Steam Engines were used to pump water out of mines in England when James Watt was born. The discovery that steam could be harnessed and made to work is not credited to James Watt. We do not know that exactly who made that discovery, but we do know that the ancient Greeks had crude steam engines. James Watt however is credited with inventing the first practical steam engine. And so the history of the modern steam engine often begins with James Watt.
There were no railway lines in India upto 1850. It was almost 100 years to the British. Colonial rule in India. They need transport facilities in this vast country. So they inaugurated the first railway line in 1853 which ran from Bombay to Thana. Since then the distance is reduced in India.
