Imagine if Taj Mahal would be
closed to visitors for the next two and a half years...the world, the nation
and the local people, all would get together to question the situation. The Toy
Train or DHR, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, the oldest heritage railway in
the country, the model for the world is not running her stretch from NJP (the
main Railway terminal for Siliguri) or Siliguri Junction (the Railway Terminal
of great importance from the metre gauge days) to Darjeeling for the last two
and a haif years. Yesterday at the DHR annual meet, held at The Cindrella Hotel
in Siliguri, in presence of the International members of the Darjeeling
Himalayan Railway Society (DHRS) and Darjeeling Railway Community Support
(DHRC), the officials from DHR, NF Railway and the local members of the
DHR-India Support Group, David Barrie, the Chairman of DHRS commented that,
“across the world, most of the narrow gauge railways have a journey distance of
5 to 15 miles, we are proud to have a narrow gauge railway here, the DHR which
runs a stretch of 55 mile”. He also said “it is the great grandfather steam
engines, which are so strong and simple that they can still pull 04 coaches
uphill if maintained and run in an ideal manner”.
We have several shortfalls here
for not being able to address the issue of immediate repair of the DHR track,
both nationally and locally. The history of track and road damage at Pagla
Jhora is more than 100 years old, but we do not know of any period when the
running of the train or cars on the parallel road (Hillcart Road, now NH 55)
have been out of function for such a long time. There seems to be hardly any
understanding for the HERITAGE, for the traditions and cultures which we have
inherited. In a press release yesterday by DHRS says that the society has been
awarded the most prestigious award sponsored by the Steam Railway Magazine,
which recognizes the Society’s work in improving the reliability and
performance of the world famous ‘B’ class steam locomotives on the DHR.
Engineering Director, David Mead and steam engineer, Mike Weedon were the men
behind this project. We in India need to do our part, atleast restore the
railway track damaged by landslide, or atleast do the NH 55, which connects
thousands of villagers and Railway people to Siliguri for their basic needs.
The DHR is like the Taj Mahal for
us who live in North Bengal and Sikkim in India and are proud that several
places and their people are an integral part of this heritage.
All pictures used here is between 1865 to 1930, undergiven are the DHR Annual Meet pictures from yesterday.
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