HIMALAYAN
RAILWAY REGAL
ENGINE
n 1881, Franklin Prestige, Agent of the Eastern Bengal Railway proposed a two
feet guage railway project that was to involve building a railway
line to unprecedented heights – Ghum, at 7047 feet, is the highest railway station in India and second highest in the world. This has come an alternative to cope with increasing traffic on the Hill Cart
Road, the only link between Silguri in the plains, and Darjeeling at 6,812 feet, was not enough. On the above railway line, out of the dense white mists around Hill Cart Road, emanates a reluctant chugging sound every morning, and then, as you wait among the hills, slowly comes the Himalayan Railway Engine, a
train that looks like something "out of little boy's Christmas stocking". Three tiny compartments, the middle with curtains and ornate ceilings-for first class travelers-and a tiny
steam engine are what constitute Darjeeling's toy train Now some of them have diesel-powered engine that have slightly diminished their charm. In spite of dismissive name, it is one of the most important means of transport along steep inclines of Himalayan region and a marvel for the rest of the world. Building along the world's tallest mountains is not easy, and the line has three loops and six Z reverses. Over 70 percent of the stretch are curves, with the rail tracks and the road crisscrossing each other at 177 places. There is only one steam engine in service now, plying from Kurseong up the hills to Darjeeling, and the train is mostly populated by rosy-cheeked children who jump in and out of slow moving coaches (at the speed of 8 Km an hour) for fun. The train itself, in its quaint splendour, with coal in its open case, a crown around its chute, polished stars on its head and a placard grandly proclaiming it the royalty of Himalayas, goes full steam ahead.
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