The first railway line between Moghalsarai ( later Mughalsarai Jn and now Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Jn or DDU) and Benares (now Varanasi Jn) was opened on December 22, 1862, a distance of 3.98 miles.
| Name of Railway Company | Name of railway line | Origin-Destination | Section | Distance in miles | Date of Opening |
| Oudh & Rohilkand Railway ( O&RR) | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Moghalsaral-mile 3.98 | 3.98 | December 22, 1862 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Mile 3.98 to Kashi (Benares Ganges) station | 4.25 | October 1,1887 |
| O&RR | Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Kashi (Benares Ganges) station to Benares Cantonment | 2.82 | June 18,1883 |
It took 25 years to bridge the Ganga at Varanasi. Until then passengers crossed the river using a ferry service from Padao to Rajghat.With the opening of the Dufferin bridge for rail traffic on October 1, 1887, the East Indian Railway was connected to Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway at Kashi railway station.
Signalling on IR-early days
Signalling in Indian Railways was based on hand signals using flags until the 1890s with track changes being done manually in situ using a point lever. The Benaras-Moghalsarai section was no exception.
By 1892 the List system of Interlocking was introduced in North Western Railway ( NWR) at six railway stations between Ghaziabad and Lahore to enable crossing of trains in a single line section. This was further improved in 1894 and named the List and Morse system of interlocking. NWR used this system at 29 stations between Ghaziabad and Lahore to enable crossing of trains.
Come the 20th century and mechanical interlocking using lever frames installed inside a cabin was introduced. This cabin controlled train movement within a specific geographical area – the main lines at station, the loops and the yard . The points could be set remotely from the cabin by operating a lever . This method was used to receive, hold and dispatch trains.
Benares chord
A line named Benares chord from Dihwa Block Hut to Bechupur ( on the outskirts of Moghalsarai situated just after Engineering Plant Depot Workshop Moghal sarai ) was opened on May 14 1910 by Oudh & Rohilkhand Railway to ease the flow of goods traffic towards Moghalsarai. It was 1.18 miles long and is situated very close to where Block Hut B stands today.
Moghalsarai Benares doubling
| Name of railway line | Origin-Destination | Section | Distance in miles | Date of Opening |
| Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Moghalsarai-Bechupur | 1.24 | April 21,1913 |
| Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Bechupur to right bank of Dufferin bridge | 4.19 | December 12,1012 |
| Moghalsarai -Saharanpur main line via Raebareli Lucknow | Moghalsarai-Saharanpur | Kashi to Benares Cantonment | 2.82 | March 5,1913 |
The line was doubled by April 1913 barring the Dufferin Bridge which remained a single line until 1947.
The bridge was re-girdered and opened for double line working on December 5,1947 and renamed as Malviya bridge.
Lower Quadrant semaphores
The Moghalsarai-Block Hut B-Vyasnagar-Kashi-Benares section had lower quadrant semaphore signalling system with mechanical interlocking. Semaphores resembled a hand and were mounted on a tall gantry in order to be visible for drivers to proceed or halt.
Events during the 1920s
Several events of the 1920s shaped the future of Railways in India.
East Indian Railway (EIR) and Oudh & Rohilkhand Railway (O&RR) were re-organised into six divisions effective February 20, 1925. They were – Howrah, Asansol, Dinapore (now Danapur), Allahabad (now Prayagraj), for EIR and Lucknow and Moradabad for O&RR. The Secretary of State in India sanctioned the amalgamation of EIR and O&RR effective July 1, 1925.
Railway Board takes over
Come 1926, and the Railway Board abolished the Standing Committee of Chief Engineers of Class I Railways. In addition, the Board took direct control of three committees namely the track standards committee, the bridge standards committee and the signalling and interlocking standards committee.
Constituted in July 1926, first session of the signalling and interlocking standards committee was held in September 1926. The committee discussed issues such as revision of existing rules for design and inspection of signalling and interlocking, framing of rules for electrically operated and power operated points.
Besides, the committee also discussed the framing of rules and regulations for the installation, maintenance and working of single line and double line block instruments.
Electro-mechanical interlocking
The next step in signalling and interlocking saw the introduction of electro -mechanical interlocking. Under this system, the cabin operated a mechanical lever which in turn activated an electrical circuit to set a semaphore signal.
At stations situated on a curve such as Kashi, a repeater signal was provided under this system so that the guard of a train could view the proceed signal clearly and act accordingly.
Telephonic train control
In May 1921, telephonic train control system had started on Madras Beach- Villupuram and Villupuram -Tanjore sections of South Indian Railway (SIR).
A train control office was opened during the year 1924-25 at Dinapore with control over three sections. The location of this office was temporary and EIR subsequently relocated the control office to Moghalsarai.
By 1925-26, telephone train control was opened in two sections between Moghalsarai and Benares. One was the 482-mile main line section between Moghalsarai and Raisi ( near Laksar ) and the other was the Fyzabad (later Faizabad and now Ayodhya Cantt) – Moghalsarai section which was opened on June 10, 1926.
Route electrification
On March 21,2013, more than six and a half decades post independence, the Mughalsarai (now called Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Jn or DDU) – Varanasi line was electrified. Kashi station had panel interlocking, while Mughalsarai and Varanasi had route relay interlocking.
Varanasi yard re-modelling and electronic interlocking– cut to present day
In September-October 2023, Varanasi yard was re-modelled, two new platforms were added taking the total to 11.
Longer loops and longer platforms were built to increase capacity. A dedicated goods loop line from Varanasi to Shivpur was constructed next to platform number 9 eliminating the use of crossovers for goods trains from Shivpur. Seven diamond crossings and 122 turnouts were done away with.
Electronic interlocking was installed and commissioned on October 15, 2023. The EI installation involved installation of 663-routes with 283 signals and 214 points in six directions namely,
Varanasi-Banaras (earlier Manduadih),
Varanasi- Lohta,
Banaras-Lohta chord,
Varanasi- Shivpur,
Varanasi- Varanasi City (earlier Benares City) and
Varanasi-Kashi.
This was the precursor to the installation of automatic signalling in the Block Hut B-Vyasnagar -Kashi section of DDU-Varanasi line which happened finally between February 25 and 27, 2026.
Note- British era spelling of railway stations has been retained
End of part 2 -Conclusion
