The aim of this paper is to discuss how new infrastructure interacts with human and non-human nature in local sites through in-depth historical research from western India during the 1860s and 1870s. The environmental implications of railway construction in colonial South Asia have foremost been raised in connection with deforestation and forest management practices. The arrival of railway construction in towns and rural areas throughout western India changed the environmental situation and local communities’ relations with resources and work during the decade of the 1860s, especially with the increased demand for cotton during the American Civil War. As previous research outlines, the railways fulfilled its purpose in enabling large-scale resource extraction through increased speed and capacity in trade, which changed human interaction with land and livelihoods. Against these larger transformations in land use, labour demands and resource extraction, this paper examines the social life of infrastructure in local sites through archival sources that document constructions, livelihoods, the work and perceptions of engineers, and contributions of workers along the railways. The planning and construction of railways and ancillary infrastructure such as roads, buildings, drainages and other sanitary facilities, were documented by engineers, colonial administrators and contractors in reports, photographs, memoranda, correspondence, diaries and accounts, where local societies and individuals feature in their everyday interaction with the railway. The paper highlights how the railways’ physical presence in the landscape changed social and spatial relations in terms of how societies related to local uses of resources, their interaction with land and livelihoods.