The Vintage Train Route To Darjeeling

Uttara Gangopadhyay takes the vintage train route to Darjeeling

- Uttara Gangopadhyay

After the journey from the plains, it is tempting to take the motorable road to Darjeeling, but we chose the slower narrow gauge train. The conversion from steam to diesel engine has added some speed to the heritage train but it is still a slow ride, taking about six to seven hours while a road journey takes subsequently less sans any traffic jam. But then isn’t a trip to Darjeeling, located in the northern part of West Bengal and popularly known as the Queen of Indian hill stations, about languorous pleasures, basking beneath the shadow of the Himalayan snow ranges, sipping endless cups of the champagne of teas and riding the toy train?

Thus, we waited at the Siliguri Junction station for the New Jalpaiguri-Darjeeling Passenger (NJP-DJ) train to arrive. Running on a two feet (0.610 m) gauge track, the train consisted of a blue diesel engine pulling three coaches, and it required no stretching of the imagination to realise why it is called the ‘toy train’.

Just giving us enough time to settle down by the large carriage windows, the train was on its way. As we rolled past Sukna station, we could see tea gardens, interspersed with forests, unfurling around us. Reminding us that it is to the tea trade that the train owes its origin.

After the British managed to obtain the tiny hamlet of Darjeeling as a gift from the ruler of Sikkim (then an independent kingdom) in 1835, they appointed Archibald Campbell as the superintendent of the hill station four years later. Among the many things introduced by Campbell was the cultivation of tea. It is said that an indigenous variety of tea was being cultivated in Assam following its discovery around 1826. But the Chinese variant introduced by Campbell, nurtured in the loamy soil and the cool weather, soon turned out to be an absolute winner. The stringent rules regarding plucking and processing of tea laid down by him are still followed today.