Visitors at Fairbourne station. A Telegraph picture

Siliguri, Sept. 3: Sukna in Wales, an event celebrating the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, has created history of sorts in UK’s Fairbourne station.

“The Sunday of the two-day event was the second busiest day in the history of Fairbourne Railway, only missing out on the top spot by £400,” David Barrie, the chairman of both the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Society (DHRS) and the Fairbourne Railway Society, wrote in an email to The Telegraph.

“Everyone had a lot of fun, the weather was great, the crowds were delighted, we raised over £200 for charitable projects at Darjeeling and ticket revenue broke almost all the records.”

Darjeeling Railway Community Support, the charity sub-committee of the DHRS, will spend the £200 (more than Rs 16,000) to promote self-help activities among people involved with the toy train service in Darjeeling. In the past, the committee distributed sewing machines, books and learning material to schoolchildren and ran vocational training courses.

Sukna in Wales was organised over the Bank Holiday Weekend on August 26 and 27. Toy train lovers had converted the Fairbourne station into its very own Sukna station, with the pride of place going to Sherpa, the half-size replica of the steam locomotives running in Darjeeling.

Fairbourne Railway itself is a miniature railway with tracks laid on a gauge of approximately 1ft, compared to narrow gauge, which is 2ft wide.

Apart from the numerous prayer flags and railway signs in both Hindi and English, the organisers also paid a tribute to the road signs along NH 55, which winds its way up to Darjeeling from Siliguri alongside the toy train tracks. Signs with the words “Better be late Mr Motorist — than the late Mr Motorist” were put up in Fairbourne, along with a large banner proclaiming “Hurry Burry spoils the Curry”.

A part of the event focused solely on raising funds for different organisations in both India and the UK.

While around £200 each was raised for the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and Fairbourne Railway, the Royal National Lifeboat Association’s collection was about £350, said Barrie.