DHR TEAM TO GLEAN CONSERVATION TIPS AFTER UNESCO WORRY .....Toy train keepers on UK heritage line

AVIJIT SINHA, TT, 12 Oct 2018, Siliguri: A team of four employees from the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) in the hills will fly to the UK next week to know about the conservation of heritage railways in that country.

They will stay in UK for five days and take a trip to Wales and Oxfordshire to experience narrow gauge services running there for several decades.

"This is the first-of-its-kind trip for railway employees of any heritage railway of India. It is a five-day capacity building programme where they will learn about conservation and maintenance of the old railways of UK so that in due course, the same can be replicated in the DHR," said Subrata Nath, director (heritage) of the Indian Railway Board over phone from Delhi.

The team, Nath said, would be led by M.K. Narzary. "Those going on the trip will have to work in DHR for at least two years and will not be transferred as we need to use their experience for conservation of DHR," said a source.

The upcoming visit of the railway team has also been appreciated by DHR enthusiasts in the UK.

Adrian Shooter, the president of UK-based DHR Society, confirmed that the team would be visiting his place at Steeple Aston in Oxfordshire.

Shooter, who owns a DHR "B" Class steam loco and has a railway track in his garden -- he has named it as He has named it as Beeches Light Railway -- has mentioned in a mail to The Telegraph that the team is likely to meet him on Sunday.

"Recently, Indian Railways has asked if the four officials could visit my railway and, later spend some time on the two-ft-gauge Ffestiniog and Welsh Highland Railways which, together, are 42 miles long....similar in length to the DHR. As president of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society, I shall be proud to receive these gentlemen," Shooter written in his mail.

The Ffestiniog Railway is almost a 200-year-old railway and runs a distance from the harbour of Porthmadog, a coastal town in Wales, to the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog. Paul Whittle, the vicechairman of DHRS, said it would be first such overseas training trip for the staff of DHR.

The decision, sources said, follows the recurring nudges from Unesco, that has conferred the World Heritage status to DHR in 1999, particularly after the disruptions in services and destruction during the agitation and shutdown on last year.

Additional reporting by Bireswar Banerjee.