The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway / Toy Train

This was mentioned by a Jeopardy contestant today! She told a story about how she was traveling on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, nicknamed the "toy train," and it actually partially derailed and all of the passengers had to climb down an embankment to a nearby village in order to wait for a bus to transport them to their destination! Now, I would imagine that this sort of thing does not happen very often, but it was an interesting story ...

This train runs between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling, and is one of India's five mountain railways. This partiuclar section of railway has also achieved World Heritage Site status. This train station is also at the highest altitude of any train station in India.

Meanwhile, has anyone traveled on the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, and if so, what was it like? I think that traveling through the Himalayan Mountains like this would be romantic ...

 

I went with my family many years ago on the Darjeeling toy train and it was a fantastic experience, which you can not compare to a normal train journey. The fact that you are traveling in the mountains in a train gives you a different feeling to the place, the views are much different from what you would see just standing in one place. The elevation levels vary a lot which also makes the journey exciting not just for kids but adults too.

There are now two more railway lines added and the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway location is now also known as the Mountain Railways of India.