Toy train

After reaching Shimla we wanted to experience the toy train journey.

Quick history – The train route (which is the only train route available) was built between Shimla and Kalka by the British Raj in 1903. It’s a narrow gauge and old style train.

We wanted to travel by the toy train as it was a UNESCO world heritage and something that is not common. But only after booking it, I figured out that it was travelling at an average speed of 18km/hr. We would take 5 hours to travel a distance of 90km. That is the speed of a bullock cart.

On one side we have Vadhe Bharat travelling at 180kmph. And on the other side we have toy trains running at 18kmph. India is a diverse country definitely.

We boarded the train. The train did not have any centralised air conditioning. It has normal split ACs. It also had a board saying, “AC not working”. It had seats with big cushions. However a single row only had 3 seats and there were 5 rows in a coach. So 15 seats per coach. The train had 6 coaches. So a total of 90 passengers could travel by it.

The seats were two sided. This means we could sit on either side of the seat. This was an innovative design I had not seen before. I don’t have a video of it. You can find one here.

The train had a glass roof through which we could see the maintains above. It was a nice and scenic travel and I took a bunch of pictures. I think it will look even prettier in the winters when it snows.

The train was notorious to have really long stops at various stations. It stopped for around 15-20 mins at almost 4-5 stations on the way. It was a little irritating.

It started raining on the way and the train’s roof was leaking. Water was dripping on our seats. After it got dark, with the rain pouring above you, with water dripping on your seat and the train travelling at 20km/hr, it was not fun anymore.

We reached Kalka 1hr late. This meant the average speed of the train was 15kmph. Thanks to all the long stops. We took an auto to board the bus to Delhi. The bus was late by another 45 mins. The interesting fact is the bus that was picking us up from Kalka had also left from Shimla but had travelled the same distance in less than 2hours. The toy train took 6hrs to cover the same distance. No wonder it was a toy train.

Was it worth it?

6 hours on the train – Definitely NO.

You could probably take the train to travel a couple of stations in Shimla for about an hour may be. However if you are travelling from to Shimla from Kalka or Delhi, a much better way is to go by road. No train.

We reached Delhi and boarded a flight back to Namma Bengaluru. Home, here we come.