The little blue train 6

Darjeeling - New Jalpaiguri - Kolkata

We left Darjeeling early as it was election day in West Bengal and to avoid being delayed by road blocks. The journey was this time in a Tata 4WD that had no seatbelts!

The weather was ever changing during our decent. It went from sunshine to rain to fog to rain to sunshine. The driver decided to avoid the normal road and instead go through tea plantations. I must say it was scenic.

A scene of a landslide in the distance

New Jalpaiguri is a busy railway station where tracks from Assam in the north to Kolkata in the south and lines to the west and the narrow gauge Darjeeling Himalayan Railway converge at this station. This station use to have 3 different gauge tracks. The narrow 2 ft gauge of the DHR, the metre gauge to Assam and the broad gauge of the Indian Railway system. The metre gauge has now been converted to the broad gauge.

The layout of New Jalpaiguri

A very colourful steam locomotive at the carpark of the station

  This is a really busy station with more than a hundred express train passing through the station daily to destinations all over India. There are also express trains that originate from this station. As photography is a sensitive security issue, I approached the station master for permission and he was kind enough to walk with me so that security would me alone while we had a nice chat about trains.

On the left is the narrow gauge DHR tracks and the right the broad gauge tracks

Indian Railways DMU

These DMU's operate short and medium distance services

WDG4 diesel electric loco normally used for cargo services

A class WDG-3A loco. "W" -wide gauge, "D" - diesel, "G" -  used only for Goods trains, "3A" - means the locomotive's power is 3,100 hp ('3' stands for 3000 hp, 'A' denotes 100 hp more)

The class WDP-4 on the left is capable of hauling 24 coach trains at 110–120 km/hour. It has also been used for speed trials where it has hauled 8 coach trains at 160 km/hour.

The yard is full of cargo trains

The platforms are constantly busy with express trains arriving every few minutes

Our train to Kolkata, the Padatik Express departs at night and we had about 6 hours to kill at the station, so we hired a "retirement room". While the room was in bad condition, it was at least an oasis from the chaos below.

About an hour before departure we had to go to check the passenger list to find out our berth assignment. When you book a ticket in India, you are not assigned a seat until about an hour before departure. You have to join the hundreds that will converge at the board where a you would have to find your name from a computer printout.

The Padatik Express is a daily "superfast" train which runs between New Jalpaiguri and Sealdah Station in Kolkata, a distance of 573 kilometres and takes just over 10 hours. This train is named after renowned Bengali poet Subhash Mukhopadhyay's book - Padatik. 

The train offers all the available classes of travel on Indian Railways – 1st AC(1A), 2nd AC(2A), 3rd AC(3A), Sleeper(SL), General Unreserved Class. The train is composed of 16 coaches and is usually hauled by WDM-3A from Bardhaman diesel loco shed.

We booked the 1st Class Aircon which are compartments with 4 sleeping berths except for one compartment that has only 2 berths and were lucky to be assigned 2 berth compartment.

A WDM-3A class loco 16414 on duty that night. Class WDM-3A is IR workhorse diesel locomotive since 1994, manufactured in India by the Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW), Varanasi.

16 Coaches long

Our coach

The corridor of our 1st class coach

Our 2 berth 1st class cabin

2nd class Aircon

The very sad vegetarian meal on board the train

  I had a very good nights sleep as I was so tired from all the traveling. Woke up to realise that we were about 1 hour delayed, so spent the time looking at the countryside and the many trains we crossed.

Thank you for visiting Rail Plane Travels. Next part is about Kolkata. Drop by again for that.

The little blue train 5

Darjeeling - DHR

So finally the time came for the chance to ride on the DHR or Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. Well the first try was met with disappointment as the tickets were sold out on my first try. The plan was to ride the Steam Tourist Train on day 2 and Diesel service to Kurseong on day 3 but as there were no tickets on the first try so I had to do both on day 3.

Buying train tickets in India requires preparation and patience. You must first get a booking form, find the correct train number and information, fill in the form, join the line at the ticket counter. The trick is to also fill up a few other forms for alternative trains. When my first choice was full, I had to leave the line, fill in another form and join the line again!

As in my case,  during peak time the trains get booked up quickly, so early booking is advisable. You may be ‘wait-listed’ i.e. put on a waiting list with allocation of any unoccupied seats near to departure time but you have to fight your way to get on top of the list. Bring along your passport and try to use the "I am a tourist" to get priority.

Booking form in hand

You need to refer to the board on the left to assist in the booking information

Yes it's my turn

Sold out? Ok can I have the next train? What fill in another form and come back? WTF

The ticket for the tourist train

So in the morning I jumped on the normal diesel service to Kurseong. It was a slow but interesting journey. It departs Darjeeling around 10 am and arrives in Kurseong at 1.00 pm. From there I had to immediately find a taxi and rush back to Darjeeling to get the 4pm Tourist Train! It was going to be a tight and rushed day but everything worked out well and on time!

The route from Darjeeling to Kurseong

The coaches are named after mountain peaks

Tourist line up to watch our departure

Squeezing pass the shops

This group of children decided to race the train.....

.....they were faster than the train!

People started to run and jump onto the train.

That is wedding reception

Sonada Station

The small Tung Station

Kurseong Station

Once we arrive I quickly look for a taxi and we zoom back to Darjeeling so that I could join the 4 pm Tourist train. Thank fully the weather was great and traffic light.

Steaming along the tracks to Ghum

The 2 hour tourist train excursion has two first class carriages. Along the journey, the train stops at the impressive viewpoint of Batasia Loop for 10 minutes and arrives at Ghum 50 minutes after departure from Darjeeling. 



The Batasia Loop is one of the 5 spiral railway loops created to lower the gradient of ascent of the DHR. At this point, the track spirals around over itself through a tunnel and over a hilltop. It was commissioned in 1919.

During the 10 minute stop we get to walk around

There is also a memorial to the Gorkha soldiers of the Indian Army who sacrificed their lives after the Independence of India in 1947.     

 

While the passengers walked around the garden, I took this opportunity to get a closer look at the locomotive.

Once you arrive at Ghum there is a break for 30 minutes and this is an opportunity to visit the railway museum. It a very small and basic museum but you will get a good idea about how the DHR was built. Outside there are also a few locomotives and coaches on display. Admission to the museum is included in the fare of the tourist train service.  

Old locomotive on display at the Station

Changing the direction of locomotive at Ghum

The Steam locomotive needs a lot of TLC

By the time we depart Ghum, fog starts to roll in and it starts to get dark. It was truly a wonderful day traveling up and down the DHR.

 

This is the video I made of the train rides on the DHR

Thanks for visiting and drop by again for my train ride to Kolkata on Indian Railways!