Talk:Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

2 foot or 600 mm gauge?

Is the DHR at a gauge of 2 feet or 600 mm? This article claims the latter, but most references I find say the former. The two only differ by about 9 mm, so maybe it doesn't matter. —Morven 06:28, Dec 4, 2004 (UTC)

India seems to be metric so gauge references are now given in mm and lengths in km but I don't think there is any doubt that being built by the British it was 2ft. Having ridden it earlier this year, I don't think they start worrying until it is 29 to 39mm out of gauge! AHEMSLTD 19:06, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

Fair enough it is a rickety outfit, but what is the gauge actually in use? Or are you saying that some of the rolling stock and/or the laid track is 600 mm exactly while the rest is 2 ft (=607 mm)? Seven milimeters is not negletable, especially in such a technically challenging line! --Tuvalkin (talk) 02:08, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

From a maintenance standpoint, I believe the gauge would be between a "not greater than" distance and a "not less than" distance. I don't know what those distances might be, but a reference citation would be a valuable addition to this article. I wouldn't be surprised to find both 60 cm and 2 feet included between those two critical dimensions.Thewellman (talk) 04:42, 30 September 2011 (UTC)

New vehicles soon?

Those steam trains have been there for a long time, they suely will sooner or later reach the end of their useful working lives (the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is not (officially) a tourist/heritage service), and will need to be replaced (they won't last forever in regular service).Myrtone (the strict Australian wikipedian)(talk)

Max slope

Any idea of the max slope percentage ? IIRC a documentary say it was about 7-8 % (ie for 100 meters we climb 8 meters).

I've heard it's world's second steepest railway, & the steepest not to use a ratchet system like a roller coaster, rising 2257.7m in 88.5km, on a route with 906 bends & 6 switchbacks.

I've also heard its station at Gum, @2257.7m, is world's second highest railway station. Trekphiler 23:58, 27 December & 04:37, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Ghum is certainly not the world's second highest railway station. The recently opened China-Tibet railway has several stations above 4500m, the highest being Tanggula at 5068m. There are several lines crossing the Andes over 4000m. As for the claim about being the steepest adhesion worked line, I doubt this and you'd need to cite several reliable sources for it. There are industrial railways that are steepr. The Hendre Ddu Tramway had a branch at over 20% gradient that was allegedly locomotive worked, just to give one example. Even if you restricted the list to passenger lines, the Pöstlingberg Railway runs on a 10.5% gradient and there are several others steeper than 8%. Gwernol 07:22, 29 December 2006 (UTC)

Contradictory statements

The introduction section says: "Four modern diesel locomotives handle most of the scheduled services: however the daily Kurseong-Darjeeling return service and the daily tourist trains from Darjeeling to Ghum (India's highest railway station) are handled by the vintage British-built B Class steam locomotive, DHR 778." but the Authenticity and Integrity section says: "Most of the original steam locomotives are still in use". These two statements seem to contradict each other.--Roly (talk) 16:36, 25 February 2013 (UTC)

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Spelling

The route map shows all the stations ... shouldn't the spelling of the stations' names use the same spelling as on the route map (or at least one consistent version)? For example,

- the map shows Rongtong — but under Stations is Rangtong; and a photo of the station is labelled Rangtong, even though the name is clearly shown as Rongtong (though, to be fair, the fare table (called the 'Railway distance chart' for some strange reason) shows the station as "Rang Tong" (but that's because the vowel sound is 'uh', which is not easily transliterated into English ... Rungtung would be closer);

- the details for Rongtong mention 'Chunbatti', the track map shows 'Chunbhatti' , and the earlier photo is captioned "The Choonbatty loop in 1925" — but the route map spells it 'Chunabhati';

- Jorebungalow is shown on the track map as 'Jor Bungalow', but is not listed in the fare table, nor is it shown on the route map; however, the Devanagari script suggests that it should be 'Jorbungla'.

Perhaps it's time for some consistency? Prisoner of Zenda (talk) 10:41, 24 October 2021 (UTC)

Rolling stock list

Currently working on a Draft:List of rolling stock of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway for the DHR. —Sladen (talk) 17:05, 24 June 2022 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Sukna Train Station which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 14:55, 11 May 2024 (UTC)