India's disappearing railways - Angus McDonald

Accompanies the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) exhibition of the same name which opened 3 December 2014Includes a foreword by Sir Mark Tully, the BBC's Chief of Bureau in India for 20 years - that evokes the very soul of IndiaIt is an intimate and humorous portrait capturing for the first time in print the sub-continent's unique narrow-gauge hill railways in all their beauty, joy and pathosAs the nation modernises, government funding for these railways is stopping and the railways will vanish foreverIndia's Disappearing Railways is a vibrant photo-essay by Australian photographer Angus McDonald, capturing for the first time in print the sub-continent's unique narrow-gauge railways in all their vivid colour, character and chaos. It is an intimate and humorous portrait of life on the trains, evoking the very soul of India; with a rare empathy and insight illustrates the lives of those who ride them, who work on them, and who live alongside them. Yet as the nation modernizes, these railways, whether in the snow-peaked Himalaya, the terai of Rajasthan or the verdant Nilgiri Hills of Tamil Nadu - are vanishing. India's Disappearing Railyways records a way of life that is slowly disappearing and documents the diversity of this vast and multi-layered country from a unique standpoint.Contents:Foreword by Sir Mark Tully; Introduction; The Gwalior Light Railway; The Darjeeling Himalyan Railway; The Barak Valley Express; The Aravali Railway; The Kangra Valley Railway; The Dabhoi Railways; The Shakuntala Express; The Kalka-Shimla Railway; The Matheran Light Railway; The Nilgiri Mountain Railway; Postscript