India, circa 1885
attributed to Johnston & Hofmann

The train in this photograph, built between 1879 and 1881 by the «Darjeeling Steam Tramway Company», traveled the 80 kilometers separating Siliguri from Darjeeling in just 5 hours and 45 minutes. The railway’s construction, spurred by the flourishing tea industry, required numerous feats of imagination by its engineers: for example, this picturesque loop at Tindharia. Today the line is inscribed in Unesco’s World Heritage List.