April 26th

The big day had arrived.

We tipped out at Kalka station to pick up the Himalayan Queen (toy train) to Shimla. I know I keep mentioning this but the dry heat was infernal once again. The familiar dampness around the brow and scalp oozed forth within minutes.

The Station was surprisingly clean. No one was lying prone on the platform, and there was no litter to be seen! An array of signs indicated who was intended to wait where! As well as few instructions…

We found our train and heaved our bags on board. However – it quickly transpired that this was not quite what Jeremy had been informed we had booked. As this was going to be a longish haul so we took the hasty decision to try and bail out and catch a similar one with slightly more comfortable seating but that required a brand new ticket. He shot off like a rocket to purchase another ticket (never a short process in India), leaving me to guard the bags and defend his current seat in case we couldn’t get another ticket). It was a pretty close run. The carriage was filling up fast and I was wedged behind gathering passengers and more and more luggage. With only minutes to go and me having visions of enjoying this ride on my own, I heard him shout “Phylli – off!” I elbowed my way out with what I could carry. Then somehow or rather between Jeremy and some other innocent bystander, all our stuff was heaved out through the window. In deep gratitude we left them a lunch we had bought for the journey.

And so began the long haul up!

Oops – sorry about the phone!

Our new train was just like the previous one, but with the benefit of padded seats, and some refreshment thrown in at the start. My padded seat had already endured some considerable service, and was suffering from something of a port list. I stuffed my fleece into the gap. We sat one behind the other on the ‘view side’.

Next to the open window (natural AC!) we watched the pine trees peel slowly past, as we flanked the hillsides. We probably only made 10-15kph. The views of the trees and valleys were all beautiful but it was terribly sad to see so much discarded rubbish, carelessly tossed by the wayside. It jarred everywhere you looked. Our train mates, affluent travellers from Delhi, even instructed their children to toss their empty food trays out of the window. Such a shame. What hope is there if that is deemed acceptable?

The little train hauled and tugged us slowly up for the next seven hours, two longer than scheduled, stopping for ten minutes at many of the stations and sometimes to wait for a descending train. Once both ascending and descending trains were stationery – for quite some time in what I laughingly called a ‘train off!’

People would jump out to stretch their legs or buy more food. Slightly against my better judgement my hunger forced me to do the same, and I gorged on a deep fried aloo (potato) confection. It was delicious. It was a good job that I did as we did not draw in until much later that evening.

On one of the jump outs we were slightly foxed by this.. but we think it was the type of coupling that this train was fitted with…(?)

You are probably already well aware but the Kalka Shimla train runs on a narrow gauge track rising 7000 feet over 60 miles in 5 hours, with 102 tunnels, 886 bridges, and 600 viaducts. It only took only 2-3 years to build. Completed in 1903 it’s an engineering triumph! It’s now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Taking this train may have been slow, hot and dirty, but it was a great way to appreciate the brilliance of those engineers who would have had to survey all the land before building could even begin. Their planning and foresight have really stood the test of time. As the old summer governmental seat of the British Raj which moved all the way up there from Delhi for 8 months of the year, Shimla was refuge from the stifling heat of the plains, and the railway a lifeline. What it was like moving the whole of the government entourage up there before the railway is scarcely imaginable!

At about 8pm we drew in, hot and dusty but having had a wonderful glimpse of the past.