Kalka-Shimla track gets holiday special toy train
By IANSThursday, December 23, 2010
SHIMLA - To cater to the Christmas and New Year’s eve rush, the railways Thursday started a holiday special toy train on the Kalka-Shimla track, an official said here.
“A special train called Duplicate Shivalik started to and fro between Kalka and Shimla this (Thursday) morning and it will operate till the first week of 2011,” Shimla railway station superintendent G.S. Rajput told IANS.
The train has been started by Northern Railway.
He said Duplicate Shivalik is in addition to six other trains that normally run on the track. Each toy train on the 96-km-long railroad has seven wagons and can accommodate up to 200 passengers.
The five-hour journey on the narrow-gauge rail line is an exhilarating experience.
The Kalka-Shimla rail track was built by the British in 1903 to ferry Europeans to and fro this hill town, the erstwhile summer capital of British India.
The ascent begins from 640 metres (2,100 ft) above sea level at Kalka in Haryana and crosses Dharampur, Barog, Solan and Kandaghat before it reaches Shimla at 7,000 ft.
There are 102 tunnels on the rail line. A train takes about three minutes to cross the longest tunnel at Barog (5,000 ft).
