Your journey commences: New Jalpaiguri – Tindharia
On leaving New Jalpaiguri the little line parallels its bigger Metre gauge cousin (on the left facing the direction of travel) through the built-up area of Siliguri, an important trade centre for Assam and the Eastern Himalayas.
After Siliguri we cross the river Mahanadi on a 700 foot-long bridge although much of the river bed is often dry. After Siliguri junction the line enters open countryside where we soon see our first tea estates. At one time the Darjeeling Railway had branches from here to the south at Kishangunj (now replaced by a Metre gauge line) and north-east up the beautiful Teesta Valley. Unfortunately this latter line was washed away by the Monsoon in 1950 never to be restored.
We now see the Himalayan Foothills in front of us, probably wreathed in the mystic blue mists of the morning. At Sukna you can stretch your legs and take photographs whist we make our first stop for water before we start the climb (these stops will be a regular occurrence from now on).
By Rangtong we have reached 1,400 feet and soon stop for more water a little after the station - time now to pause and admire the beautiful Terai Forest stretching down below to our left. Once we are ready the train runs on through thickly wooded forest but is soon stopping for our first engineering feat - a reversing station. We run backwards and forwards again climbing up steep slopes in both directions, zig-zagging through the jungle to gain all-important height. At one time a steep and complicated loop existed here but this was replaced by the reversing station in World War II to enable bigger and heavier trains to run.
Further on we come to what is now the first loop at Chunbati once the site of a rest house in the days of travel by Tonga(horse cart). On the mountainside to the north-east the big building you see is Tindharia works where the little trains are maintained. Later on we run past the works on our left before halting at Tindharia. We are now 2,822 feet above sea level.
