Friday 21st February - On the Two Foot

Sinclair's requires earplugs as the line through Siliguri Junction passes close by and the road behind our room is a regular dogfighting venue. Otherwise it is a perfectly good hotel, on the Marie Celeste model. There are plenty of staff but we have not seen any other guests at all. Actually it does score a minus point for only having small bottles of beer and a choice between Budweiser, Corona and Tuborg. We will be going out again tonight. We breakfast in solitary splendour, enjoying a buffet with all sorts of delights. Shingaras, chopped chicken sausage, chickpea curry and those puffed up fried dough things that cause so much controversy. There is even a selection of desserts so D indulges in rosogallas. The morning looks more promising than the last couple of days, with the sun threatening to break through the haze. Just the day for a train ride.

R has opted out for some inexplicable reason so D sets out solo for Siliguri Junction, arriving to see the narrow gauge train sitting in the platform but with the engine at the wrong end. The loco pilot explains that the train will be another two hours as it has to go to NJP, where the service starts. A request to go with them is turned down by the guard so D has time to kill. A couple of minor errands are run, a cup of chai enjoyed, a cycle rickshaw ride taken and then D gets down to some pictures around the station. There are guisers out around the forecourt. No doubt one of our many learned correspondents will be able to explain who D has just donated Rs 10 to.

A few years ago Siliguri Junction laid claim to being the only station in India with broad, metre and narrow gauge trains. This was after a section of metre gauge a few kilometres long was laid and a couple of railbuses commissioned to allow a service to run to and from Bagdogra. This was soon reduced to a two day a week service and then quietly dropped as we discovered when a visit to Siliguri was planned around a trip. The MG section of the station is now derelict, with a few scrap coaches in a compound. Why politicians should not be allowed to run railways.

A man on the foot overbridge demands to know why D is taking photographs on a station. It is forbidden, dangerous and will lead to prison. D is always careful not to photograph military trains and puts the camera down if rail staff object to photos, but this chap is just some busybody passing by. " I am a foreign tourist and therefore exempt from the prohibition. Are you not aware of Chapter II, Section 1.3 of the Ministry of Railways, Railway Board, "Manual for Public Relations Department" September 2007 edition?" 

The NG loco depot at SGUJ is only fifty yards from the end of one of the broad gauge platforms so that seems like a good next stop. The staff are happy for D to photograph from the gate but not for him to enter. There are a couple of B Class locos in the yard but it all looks quiet. As D turns away a large white car with a 'Government Business' notice drives in. Perhaps that is why they are being shy.

There is a track gang working on the broad gauge lines, using a a cross between a rake and a grappling hook, with a long bamboo pole handle and a crew of five. They want a group photo and are happy to discuss resleepering. All manual handling, eight men to lift a concrete sleeper, Pandrol clips "Very good."  The 'Not Quite So Low Viz' orange jackets are a recent innovation and flip flops no longer seem to be compulsory as safety wear.

At 11.10 D returns to the NG platform and spots a crowd outside being entertained by something. At this very moment a distinctive loco horn blares and D's train pulls in only 40 minutes late. The TTE is on the platform and personally escorts D to his seat. This is welcome as there are no coach numbers displayed and D's ticket is for F1/19, which doesn't appear to exist. A young lady is evicted from seat 9, forward facing, window side and D invited to park himself there. Seat 9 is part of a bay of 4 seats in the centre of the coach. All of the rear facing seats contain Indian tourists, apart from 9 all of the forward facing seats are empty. When we get going D offers the seat back and moves to the seat in front of the door.

Today's trip is just a short 30km to Tindharia but is scheduled to take 2 hours and 10 minutes to climb 680 metres in altitude (over 2000 feet). This costs Rs 750 + taxes for First Class, no a/c, no fans. The only people who use the line now are tourists. The locals have better things to do with their time and money. Repairs and maintenance must cost a fortune. Long sections have had the steel sleepers removed, and replaced with concrete ones.

Rangtong is the first stop and we wait there for an age for no apparent reason. Once we head off again there is the opportunity for some serious door riding. Although today's ride is only about a third of the length of the DHR it includes three zig zag climbs and a full spiral loop at Chunbatti. The train is not scheduled to stop here but it does and all eight or nine of the crew get involved in a conference. There appears to be doubt about whether we will cross the downhill train here or at Tindharia. This is a bit critical on a single line railway, and also because D needs to swop trains at the crossing point. 

We continue, getting a great view of the work that has been done to stabilise the landslide below Tindharia. When we reach the latter the downhill train is waiting and D has to quickly cross between trains. For this journey D has booked a seat in one of the new fangled A/c Chair Class coaches that now run on the DHR. Somebody is asleep under a blanket across the front row of seats which is where D's allocated seat 3 is. The row behind is empty so D takes the window seat, double chair. All of the seats face forward and most are occupied by sleeping Caucasian or East Asian people, judging by the luggage they are tourists. These coaches are a joke. There is no luggage space at all, not even hat racks. The seats are covered in tacky vinyl and the a/c is hopeless. It makes a lot of noise but does little to cool the air. Add in the noise of the diesel generator in a compartment at the front of the coach and it is barely possible to hear the loco hooter. If you go to the DHR DON'T BOOK ONE OF THESE!

The downhill trip is quite painless in other respects until we are held for twenty minutes at a signal outside Siliguri Junction, waiting for a clear road through the diamond crossing across the broad gauge line. Our coach attendant and the man on the front row, apparently his buddy, grab their bags and descend here. D should have followed as we are only about 200 yards from Sinclair's. But the lure of the diamond crossing is just too much. A couple of hundred yards outside the station we stop again to hand over the token and D gets off, saving a few minutes. The walk home passes a convenient off licence, so that's the cocktail hour sorted.

Back at base R has enjoyed her extra day off, polished her toenails and run up the room service bill. All true apart from the toenails. We have picked a restaurant a couple of hundred yards away on the other side of the road. Crossing is quite a challenge  but we  make it intact. It is called the Peacock's Den and features a very large mural of three horses. They seem taken aback when we say no to snacks and order a meal with beer. A plate of some kind of sprouting seeds arrives anyway  and is immediately vetoed by R on the grounds that it will be even more fatal than on train jhal muri. We settle for mutton biryani,  dal, raita and nan.  One portion of each. The waiters don't think it will be enough but we insist.  It is a huge meal, very good but  more than we can eat.

PS - This is just for PP

https://youtu.be/vo1MykK4u8U