Our hotel host in Matheran had checked our train tickets and was upset to see we were booked on the slow train that stopped at every village station. “The local train will take six hours to get to Pune,” Mr. Lord had told us.  “I recommend you change your tickets for the Konya Express train. One leaves Neral at 10:30 am.  If you get there early, you can easily change your tickets.” This seemed like good advice.  At the station, we were able to change to the Express, but the only tickets available were for second class. We figured a bit of discomfort for two and a half hours was better than a day-long train ride. […]

At Neral Junction, Una and I descended from our train into a different world.  Gone were the crowds and filth of Mumbai. The station was a quiet oasis shaded by a striped awning.  We waited there for more than an hour while trains from Mumbai came and went. There were several ways to get to Matheran from Neral Junction—by hired car or bus (these only went to a car park a mile from town), pony cart, hand-pulled rickshaw, on foot, and via the narrow-gage railway known as the “toy train.”  Una and I had opted for the heritage toy train that consisted of a diesel engine and a half-dozen small, blue carriages. Scheduled to leave at 11 am, the mini-train waited across the tracks at the only other station platform. […]