I left my bike in the parcel office at Neral Junction and settled into my seat for the ride up to Matheran. As we left the station, crowds of men and schoolchildren (unconvinced of the need to purchase a ticket) hopped on to the slowly moving train.

Before long, however, we ground to a halt. The locomotive was not up to the task, and we hadn't even really started climbing yet. We backed up for a while and had another run at it, but with no greater success. So, an hour after leaving Neral Junction, I was back there again.

I expected a wait of a couple of hours at least while a replacement engine was brought, but this must have been a regular occurrence; we were all on our way in an astonishing fifteen minutes - successfully this time.