two trains to Darjeeling

I traveled to Darjeeling from Kolkata by train, two trains actually. I first took a night train from the main Kolkata train station, Howrah, north to a commercial city of New Jailpaiguri (NJP). The Howrah train station is a large and busy Indian train station, but I managed to find my train and got on board. I shared the sleeper compartment with two army soldiers and a government development agent. The trip went on schedule, with periodic stops at stations which interrupted my sleep, but it got me to NJP. My first experience with the Indian train system was comforting, the train was on time, well run and my e-Ticket that I purchased over the internet before I left was good-to-go. It was early morning when I arrived in NJP and the Mimalaya mountains could be seen in the clear early morning air.

From NJP I took the "toy train" up into the Himalayan foot hills to the colonial hill station city of Darjeeling. It is called the toy train because it is a small train with narrow gage tracks, the tracks are about two feet apart. The main India train network is wide gage, with rails about four feet apart. When I found the platform at the train station that the toy train was going to leave from, I met a traveler from Singapore and in discussion we found that we had both arranged to stay at the same hotel in Darjeeling, called Andy's Guesthouse, so we became traveling companions. On the train, we met another traveler, a woman from France, and she joined us in our journey to Darjeeling. The train had a small engine and four passenger cars. It didn't go very fast, and when it starting climbing up the hills to 7,500ft on steep side hills, the train tracks zig-zagged back and forth, with the train going forward for a while, then backing up a zig before proceeding with another zag. This was the original train to the hill station in Darjeeling and it passes through some very scenic country and past some small villages where the people came out to watch the train go by. The total distance was 80km and took 9 hours. We arrived in Darjeeling in the late afternoon and caught a taxi to Andy's Guesthouse where the three of us stayed for a couple of nights before going our separate ways on our travels.