A father explains the rare photographs of the DHR to his daughters at the Sukna Heritage Museum, which was inaugurated on Thursday. Picture by Diptendu Dutta

Four frail-looking Indians in their traditional daura sural (almost like a kurta salwar) and topi, trying hard to keep balance as they trudge uphill with a sahib on their shoulders on a dandy (a substitute for cab).

This is one of the 52 rare sketches and photographs related to the Toy Train that are on display at the new Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) Heritage Museum at Sukna, 10 km from Siliguri. Kamal Krishna Pradhan, a retired DHR employee, inaugurated the museum in presence of P. K. Mittal, the additional divisional railway manager and DHR CEO of the Northeast Frontier Railway. This is the third DHR museum after the ones at Ghoom and Kurseong.

The sahib in the 1897 sketch is Mark Twain during his stay in Darjeeling. In one of his entries in his personal diary the American author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer had written: ?The railway (DHR) journey...takes eight hours to make it. It is so wild and interesting and exciting and enchanting that it ought to take a week. As for the vegetation, it is a museum.? Twain had come to Darjeeling in 1896.

Rail authorities described the setting up of the museum at Sukna as an effort to popularise the DHR. ?DHR lovers from across the globe have given us the pictures,? said Tarak Nath Bhattacharya, the public relations officer. ?These collections would help us learn more about the heritage train. The little anecdotes behind each of them is very interesting. Tourists taking a ride on the DHR will find an additional attraction in the museum set up here. We are planning to add more to the collection, which now mainly comprises photographs and sketches of the Toy Train,? Bhattacharya added.

The present treasure includes a sketch of tongas that used to ply the roads of the Hill town in 1861 ? way before the Hill Cart Road was built ? and a rare picture of DHR emerging from under the Coronation Bridge at Sevoke.

The visitors can make a virtual trip to the DHR of the yesteryear through the rare photographs put on display. The shot of the Kurseong station (1880) before it was shifted to its present location, that of Tindharia before the DHR workshop was set up there in 1910 and the one of private trolleys running on the DHR tracks throw clearer light on the history of the heritage railway. But, one of the most interesting pictures is that of a 100-year-old woman ? referred to as the witch of Ghoom by the residents of the area ? who frequented the Tindharia station in the 1890s.

Souvenirs have also been put up for sale at a counter inside the museum. ?We want to turn the DHR into a cult among the youths. With this aim, we have come up with t-shirts, caps, key rings and other such articles to be sold at the various DHR stations,? Bhattacharya said. Souvenirs worth Rs 1,500 were sold this morning.

?Heads of families or leaders of groups chartering the heritage railway will be given certificates ? as a sort of a memento ? about their journey on the train. This would definitely be an added attraction for DHR lovers,? he added.