Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
- UNESCO World Heritage
Interesting facts
- When it was inscribed in 1999, it became only the second railway on the World Heritage List, after Austria's Semmering Railway.
- On early trains, sandmen sat perched on the front buffers of the locomotive, scattering sand on the rails to stop the wheels slipping on the steep grades.
- Of the 34 tiny B-class tank engines built for the line, only 12 were still in service by 2005.
- Alongside the steam engines, the line runs six diesel locomotives of the NDM-6 class, built in 1997.
- The line originally had five loops; damage and realignments over the years reduced them to the three in use today.
- The railway was badly hit by a major earthquake in 1897 and a severe cyclone in 1899, both of which damaged long stretches of track.
- Branch lines were later added, reaching Kishanganj in 1914 and Gielkhola in 1915.
- The toy train starred in the 1969 Bollywood hit Aradhana, and later films such as Barfi! and Parineeta were also shot along the line.
- A cheerful B-class engine modelled on the railway's locomotives appears in Disney's 2013 animated film Planes.
Why it is worth it
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, often called the Toy Train, climbs about 88 km from New Jalpaiguri on the plains of West Bengal to the hill town of Darjeeling, rising from roughly 100 metres to about 2,200 metres above sea level on a track only two feet wide. Built between 1879 and 1881, it follows the course of the old Hill Cart Road, the route of the horse-drawn tongas it replaced, and above Kurseong it squeezes through a busy shopping street.
The line gains height with ingenuity rather than power. Where the slope was too steep, the engineers built loops, on which the track circles and crosses over itself, and zig-zags, where the train runs forward, reverses up a spur, then runs forward again. Today there are six zig-zags and three loops. At Agony Point the loop has the line's tightest curve; the Batasia Loop, added in 1919 just below Ghum, circles a garden with a memorial to Gorkha soldiers and opens a view of Darjeeling with Kangchenjunga and other snow peaks behind it. Ghum, at the summit, is India's highest railway station, with a small museum in its building.
The idea came from Franklin Prestage of the Eastern Bengal Railway, who proposed a steam tramway from Siliguri; the section to Kurseong opened in August 1880 and the full line to Darjeeling on 4 July 1881. Small B-class tank engines built by Sharp, Stewart and later the North British Locomotive Company between 1889 and 1925 are still at work on steam services, including daily joy rides between Darjeeling and Ghum and the Red Panda service to Kurseong, where the station has a one-room railway museum. UNESCO inscribed the railway as a World Heritage Site in 1999.
Getting there
Darjeeling station, the upper terminus, is about 1 km from the centre of Darjeeling; the lower end of the line is at New Jalpaiguri, a major broad-gauge junction near Siliguri. Bagdogra Airport (IXB), the gateway to Darjeeling, is about 41 km from Darjeeling in a straight line. Check the timetable before travelling.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, also known as the DHR, is a 610 mm gauge railway that runs between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling in the Indian state of West Bengal. Built between 1879 and 1881, it is about 88 km (55 mi) long. It climbs from about 100 m (330 ft) above sea level at New Jalpaiguri to about 2,200 m (7,200 ft) at Darjeeling, using six zig zags and three loops to gain altitude. Ghum station is situated at an altitude of 2,260 metres (7,410 ft). Six diesel locomotives handle most of the scheduled service, with daily tourist trains from Darjeeling to Ghum – India's highest railway station – and the steam-hauled Red Panda service from Darjeeling to Kurseong. Steam-enthusiast specials are hauled by vintage British-built B-Class steam locomotives. The railway's headquarters are at Kurseong.
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