Whenever I had a chance to visit Bengaluru’s Cubbon Park and ride on its iconic toy train, the Puttani Express, I could always see many parents accompanying their kids, equally enthralled by the ride. That perhaps explains why a toy train anywhere continues to attract tourists in droves.
Years ago, I travelled on the narrow-gauge Darjeeling Himalayan Toy Train running between New Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling, which was hauled by a diesel locomotive. All through the seven-hour journey, the landscape kept changing, with the train chugging along mountain roads, sometimes even right in the middle of a bustling road.
Midway, one coach of our slow-moving train got derailed; soon, a group of rail workers descended on the spot and, backed up by special equipment, physically mounted it back on the track! As Darjeeling neared, the sight of baby-sized steam locomotives hauling shorter-route trains, with their sweet-sounding whistle reverberating across the hills, threw us spellbound.
Previously, I had watched a BBC documentary on this train, in which its guard also appeared intermittently. Unexpectedly, I found the same person, sporting a distinctive beard and wearing a black suit with his name pinned on it, on duty aboard our train. When I reminded him about the TV programme, he proudly narrated how it all happened.
Recently, we took another joy trip on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, another World Heritage Site, to Ooty. The platform at the Mettupalayam-originating station was brimming with train enthusiasts. The train comprised four chair cars and a steam engine at the back, all vintage. At the intermediate halts, people got off the train to enjoy the refreshing view of the mountainous surroundings. At some stations, a troop of monkeys would swarm the platform to grab food from the travellers. The train meanders through numerous stone bridges, some curved, all of a bygone era. Much of the metre-gauge track here has a rack and pinion system for the train to securely climb the steep gradient.
As the steam locomotive bears the heavy thrusting of the train upward, the resulting jerks sometimes give us the feel of a pony ride!
To add to the all-around fun, the lone TTE of our train, a jolly Malayalee lady named K Valli, would drop by randomly and befriend the picnickers. As a polyglot, she would even croon some hit numbers from Hindi, Tamil, and Malayalam movies. Her call for a group Antakshari, an all-time favourite travel pastime, earned an instant thumbs-up from many. She had, in a way, found a unique way to deal with her own mechanical and repetitive routine on desolate, hilly terrain!