In my previous blog post, The Aligarh Diary, I delved into moving out of hibernation from Mumbai to my native place, Aligarh. And this trip to visit family and attend a wedding gave birth to another mini trip to the Indian state of West Bengal. Within West Bengal, we (family of 9 adults), travelled to a small tea town called Siliguri, with the intention of eventually getting to Darjeeling. I was excited to try the infamous Darjeeling tea and take in the magnanimous views of the tea estates and the Kangchenjunga, the third highest mountain in the world! Another order of business was to ride the first hill railway in India, the toy train.
The Toy Train in Darjeeling, officially known as the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) runs between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling. It was built in 1881 and in 1999, UNESCO declared it a World Heriatge Site. The DHR was the first hill railway in India. Like the tea and the Gorkhas, the toy train has become an indelible part of the identity of the Darjeeling hills. The railway line is like an artery, running through the main streets of every village and town along the route, so its the only place in the world, where a train can be stuck in a traffic jam.
We decided to board the train at Darjeeling station, go around the Batasia loop and get off at Ghum. We managed to book some of the train tickets online on the IRCTC website and some of them were bought at the Darjeeling railway station. While researching, I came across a Darjeeling vlog wherein the vlogger recommended booking the last compartment of the toy train in order to get good views of the steam engine, specially around the Batasia Loop. And so we listened and were not disappointed. Here are some of the photos taken at Batasia Loop.
The train struggled to push two compartments at a consistent speed and kept spewing coal particulates all around. It did act as a time travelling machine and took me back to 1881, when it was first introduced. In many ways, it made me appreciate the advancement we have made in transportation over the several decades since 1881. We exited the toy train at Ghum Railway Station and were off for our ropeway ride to take in the scenic sites of the tea estates from a bird’s eye view.
In my opinion, the toy train ride didn’t live up to it’s hype. But it was surely a great experience for my brother for whom experiencing the toy train was high up on the list of things to do in Darjeeling.