{"product_id":"halfway-to-heaven-the-story-of-one-of-the-most-remarkable-railways-in-the-world-the-darjeeling-himalayan-railway-9781900622035","title":"Halfway to Heaven, The Story of One of the Most Remarkable Railways in the World, The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway","description":"\u003cp\u003eIndia India is everything you want or not want it to be! It is a land of palaces and poverty, of the enlightened and the pedantic, it embraces the exotic and the mundane. It has a culture of dynamic enterprise and of countless beliefs, where one-sixth of mankind lives on one-fortieth of its surface, ranging from the highest mountains in the World to one of the largest deserts. It is a land of extremes.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Darjeeling Himalayan Railway bears witness to this, and captures the imagination of all who take the train that works its way from the cauterising heat of the plains into the shadow of Kanchenjunga, the third highest mountain on Earth.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne can only speculate whether it was naivety or the single minded belief that a railway to Darjeeling should have been built in the first place. No proper survey had been made prior to the laying of the track, which followed a road originally designed for animals to haul carts to Darjeeling, and nobody was surprised when the train fell off the rails five times on opening day!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eUntil now, so little has been known about the history of what is undoubtedly one of the most famous railways in the World, but then that would come as no surprise to anybody who had more than a passing acquaintance with India. For the very first time, its history has been extensively researched from archive material and personal memories scattered across the World. It has weathered the ferocity of monsoons, the upheaval of politics and the devouring march of modernisation for over 120 years. But then India is a land of survivors.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHardback with dust jacket, 22x28cm, 331 pages, black \u0026amp; white and colour photographs\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCondition: Good\/Very Good\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rail Romances","offers":[{"title":"Secondhand (282)","offer_id":57138754781567,"sku":"9781900622035","price":100.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1910\/7111\/files\/9781900622035.jpg?v=1773928539","url":"https:\/\/rail-books.co.uk\/products\/halfway-to-heaven-the-story-of-one-of-the-most-remarkable-railways-in-the-world-the-darjeeling-himalayan-railway-9781900622035","provider":"Rail Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}