World | India
Matheran toy train completes 100 years
For those looking for quick summer vacation trips in the cool, green hills, the Matheran Light Railway (MLR) is back to full steam after completing 100 years of chugging up and down the hills.
- By Pamela Raghunath, Correspondent
- Published: 00:00 April 19, 2007
- Image Credit: Sundar/Gulf News
- Centenary celebrations of the Matheran Light Railway at Matheran station.
Mumbai: For those looking for quick summer vacation trips in the cool, green hills, the Matheran Light Railway (MLR) is back to full steam after completing 100 years of chugging up and down the hills.
In all these years it only went out of service for more than a year after the July 2005 floods washed and damaged the tracks at several points, and the 21.8 km stretch from Neral up to the 800 metres high hill station then underwent repairs.
It reopened in March this year and on Sunday, the centenary celebrations of the MLR (1907-2007) were held in Matheran, which is the country's only hill station where motor vehicles are banned.
Gentle ascent
Holiday-makers generally take a Mumbai-Pune train from Chatrapathi Shivaji Terminus, alight at Neral, 87 km from Mumbai, and board what is popularly known as the toy train for a two and a half hour ride.
The gentle ascent takes one past breathtaking valleys on one side, waterfalls on the other, usually after the monsoon, and a host of food vendors and monkeys jumping on and off as the train covers some incredibly steep slopes leaving you light-headed.
"We run four services everyday, with the train's capacity at just around 100," said Ashok Singh, Public Relations Officer, Central Railway.
The rush for tickets on the train can be quite incredible on holidays at Neral as a visit to Matheran is incomplete without a ride on the toy train.
A motorable road reaches up to a lower point from where one has to walk. The only mode of transport in this hill station is horses and hand-drawn rickshaws.
It was a proud moment for the residents of the hill station as the 1917-built B-Class steam locomotive pulled a special six-coach train on a downhill journey on Sunday.
Before that, Minister of State for Railways Naranbhai Rathwa unveiled a commemorative postal cover as well as an exhibition on the railway line's history and promised it would be converted into a museum.
Application
As a commemoration, a MLR locomotive number - 741 - has been installed at the Matheran station. The railways have already made an application to Unesco to declare MLR a World Heritage Site.
Work on the MLR started in 1904 after Abdul Hussain, son of business tycoon Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy of Mumbai, planned the narrow two-foot gauge railway line.
It was finally opened to traffic in 1907 with two steam locomotives built by Orenstein & Koppel, Germany, and a Darjeeling class steam engine. The topography was selected in order to avoid tunnels, except for a small one.
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