The Shire Highlands Railway Company Ltd was a private railway company in colonial Nyasaland, incorporated in 1895 with the intention of constructing a railway from Blantyre (in modern-day Malawi) to the effective head of navigation of the Shire River. After problems with routing and finance, a South African 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge railway was constructed between 1903 and 1907, and extended in 1908 to a Nsanje, a distance of 113 miles (182 km) as water levels in the Shire River fell.
As navigational problems in the Shire River continued, in 1912 the Shire Highlands Railway Company contributed to the construction by the British South Africa Company of the Central African Railway of 61 miles (98 km) to the Zambezi, almost entirely within Mozambique. Although this line, completed in 1914, was owned by the separate Central Africa Railway Company Ltd, the Shire Highlands Railway Company operated all services on its line and was part-owner of its shares. In 1935, the railway undertaking of the Shire Highlands Railway and shares it held in the Central Africa Railway Company Ltd were transferred to a new company, Nyasaland Railways Ltd.
It was the operating company of the Sena railway, also called the Shire Highlands railway.