The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway story

The builders chose a gauge of just 2 ft (610 mm), which allowed tight curves on a narrow mountain road, and they kept to the cart road wherever possible to save money. The line reached Tindharia and then Kurseong in 1880, and the first train ran right through to Darjeeling on 4 July 1881. The company renamed itself the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Company that same year.

The climb was the hard part. From about 115 m at the foot of the hills, the track has to rise to 2,258 m at Ghum. The engineers solved it without tunnels or rack rails. Where the slope was too steep, they built loops, in which the track spirals round and crosses over itself to gain height, and reverses, Z-shaped zigzags in which the train runs forward up one spur, stops, then runs backwards up the next. The loop at Agony Point, near Tindharia, is one of the tightest curves on any railway in India.

Over the years the line was realigned after landslides and to ease grades. The most famous later change is Batasia Loop, below Ghum, completed in 1919, which replaced a steep section on the descent to Darjeeling. Today the Gorkha War Memorial stands in a garden at its centre, and on a clear day Kangchenjunga rises behind it.

The line's best-known engines are the B class, small 0-4-0 saddle-tank steam locomotives built mostly in Glasgow between 1889 and 1925. A handful are still in service, overhauled at the railway's workshop at Tindharia, and they pull the steam joyrides from Darjeeling. Each carries a crew who sit on the front buffer beam with a box of sand, throwing it on the rails when the wheels slip on wet track.

The company also built branch lines in the plains and towards Kalimpong. The Teesta Valley line ran up the Teesta from Siliguri to Gielle Khola, below Kalimpong, from 1915; the floods of 1950 destroyed much of it, and it was never rebuilt. After independence the government bought the company in 1948, and the line became part of Indian Railways, today run by the Northeast Frontier Railway.

The main line has had hard years since. Monsoon landslides cut it often; a slip at Paglajhora in 2010 closed the lower section for several years. Political agitation for Gorkhaland has also halted services, and stations were damaged in 2017. Each time, the railway has come back, slowly, because the hills, the town and the tourism industry want it running.

The table gives approximate altitudes for the main stations, from the plains to the top, and what to look for at each. Heights are rounded and taken from railway and survey records.

In December 1999 UNESCO inscribed the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway on the World Heritage list. It was the first railway in Asia to be listed, and only the second in the world after Austria's Semmering Railway. UNESCO cited it as an outstanding example of a bold, ingenious engineering solution for establishing an effective rail link across a mountainous terrain of great beauty, and as a line still in working use much as it was built.

The listing was extended in 2005 to include the Nilgiri Mountain Railway in Tamil Nadu, and in 2008 the Kalka–Shimla Railway, under the joint name Mountain Railways of India. The Darjeeling line is the oldest of the three. The listing brings duties too: the railway has to protect the old stations, the track layout and the steam engines, which is why heritage steam still runs on a line where diesel would be cheaper.

For many Indian families the train is familiar before they ever see it. In the 1969 Hindi film Aradhana, Rajesh Khanna sings Mere Sapno Ki Rani from an open jeep racing beside the toy train on the Hill Cart Road, and that scene sent generations of honeymooners to Darjeeling. The line has appeared in many films since, including the 2012 Hindi film Barfi, shot partly around Darjeeling.

Local memory is different. Older residents of Kurseong and Sonada remember the train as a lifeline: the way children went to school, how vegetables reached market, and the sound that told you the time of day. Shopkeepers in Kurseong bazaar still pull their goods back from the rails when they hear the whistle.

The easiest way is the joyride from Darjeeling to Ghum and back, about two hours, with a stop of about 10 minutes at Batasia Loop and about 30 minutes at the Ghum museum. Steam seats cost about ₹1,500–1,600 and diesel ₹800–1,000, indicative 2026, booked on IRCTC. A through train between NJP and Darjeeling, taking seven to eight hours, has run in recent years when the track allows, and there are passenger services between Kurseong and Darjeeling. Timetables change with repairs and the monsoon, so check current status before you travel.

You can also see a lot for free. Stand at the roadside in Kurseong bazaar, in Ghum or at Batasia Loop when a train is due, or follow the Hill Cart Road down from Kurseong to see the loops and reverses at Tindharia, Gayabari and Rangtong. In late November and early December, the Ghum Festival of the DHR brings special runs, exhibitions and events at the stations.

• Book joyrides and passenger trains on IRCTC as soon as your dates are fixed; October, May and June sell out.
• Sit on the valley side going up from Darjeeling to Ghum for the best view at Batasia Loop.
• Carry a jacket: the coaches are not heated, and Ghum is often foggy and cold.
• Keep well back from the rails in Kurseong and Ghum bazaars; the train runs on the road itself.
• If the train is suspended, visit the Ghum museum by road and watch the steam engines being prepared in Darjeeling yard in the morning.