Darjeeling Mail,Since 1878

🚂 The Darjeeling Mail is one of the oldest running legendary trains in India that has been running from pre-independence days and is still in operation. It connects to the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway at New Jalpaiguri in Siliguri. This is a major train for Kolkata–Siliguri route. It is also the first train to run with AC electric loco WAP-7 in Sealdah to New-Jalpaiguri stretch. During the British period all connections to North Bengal were through East Bengal. From 1878, the railway route from Kolkata, then called Calcutta, to Siliguri was in two laps. The first lap was a 184.9 kilometres (114.9 mi) long journey along the Eastern Bengal State Railway from Calcutta Station (later renamed Sealdah) to Damookdeah Ghat on the southern bank of the Padma River. The passengers would then avail a ferry across the river. The second lap of the journey was a 363.1 kilometres (225.6 mi) metre-gauge line of the North Bengal Railway that linked Saraghat on the northern bank of the Padma to Siliguri. Later the 1.8 kilometres (5,900 ft) long Hardinge Bridge across the Padma came up in 1912. In 1916 the metre-gauge section north of the bridge was converted to broad gauge, and so the entire Calcutta – Siliguri route became broad-gauge. The route thus roughly ran: Sealdah–Ranaghat–Bheramara–Hardinge Bridge–Iswardi–Santahar–Hili–Parabtipur–Nilphamari–Haldibari–Jalpaiguri–Siliguri. The Darjeeling Mail ran on this route in pre-partition days. Even after the partition of India it ran on this route for some years. #guidebook #itsdidarul #pindleindia #pindlegem #sharewithpindle #mycountry2