Heritage

The Darjeeling Himalayan railway is a marvel of sorts in what one would call non-engineering. It uses neither rack mechanism nor cable as other mountain railways do, but moves only on adhesion. It was the genius and vision of Franklin Prestage, which conceived of such a mechanism and executed it to perfection. During its 87.48-kms journey from Siliguri to Darjeeling, the toy train as it is aptly and affectionately referred to, loops gracefully around those recalcitrant humps, much like a spiral and chugs its way up to Ghum, its highest point at 7,407 feet. This particular shot was taken at ?Batasia loop? near Ghoom. Since 1999 the train has been a World Heritage Site as listed by UNESCO.