Hymns of the Mountains - Darjeeling Snapshot 2 - The Toy Train

Snapshot 2 - The Toy Train

The valleys around Darjeeling are accustomed to euphonious whistle of the heritage "Toy train".  The ubiquitous symphony of the hills and the machine is the heart beat of Darjeeling. No mortal being can ever venture into these terrains and not experience the charm of the Toy train. Tootling away through the narrow streets and markets of Darjeeling it radiates the gleeful essence of the place and it's people. Toy train is not a sight to behold but to be experienced.  

During 1870's the thoroughfare to Darjeeling from Siliguri was only by the means of "Tonga" service along the craggy cart road ( Presently known as Hill Cart Road).  In 1879, a proposal was put forward by Franklin Prestage, an agent of Eastern Bengal Railway to construct a steam tramway from Siliguri to Darjeeling. It was a strenuous job as the slopes of hills across Teesta river were far too steep for the ascend of the locomotive, the rocky terrain adding loads to it as well. Beyond all expectations, the dream of the tramway materialized on 23 August, 1880 when the first stretch was opened for public service from Siliguri to Kurseong. It was extended up to Darjeeling in the upcoming year with the first ride departing from the source station on 4 July 1881. It was the birth of Himalayan Darjeeling Railway from the womb of the Himalayas. 

In his narration in 1920 Earl of Rolandshay described his journey as

"One steps into a railway carriage which might easily be mistaken for a toy, and the whimsical idea seizes hold of one that one has accidentally stumbled into Lilliput. With a noisy fuss out of all proportion to its size the engine gives a jerk — and starts ... No special mechanical device such as a rack is employed — unless, indeed, one can so describe the squat and stolid hill-man who sits perched over the forward buffers of the engine and scatters sand on the rails when the wheels of the engine lose their grip of the metals and race, with the noise of a giant spring running down when the control has been removed. Sometimes we cross our own track after completing the circuit of a cone, at others we zigzag backwards and forwards; but always we climb at a steady gradient — so steady that if one embarks in a trolley at Ghum, the highest point on the line, the initial push supplies all the energy necessary to carry one to the bottom"

I recall my days in Darjeeling, the high altitude had refreshing feel. Walking through streets I imagined that how beautiful it would be to live among these mountains, how uncomplicated was life here just like the settle voice of hissing cute little blue engine every morning. On the train I did not board but somewhere I felt connected. May be that's the charm of the Toy train, you might be unamused but you cannot deny being connected. Lives here loop around the toy train. For the people of Darjeeling, the Toy train has a persona... they wait for it at stations, they give way for it when it passes through lean market roads, they wave at it as it rambles around the hills. It wakes up and goes to bed with Darjeeling. It is the Toy train.

DISCLAIMER *I do not claim all the pictures in this article. It belongs to the respective owners. This pic is taken by "Chandan Hazra - Runner up of Photography competition 2017"