Railways ends ‘cannibalism’ to save Darjeeling toy train’s heritage tag
Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR), one the world’s oldest mountain railway systems, has ended the very practice that helped sustain it for decades – cannibalism, which in railway jargon means using the parts of one locomotive to run another in better shape.
The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) and Heavy Engineering Corporation Limited (HECL) on Friday signed a five-year agreement for manufacturing ‘vintage’ spares to re-run DHR’s fleet of dead steam locomotives, affectionately called Iron Sherpas.
The pact has signalled the death of cannibalism. But it is expected to lessen DHR’s dependence on diesel locomotives, which the Unesco wants out if the toy train has to retain its World Heritage Site tag.
The 138-year-old DHR, under the control of the Guwahati-headquartered NFR, earned the tag in 1999. Downgrading DHR, which covers 78km from West Bengal’s New Jalpaiguri to Darjeeling, could have had a domino effect on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the Kalka-Shimla Railway that were later clubbed to form the Mountain Railways of India World Heritage Site.
NFR officials said they have been managing to operate some of the 13 B-class engines, almost all of which were acquired between 1982 and 1927. These were on the verge of being shunted out, as there were very few locomotives to cannibalise on.
“The agreement with HECL has come at the right time for keeping
DHR going. With steam locomotives promising to give DHR its old-world charm back, we hope to make the railway system viable by 2020,” Chahatey Ram, NFR’s general manager, said after inking the deal with HECL’s chairmancum-managing director Avijit Ghosh.
In an irony of ironies, the cows that Pehlu Khan — the Muslim man lynched by vigilantes in Rajasthan’s Alwar in April —was suspected to be smuggling have found shelter in a gaushala run by one of his alleged assailants.
The cows are currently sharing space with 600 other bovines in Shri Rath Sarvajanik Gaushala of Dahmi village. The cowshed was run by Jagmal Yadav, who has been on the run since Khan’s death two days after being brutally assaulted.
The attack on Khan and four other companions while they were transporting cattle to their dairy farm on April 1 caused national outrage. Khan died of his injuries after he recorded a police statement in which he named six people. Yadav is among those. They are all absconding, though the police have made several other arrests on suspicion of their involvement in the thrashing.
Back at Dahmi village, the incident of April 1 is still a subject of animated discussion. Even Khan’s cows that the police brought to the gaushala for safe keeping enjoy a special status. Special orange tags have been pinned to their ears so that they stand out among the other cattle. Policemen from the local police station also visit occasionally to check on them.
“These are Pehlu Khan’s cows. Everyone living around here