India's Disappearing Railways': A Photographic Journey

India's Disappearing Railways is a vibrant photo-essay by the late Australian photojournalist and travel writer Angus McDonald, capturing for the first time the sub-continent's unique narrow-gauge railways in all their vivid colour, character and chaos. This exhibition coincides with publication of the hardcover book of the same name by Carlton Books endorsed by Michael Palin, Rory Stewart, Shashi Tharoor and Sir Mark Tully, who wrote the book’s foreword.

India's Disappearing Railways records a way of life that is slowly disappearing and documents the diversity of this vast and multi-layered country from a unique standpoint. An intimate and humorous portrait of life on the trains, the images evoke the very soul of India and with a rare empathy and insight illustrate the lives of those who ride them, who work on them, and who live alongside them. Angus came to see the survival of these narrow and metre-gauge lines, which one century ago were great feats of engineering, as a symbol of the vast country’s adaptability as well as its ability to absorb outside influences and incorporate them into its own being. Yet as the nation modernises, these railways are vanishing.

India's Disappearing Railways is the only existing contemporary archive of its kind, documenting a very personal journey. It includes, amongst many others, the hill railways of Darjeeling and Nilgiri, the Aravali line in Rajasthan, and such lesser-known lines as the Barak Valley Express in Assam and the Dabhoi network in Gujarat. Angus wrote: “After years living and working in India I wanted to gather a set of photos that would summarise many of the things I admire about this country: its tolerance, its diversity, its beauty. I chose these trains because they are a metaphor for all these qualities.”

Angus McDonald's photographs and articles have appeared in leading publications worldwide and he is the author of The Five Foot Road: In Search of a Vanished China (Angus & Robertson) which documented his 1994 journey across China to Burma in the footsteps of George Ernest Morrison: 'Morrison of Peking'. Angus died suddenly while travelling in Burma in 2013, at the age of 50.