Talk:Darjeeling Himalayan Railway

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[edit] 2 foot or 600 mm gauge?

Is the DHR at a gauge of 2 feet or 600 mm? This article claims the latter, but most references I find say the former. The two only differ by about 9 mm, so maybe it doesn't matter. —Morven 06:28, Dec 4, 2004 (UTC)

India seems to be metric so gauge references are now given in mm and lengths in km but I don't think there is any doubt that being built by the British it was 2ft. Having ridden it earlier this year, I don't think they start worrying until it is 29 to 39mm out of gauge! AHEMSLTD 19:06, 29 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] New vehicles soon?

Those steam trains have been there for a long time, they suely will sooner or later reach the end of their useful working lives (the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is not (officially) a tourist/heritage service), and will need to be replaced (they won't last forever in regular service).Myrtone (the strict Australian wikipedian)(talk)

[edit] Max slope

Any idea of the max slope percentage ? IIRC a documentary say it was about 7-8 % (ie for 100 meters we climb 8 meters).

I've heard it's world's second steepest railway, & the steepest not to use a ratchet system like a roller coaster, rising 2257.7m in 88.5km, on a route with 906 bends & 6 switchbacks.
I've also heard its station at Gum, @2257.7m, is world's second highest railway station. Trekphiler 23:58, 27 December & 04:37, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
Ghum is certainly not the world's second highest railway station. The recently opened China-Tibet railway has several stations above 4500m, the highest being Tanggula at 5068m. There are several lines crossing the Andes over 4000m. As for the claim about being the steepest adhesion worked line, I doubt this and you'd need to cite several reliable sources for it. There are industrial railways that are steepr. The Hendre Ddu Tramway had a branch at over 20% gradient that was allegedly locomotive worked, just to give one example. Even if you restricted the list to passenger lines, the Pöstlingberg Railway runs on a 10.5% gradient and there are several others steeper than 8%. Gwernol 07:22, 29 December 2006 (UTC)