HIMALAYAN RAILWAY HERITAGE JOURNAL ยท MOUNTAIN ENGINEERING How a Tiny Mountain Railway Conquered the Steep Slopes of Darjeeling Discover how ingenious loops, reversing zigzags, and narrow-gauge engineering allowed trains to climb from the plains toward the Himalayan hill station of Darjeeling. MOUNTAIN RAILWAYS LOOPS & ZIGZAGS RAILWAY HERITAGE High in the hills of West Bengal, … Read more
Traversing the jagged peaks and glacier valleys of the Swiss Canton of Graubรผnden, the Rhaetian Railway (Rhรคtische Bahn – RhB) and Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn (MGB) represent the supreme pinnacle of narrow-gauge mountain civil engineering on earth. Operating over an extensive metre-gauge (1,000 mm) network, these railways host two of the worlds most famous alpine journeys: … Read more
Stretching an astounding 9,289 kilometers (5,772 miles) across two continents, eight time zones, and the vast expanse of the Eurasian landmass, the Trans-Siberian Railway (ะขัะฐะฝััะธะฑะธััะบะฐั ะผะฐะณะธัััะฐะปั) is the longest continuous railway corridor on earth. Authorized in March 1891 by Imperial Rescript of Tsar Alexander III and inaugurated under Tsarevich Nicholas (later Tsar Nicholas II), this … Read more
Clinging precariously to the mist-shrouded foothills of the Eastern Himalayas in West Bengal, India, the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR)โaffectionately christened the Toy Trainโis an undisputed masterwork of mountain railway engineering. Engineered between 1879 and 1881 under Franklin Prestage, agent of the Eastern Bengal Railway, this 54-mile (88 km) line climbs from the hot, swampy plains … Read more
The construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) between 1881 and 1885 stands as the supreme nation-building epic in North American history. Spanning nearly 3,000 miles across the pre-Cambrian granite of the Canadian Shield, the vast emptiness of the Great Plains, and the titanic barriers of the Rocky and Selkirk Mountains, the CPR was the … Read more