Locomotive pilot Manoj Biswakarma, 53, joined the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway in 1986 as an engine cleaner. Two years later he was moved to the broad and meter gauge section at the Indian Railways' Katihar office in Bihar. He returned to the Darjeeling hills in 1995 when he joined the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway's Tin Dharia workshop as a second foreman and was appointed as a brakeman subsequently.