Last Train to Darjeeling  Steaming Through the Eastern Himalayas
The last train to Darjeeling is scheduled to leave New
Jalpaiguri railway station at nine every morning. It takes more
than an hour to prepare the aging, century-old steam engine for
its journey. If you reach the station early, you will find the
fireman shoveling coal into the firebox to build up a head of
steam while the engine driver turns the shiny brass valves.  As
the station master rings the platform bell, the Darjeeling
Passenger 1 Dn hauled by one of the few remaining steam engines
in India pulls away with an asthmatic whistle, clouds of steam
and a shower of coal cinders. The first train of the day, the
Darjeeling Passenger 3 Dn, has left at 7:15.  The train connects
villages spread along the mountain slopes and provides the
cheapest means of moving locally grown produce from the villages
to the bigger towns of Darjeeling and Siliguri. Plans to change
the two feet wide railway gauge—possibly the narrowest in the
world—to a wider track