YOUNG dancing girls from a village in the Himalayan foothills, who entertain visitors travelling on the Darjeeling Himalaya Railway, have been rewarded with a digital camera by 23 Railnews readers during a visit to India.
 
Rani and her friends in the little village of Rangtong, 1,404 ft above sea level in West Bengal, have regularly put on a dancing routine for travellers on the narrow-gauge Darjeeling Himalaya Railway — which is now a World Heritage Site — when special charter steam trains stop there for water.
 
They told tour organiser Darjeeling Tours— currently operating a tour of India for 23 Railnews readers — that many passengers take their pictures, but they never see them. 
 
So the Railnews readers agreed to club together to contribute to the cost of a digital camera on which the young girls can take pictures of their dance routines — and of the people from Britain who come to see them.
 
On a journey up to Darjeeling, almost 7,000 ft above sea level, the Railnews group stopped off at Rangtong to hand over the camera. 
 
Rani and her friends were at school, but her mother was presented with the surprise gift by Alan Marshall of Railnews, who is accompanying the party, and Sarah Thompson of Darjeeling Tours, which has organised the visit.
 
·  The Railnews tour is taking the readers to Calcutta, up to Darjeeling and then to Delhi before travelling back to the UK after a 16-day trip.  Next year Railnews and Darjeeling Tours will be running a tour to railways in Colorado in the United States.