We had on display at our train shows a number of Colin Menzies’ remarkable models. One of these was this Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Engine. Read the story of how this model came to be below. To read the history of this amazing railway click on the “next” arrow below. To see where Darjeeling is click here. You can ride the DHR in your computer. A group is building a virtual DHR using software called TRAINZ. Click here for the group’s site and here to see a sample of their work. To see a movie of the DHR click here.
Background to Construction by Tony Phillips
Colin and I were discussing cog and rack railways (aka rack and pinion) where an engine has a cog which fits in a rack in the middle of track to climb up very steep hills … the Pike’s Peak railway in Colorado is one such railway. Colin remembered a PBS documentary about the DHR which climbed a really big mountain in the Himalayas without a cog and rack and had ”really neat little engines“. I found a metal kit to build one of the DHR engines but it was mega expensive and it required expert soldering skills. Our collective ability to solder we agreed was zero.
Undaunted Colin said, “I’ll build one”. So, I amassed a pile of photos of the DHR from the ‘net for Colin to work from and provided an LGB G Scale loco for the chassis/works … and Colin did the rest! My major assistance was saying “wow” frequently. My research on this incredible “toy” railway can be found by clicking here . Here’s a picture of the real thing.
