Track
Record
A week ago, I decided to go to Darjeeling from Siliguri. So, I started
sifting through various travel options. You know what I discovered? The
Toy Train! It is a narrow-gauge railway that runs from Siliguri to
Darjeeling. Do you know what is a ‘narrow-gauge’ railway? No? Let me
then take you for a ride in it…
They are really narrow! The distance between two parallel rails in a
narrow gauge track is 1067 mm (3 ft 6 in) or less (The Darjeeling Toy
Train is a 2 ft or 610 mm gauge railway), as compared
to Standard-gauge railroads, which are 1435 mm
(4 ft 8.5 in) apart. Narrow-gauge railways operate in Japan, New
Zealand, South Africa, Canada, USA, Mexico, and Switzerland as well.
India has a large narrow-gauge network.
Building basis: They were used as ‘industrial railways’ for mining,
logging, construction, tunnelling, quarrying, and transporting of
agricultural products. They acted as links to various mountainous or
difficult terrains.
Present purpose: They are still used in many parts of the world because
of their advantages over the standard-gauge railways. These are:
 They cost less to build, equip, and operate. They require smaller
locomotives, bridges and tunnels.
They are put as temporary transport, which will
be removed after a short-term need. Such as, for construction, logging
and to a lesser degree in the mining industry.
In many countries, narrow-gauge railroads act as ‘feeder’ or ‘Branch’
lines to feed traffic (people and goods) to more important
standard-gauge railroads.
Many zoos also use narrow-gauge railways.
Huge hitch: The main problem with narrow-gauge railways is that they
cannot interchange traffic with the standard gauge railroads they link
with. They cannot handle increased speed and loading either.
Project Unigauge: So in India, barring some hill stations, most of these
are facing closure, or are being converted to broad gauge for uniformity
as a part of Project Unigauge.
Project paradox: Why? Because goods are now carried on trucks, which are
faster than these slow moving quaint trains. The irony here is that
while the trains do run packed with people, ticketless travel is so
common in these remote tracks, that no records are available about
actual passenger load!!!
But it is still a cheap and easy means of travel for the rural folks.
They are also less polluting than trucks. Are the railway authorities
listening?
| If
narrow-gauge railways are Toy trains for some, it is a link and
source of livelihood for others. I feel that narrow-gauge
railways are very important... What do you think? |
|
