Coordinates: 13°04′57″N 80°16′37″E / 13.08240°N 80.27705°E / 13.08240; 80.27705 The Southern Railway (abbreviated SR), headquartered at Chennai, is one of the 19 zones of Indian Railways. It is the earliest of the 19 zones of the Indian Railways created in independent India. It was created on 14 April 1951 by merging three state railways, namely, the Madras and Southern Mahratta Railway, the South Indian Railway Company, and the Mysore State Railway. The South Indian Railway was originally created in the British colonial times as Great Southern of India Railway Co founded in Britain in 1853 and registered in 1859. Its original headquarters was in Tiruchirappalli (Trichy) and was registered as a company in London only in 1890. At present, after re-organization of existing railway zones and creation of new zones undertaken by the Indian Railways between 2002 and 2003, Southern Railway has emerged as the 4th largest zone after undertaking some gauge conversion projects and creation of new lines. The trains operated by the southern railway are rated the cleanest as well as cleanly maintained trains of the Indian Railways.
