The Kangra Valley is no tone place in particular. It is the name given to the entire region that lies between the Dhaula Dhar ranges of the Himalayas to the north and he last straggling foothills to the south, so, roughly speaking, we are talking about a slim rectangular belt running ninety miles in length and thirty miles in breadth through the mountains. To the north they rear skyward: first, a low chain of ridges followed by an extensive line of peaks averaging between 7,000 and 9,000 feet and, directly behind, those massifs rising from 13,000 to well over 16,000 feet. Then the snows.

The Kangra Valley Railways is ample proof that the railways engineer can create a work which will be in harmony with the beauty and mystical surroundings where he has to work. This he has done here without destroying the grandeur of the mountain. He reveals to the traveler an enchanted fairyland. It is that kind of place.

Like the Russian émigré, Roerich’s paintings, the line is where a poet or an artist would have placed it. This symphony emphasizes the tremendous depth of the gorges through which sparkling streams tear their impetuous way to the great plains of India.

Anything else would have ruined it. A different alignment, a different mode of taking the railway through the maze of hills and valleys would have spoiled its picture postcard perfectness.

This unique line has just two tunnels, one of which is only 250 feet and the other 1,000 feet in length. We must remember this is in a total distance of 103 miles. Instead of boring his way through the mountains , the railway engineer has skillfully avoided running head first into the hillside; instead of following dizzy curves, he has cleverly chosen to avoid the awkward corners and straighten his turnings. Never does the traveler feel the giddiness staling upon him as it does sometimes on other mountain routes.

Go easy on the curves! Could well have been the motto of the builders here. For the Kangra Valley railway presents to the traveler a chance to gaze as long as he likes on the ever present panorama of snow-clad ranges, the golden-green fields without being swung round every few minutes on a narrow are before his eyes can greet the scenery.

Certainly the scenery through which the trains passes is ample compensation for the extra distance covered as compared to getting there by road. The most picturesque parts of the valley are exposed to the view-the stretch of 18 miles from Mangwal to Kangra, for example, lies through country unsurpassed for majestic grandeur with the impressive Ban Ganga Gorge and the deep Kangra chasma as two piece de resistance.

As you approach Palampur, the ever-present background of the snowy chain of peaks 15,000 and 16,000 feet in height is barely ten miles away from you. From here onwards the line runs parallel to the Dhaula Dhar Range. No other railway in all of India ever comes as close to the eternal snows.

Just before Baijnath, too, the line enters a stretch of country far superior to the journey by road. Here the train threads its way among the pines of Bhir Gorge.

Not many miles further up the line is Bathu Khad which is spanned by a long viaduct constructed on a graceful curve with the rails about 100 feet above the bed of the nullah. Between this point and Kangra are the only two tunnels: at mile 53 is the Dhaundni tunnel 250 feet long; four miles further is the Daulatpur tunnel 1000 feet in length.

Through all this portion of the journey the scenery is very rugged but extremely interesting, especially along the last few miles to Kangra whose ancient Rajput fort-now in ruins after the 1905 earthquake-is visible from beyond the second tunnel. The line does not pass through Kangra town itself but is separated from it by a gigantic cleft in the hills, at the bottom of which runs the picturesque Ban-Ganga river.

As a holiday resort the valley has irresistible attractions. A congenial climate with alluring chances of spotting wildlife. Peaks to tempt mountaineers or just rockfaces to scamper over. Should you not be of the athletic variety, there are wonderful walks among the pines at Palampur and elsewhere too. March and April are the best months for the valley is covered with wild rambler-roses, oleanders, rhododendron and fruit blossoms adorn the countryside.