Toy train halt at jumma patty station, Matherane
It runs on narrow gauge tracks and take almost 2 hours to climb the route of 20 kilometers from neral station to Matherane.
Matheran Hill Railway is a heritage railway in Maharashtra, India. It was built between 1901 and 1907 by Abdul Hussein Adamjee Peerbhoy, financed by his father, Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy of the Adamjee Group at the cost of Rs.16,00,000.[1] Sir Adamjee Peerbhoy visited Matheran often and wanted to build a railway to make it easier to get there
History...
more... Hussain's plans for the Matheran Hill Railway were formulated in 1900 and construction started in 1904. Consulting engineer was Everard Calthrop of Barsi Light Railway fame. The line was open to traffic by 1907.
Neral, the starting point, is about midway between Mumbai and Pune. The railway covers a distance of 20 km (12.43 mi), over large swathes of forest territory connecting Neral to Matheran in the Western Ghats hills near Karjat and Mumbai.
Originally, the tracks were laid with 30lb rails but now has 42lb rails. Ruling gradient is 1:20 (5%) with tight curves and speeds are limited to 20 km/h (12.4 mph). The line was generally closed in the monsoons because of the danger of landslides. Starting in the 1980s, the line was kept open often even in the rainy season.
The railway was closed by flood damage during 2005 and was not expected to re-open before April 2007.[2] Contrary to those expectations, the first run on the repaired railway was on 5 March 2007.[3]
The line observed its centenary on April 15th, 2007.
The railways comes under the administration of the Central Railways and is being promoted as a future World Heritage Site.
Data Reference taken from wikipedia.org
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click hereBy Rohit Baisakhiya