj (Raneegunge and Raneegungee) was established in 1868, it manufactured various pottery wares and ceramic insulators as a minor product



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