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The Rediff Special/ Nitin Gogoi
'The most enjoyable day, I have spent on earth…mixed ecstasy of deadly fright and unimaginable joy - Mark Twain, describing his journey on the Darjeeling toy train in 1895.
Hundred and five years on, the thrill of riding the spectacular and atmospheric Darjeeling toy train to 7,000 feet into the majestic Himalayas still evokes the same excitement in visitors. The group of 70 Europeans, led by former Cadbury Schweppes chairman Sir Adrian Cadbury, didn't feel any different when they reached Darjeeling last week for the historic task of commemorating the first anniversary of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway's elevation to a UNESCO recommended World Heritage Site.
This group of plucky foreigners, of diverse callings, are united by one passion -- the Darjeeling toy train. The Friends
of DHR, as they have dubbed themselves, arrived in New Delhi and then travelled to New Jalpaiguri, West Bengal on a special train, before boarding the toy train on its exciting 80 km run to Darjeeling, a spokesman of the Northern Frontier Railway said in Guwahati. Interestingly, this band of enthusiasts were in the hill town to felicitate the Indian Railways for taking the trouble to restore the DHR's glory. Digvijay Singh, the minister of state for railways, received this felicitation and Mamata Banerjee, the railway minister, dedicated the Darjeeling toy train as a World Heritage Site to the people of the world on November 26.
This round of official ceremonies unleashed a flood of memories and nostalgia for this picturesque hill town. And like all
Raj era memorabilia, the DHR too is associated with a stock of anecdotes that centre around the toy train that
runs between New Jalpaiguri in the plains of Bengal to the lofty heights of the Darjeeling hills.
Pashang Sherpa, who joined the DHR in 1962, has a favourite one that he recounts to anyone who
cares to listen. Sherpa's weather-beaten face breaks into a broad smile when he talks about an
old British lady who came to Darjeeling in the summer of 1998.
Recounts Sherpa, now the man in-charge of the Darjeeling loco shed, "The lady, I forget her
name, was about 75 and had six grandchildren in tow. She came to the Darjeeling station, looked
around the area, as if trying to recollect something, and then kissed the locomotive and said 'Now I
can die in peace'. She had come all the way from England just to take a trip down memory lane.
You see she was studying here at Loreto Convent when the British Raj ended. For 50 years, she
had dreamt of coming back here and again taking a ride on the train which she ultimately did
along with her brood of grandchildren."
British sentiment is understandable when you examine the brilliant logistics and technique with which this railway was built. Snaking
along precipitous bends and steep gradients, the 87.4 km long, narrow gauge -- just two feet across -- line is
nothing short of an engineering marvel. Opened in 1880, the shiny blue three-coach train -- pulled by puffing steam locomotives, some of which are over a century old today -- labours its way up the winding, mist-swept track from steamy, dense jungles in the lower reaches to tall, graceful pines and bright green terraced
tea gardens, as it gains height.
Sleepy Kurseong, a mid-way town that is home to several prestigious educational institutions that date back to the Raj era, arrives at 4,800 ft. At this town, the world's third highest mountain, Kanchenjunga comes
into view, its snow-capped peak providing a spectacular backdrop to the beauteous landscape.
By the time the train creaks into Ghoom, at a whopping 7,000 ft, the world's second highest railway station (number two after Jungfraujoch in the Swiss Alps at 11,332 feet), it
has traversed only 65 km from the plains of Siliguri. Then, from Ghoom, the train rolls down to
Darjeeling town, at 6,000 ft. Along the way, the track sharply zigzags up, with the engine miraculously going into
reverse gear, then again forward to negotiate steep gradients. And in three places, amazingly, the railway
spirals up whole loops of 360 degrees to climb high slopes.
For years, the DHR was the main
engine for Darjeeling's development into a booming tourist town.
Over the last three decades however, the toy train lost much of its importance as impatient
tourists shunned this leisurely and charming journey and started using the taxis instead.
Simultaneously Darjeeling's famous tea industry, which brought in most of its supplies and shipped out its teas
to the plains on this railway, also abandoned DHR. Gradually, the train became unfeasible; so much so that in
the early 1990s there was even talk of closing it down permanently.
But then a group of concerned citizens of Darjeeling and in the UK formed a group called 'Friends
of the DHR.' This group has taken active interest in salvaging the train since the mid-1990s. In
December 1999, UNESCO listed the Darjeeling train as a Heritage Site and suggested several
changes and improvement to the system. The old steam locomotives, some of them of 1880s
vintage, were restored, thanks to dedicated staff like Sherpa who fondly regard these tiny
engines as their children. "Some times, we have spent from our own pockets and kept the
engines running,"
Sherpa, whose father also worked on the DHR, says he is particularly proud of a shiny trouper called the Himalayan Bird. Built in 1889, it is still running. Every morning, Sherpa, and his team of
mechanics get the old geezer ready for the short journey to Ghoom. On any day the number of
passengers may be less than half a dozen, and yet, the train runs. That's precisely why the
Indian Railways wants to improve its viability.
One way of making DHR more economically competent is to use a diesel locomotive to haul up the train
from New Jalpaiguri. As a senior NF Railway official says, "The diesel engine has a distinct
advantage over the steam by way of its better haulage capacity, lesser travel time and reduced
operational costs. The diesel engine will haul up to six passenger coaches compared to three by
the steam loco. The steam engines will be used for the tourist joy ride between Darjeeling and
Ghoom and back."
In any case, the official says, the NF Railway has a plan to upgrade the
tracks, and carry out improvement to the entire system at a cost of Rs 60,000,000 and use the
steam engines sparingly to prolong their life further. "Just by introducing the diesel
locomotives we are not violating any of the heritage terms," an official said.
Indeed, the daily train between Darjeeling and New Jalpaiguri is now full of passengers who do
not mind the six-hour journey although they had earlier avoided the trip that took nine hours
by a steam engine. Says Pramod Kumar, a visitor from New Delhi: "We have already spent six days
here, so what is six hours? After all we came here to enjoy the beauty. I know the train takes
twice the time that taxi takes but my family and I do not mind the long journey. We
would have given a second thought if the entire trip was by a steam engine."
Others, of course, do not agree. P R Pereira, who is based in New Delhi and is in charge of UNESCO's cultural projects in this region, has apparently written to its World Heritage Bureau in Paris. He has asked the Paris bureau to write to the Indian government to ask them not to tamper with the original character of the heritage property. "The Indian government, being
party to the World Heritage Convention of 1972, should respect its norms and should not do
anything that endangers or alters the basic structure of the site which is of immense
historical value and world importance," he says.
Whatever the debate, the fact remains that this unique toy train is the biggest tourist attraction of
Darjeeling and therefore the NF Railways' plan to lease out the train to private entrepreneurs, on
the lines of the famous Palace on Wheels in Rajasthan, could make ample sense. "We are working out a
plan with the tourism department of West Bengal to involve private parties in running tourist
packages built around the DHR," NF Railway officials say.
Seventy-five years after Mark Twain rode the toy train past Kanchenjunga to Darjeeling, the railway gained fame again when a debonair Rajesh Khanna wooed the beauteous Sharmila Tagore on the Darjeeling toy train, in 1969, in one of Bollywood's biggest blockbusters, Aradhana.
Maybe, another movie maker will use the Darjeeling Himalayan Railways as a film backdrop in the near future and shoot this marvellous railway into the limelight again. And again maybe not.
But, without doubt, the toy train will continue to evoke loads of warm and precious nostalgia as long as it continues to chug up the mountains, day after day to Darjeeling.
Do tell us what you think of this special
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