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The
Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is one of the
engineering feats of the world. Although the steepness
of the gradients on this narrow-gauge line is eclipsed
in other parts of the world, and the 7,407 ft. altitude
of the summit at Ghoom station is less than half the
height of some of the summits in the Andes, the
achievement of the engineers who built the line more
than half a century ago is a noteworthy one in the
history of railways.
This little railway has a gauge of 2 ft. and a length of
fifty-one miles, with steep gradients and amazing loops.
It climbs from the plains, which are most oppressive in
the hot weather to the coolness of the "hills," as the
British residents in India call the lower slopes of the
Himalayas on which are situated the towns, or
"stations," to which they go periodically to preserve
their health.
It is at Siliguri that the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway
begins its remarkable journey to Darjeeling. Before the
railway was built, a first-class road, built by the
Government at a cost of £6,000 a mile, wound upwards to
Darjeeling. In March, 1878, a scheme for the
construction of the railway was drawn up, and estimates
and plans were submitted to the Lieutenant-Governor of
Bengal, who gave it his support. The money for the
enterprise was subscribed almost entirely in India. The
Government undertook to maintain the cart-road, the
route of which was to be followed by the railway, and
guaranteed that the gross receipts of the railway should
not fall below a certain figure.
The building of the railway aroused great interest in
India. Work began in May, 1879, and in March, 1880, the
Viceroy of India, Lord Lytton, travelled on a train as
far as the eighteenth mile, which was then the limit of
the line. In the following August the line was opened
for passenger and goods traffic as far as Kurseong,
4,864 ft. above the sea and thirty-two miles from
Siliguri. In July, 1881, the line was opened throughout
to Darjeeling station.
Siliguri lies 398 ft. above sea-level. The summit at
Ghoom, forty-seven miles from Siliguri, has an altitude
of 7,407 ft., that of Darjeeling being 6,812 ft. As the
line had to rise over 7,000 ft. in less than fifty
miles, steep gradients and sharp curves were
unavoidable. The surveyors plotted banks ranging from 1
in 19 to 1 in 36 and curves of 50 ft. radius. Later,
however, these were reduced, the sharpest curve being 69
ft., the steepest short gradient being 1 in 23, and the
steepest average gradient about 1 in 29.
The fact that it was decided to work the line by
adhesion on the narrow gauge of 2 ft. restricted the
weight of the trains, but there is nothing of a “toy
railway” about the construction of the line or about the
amount of passenger and goods traffic, that it carries.
Steel rails weighing 41 lb. per yard were laid on wooden
sleepers.
For the first seven miles from Siliguri station the
gradient was easy, the ascent to Sookna station (533
ft.) being at 1 in 281. The heaviest piece of work in
this section was the erection of a steel bridge, 700 ft.
long, in seven 100 ft. spans, across the Mahanuddy
River. This river has its source in the line of
mountains ahead of the traveller known as the Mahaldirum
Range, with an altitude of about 7,000 ft. The river at
this point forms a boundary between the Terai, the
jungle tract at the foot of the Himalayas, and the
district of Julpaiguri. It is a tributary of the Ganges.
The train passes streams and tea gardens on the way to
Sookna. When the jungle was being cleared the area was
fatal to many Europeans, a number of whom died from
fever.
It is at Sookna that the real ascent begin. After
passing the ninth mile-post, the train encounters the
first sharp curves. Then a fine view opens out to the
south, displaying a vast horizon, and the passenger
notices how rapidly he is rising above the plain.
Passing through giant bamboo’s and screwpines, the train
reaches the first spiral, or loop. The engineers had to
conquer an altitude of 871 ft. in the four and
three-quarter miles from Sookna to Rungtong station
(1,404 ft.), which is at the twelfth mile. Four and a
half miles from Sookna the sudden ascent made a spiral
unavoidable. The track described a sharp spiral through
a deep cutting to gain the higher level. Four years or
so after this had been constructed the rains of 1883
caused a slip of rocks and earth which fell into the
cutting, completely filling it. This misfortune was
turned to good account. The engineers had discussed re-alining
the section to reduce the
gradient, and when the landslip compelled them to repair
the line they eased the gradient, making a new track
some distance below the original road.
A World Heritage Site :
The wake up call came and recently UNESCO declared DHR
as a World Heritage Site. The world heritage site status
puts DHR in the same exalted league as the hermitage in
St. Petersburg, our very own Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi,
Hampi in South India and other such man-made marvels. A
heritage site is one that is worthy of preservation and
a legacy that is worth bequeathing to posterity. After
simmering in the Austrian Alps, DHR is the second
railway system in the world to be accorded the World
Heritage status.
Bringing Darjeeling On Tourist
Map :
Earlier, the very same DHR had put Darjeeling on the
world tea map. If the exquisitely flavoured premium
Darjeling tea is sipped in the fashionable salons of
Paris today, then it is DHR that has played a small role
in making this happen. In its earlier avatars of open
carriages, it had ferried tea from the misty slopes to
the railheads on the plains to be transshipped to
faraway destinations. There is an enchanting sepia
tinted photograph of the DHR ferrying wooden tea chests
down the hill in the Chum museum, which has just opened.
It houses other exquisite DHR memorabilia such as the
signaling lanterns in use since the 19th century,
whistles, plaques and badges and some priceless old
photographs.
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