The Alwar Bound Steam Express An Intiative By IRCTC Waits For Its Departure From Platform No.4 of Delhi Cantt Behind The Power Of RE WP 7161 "Sir Akbar"

KALKA-SHIMLA RAILWAY

The Kalka–Shimla railway is a 762 mm narrow-gauge railway in North India which traverses a mostly-mountainous route from Kalka to Shimla. It is known for dramatic views of the hills and surrounding villages. The railway was built under the direction of Herbert Septimus Harington between 1898 and 1903 to connect Shimla, the summer capital of India during the British Raj, with the rest of the Indian rail system.

Its early locomotives were manufactured by Sharp, Stewart and Company. Larger locomotives were introduced, which were manufactured by the Hunslet Engine Company. Diesel and diesel-hydraulic locomotives began operation in 1955 and 1970, respectively.

On 8 July 2008, UNESCO added the Kalka–Shimla railway to the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site.

HISTORY

Shimla (then spelt Simla), which was settled by the British shortly after the first Anglo-Gurkha war, is located at 2,169 m in the foothills of the Himalayas. The idea of connecting Shimla by rail was first raised by a correspondent to the Delhi gazette in November 1847.

Shimla became the summer capital of British India in 1864, and was the headquarters of the Indian army. This meant that twice a year it was necessary to transfer the entire government between Calcutta and Shimla by horse and ox drawn carts.

In 1891 the 1,676 mm broad-gauge Delhi–Kalka line opened, which made the construction of a branch line up to Shimla feasible.

The earliest survey was made in 1884 followed by another survey in 1885. Based on these two surveys, a project report was submitted in 1887 to the government of British India. Fresh surveys were made in 1892, and 1893 which lead to four alternative schemes being suggested - two adhesion lines 108.23 km and 112.25 km long and two rack lines. Fresh surveys were again made in 1895 from Kalka to Solan with a view to determine whether a 1 in 12 rack or 1 in 25 adhesion line should be chosen. After much debate an adhesion line was chosen in preference to a rack system.

Construction of the Kalka–Shimla railway on 610 mm narrow-gauge tracks was begun by the privately funded Delhi-Ambala-Kalka Railway Company following the signing of a contract between the secretary of state and the company on 29 June 1898. The contract specified that the line would be built without any financial aid or guarantee from the government. The government however provided the land free of charge to the company. The estimated cost of 8,678,500 rupees doubled by the time the line was opened. The Chief Engineer of the project was Herbert Septimus Harington.

The 95,68 km line opened for traffic on 9 November 1903 and was dedicated by Viceroy Lord Curzon. This line was further extended from Shimla to Shimla Goods (which had once housed the bullock cart office) on 27 June 1909 making it 96,60 km.

The Indian Army were sceptical about the two feet gauge chosen for the line and requested that a wider standard gauge be used for mountain and light strategic railways. Eventually the government agreed that the gauge was too narrow for was essentially a capital city and for military purposes. As a result, the contract with the railway company was revised on 15 November 1901 and the line gauge changed to 762 mm with the track built to date being regauged. Some sources however state the regauging wasn't undertaken until 1905.

In 1905 the company took delivery of a 10-ton Cowans Sheldon travelling crane to assist with lifting rolling stock back onto the tracks after accidents and for general track maintenance.

Due to the high capital and maintenance costs and difficult working conditions, the railway was allowed to charge higher fares than on other lines. Nevertheless, the company had spent 16.525.000 rupees by 1904 with no sign of the line becoming profitable, which lead to it being purchased by the government on 1 January 1906 for 17.107.748 rupees.

Once it came under the control of the government the line was originally managed as an independent unit from the North West Railway office in Lahore until 1926, when it was transferred to Delhi Division. Since July 1987, the line has been managed by the Ambala Division from Ambala Cantt.

In 2007, the Himachal Pradesh government declared the railway a heritage property. For about a week, beginning on 11 September 2007, a UNESCO team visited the railway to inspect it for possible selection as a World Heritage Site. On 8 July 2008, it became part of the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site with the Darjeeling Himalayan and Nilgiri Mountain Railways.

BABA BALKHU RAM´S CONTRIBUTION

Baba Balkhu Ram was a poor, illeterate man of a Shimla's backward village, since he gave great contriution in the construction of challenging railway. Apart of his majy contributions in Kalka- Shimla Railway, his most remembering contribution was of the construction of Barog tunnel. At that time the Captain Barog who was assigned to complete the construction work of the heritage railway, started the digging work of the Barog tunnel in the mountain, but he was constantly stopped by Baba Bakhu Ram to not to dig this side, but Captain Barog did not listen to him, he was thinking that he was mad, but eventually after some days of digging, water started coming out the digging part. Captain Barog then fined with the then (Rupee 1) by the British Government. Captain Barog took this as his insult and committed suicide in Barog area, where now his resting place is situated. Then Baba Balkhu Ram was the person who helped the another engineers assigned for the construction, being a local resident he had the ample knowledge about the place, because of his vision Barog tunnel which is the 33rd tunnel of the route from Kalka (longest of all the 103 tunnels of the track) got constructed. In his memory on 7 July 2011 Indian Railways opened the Baba Bhalku Rail Museum to document the history of the railway line and to display related artefacts below Old Bus Stand in Shimla.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

The track has 20 picturesque stations, 103 tunnels, 912 curves, 969 bridges and 3% slope (1:33 gradient). The 1.14..61 m tunnel at Barog immediately before the Barog station is longest, a 18,29 m bridge is the longest and the sharpest curve has a 38 m radius of curvature. The railway line originally used 20,8 kg/m rail, which was later replaced with 29,8 kg/m rail. The train has an average speed of 25–30 km/hr but the railcar is almost 50–60 km/hr. Both the train and railcar are equipped with vistadomes.

The temperature range and annual rainfall are 0–45 C and 200–250 cm, respectively.

OPERATORS

The KSR and its assets, including the stations, line and vehicles, belong to the government of India under the Ministry of Railways. The Northern Railway handles day-to-day maintenance and management, and several programs, divisions and departments of Indian Railways are responsible for repairs.

ROUTE

The route winds from a height of 656 metres at Kalka in the Himalayan Shivalik Hills foothills, past Dharampur, Solan, Kandaghat, Taradevi, Barog, Salogra, Totu (Jutogh) and Summerhill, to Shimla at an altitude of 2.075 metres. The difference in height between the two ends of line is 1.419 metres.

BRIDGES AND VIADUCTS

The railway has 988 bridges and viaducts and a ruling gradient of 1 in 33, or three percent. It has 917 curves and the sharpest is 48 degrees (a radius of 37,47 m.

The most architecturally complex bridge is No. 226 which spans a deep valley which required that it had to be constructed in five stages with each level having its own stone arched tier.

TUNNELS

One hundred seven tunnels were originally built, but as a result of landslides only 102 remain in use.

ROLLING STOCK

The first locomotives were two class-B 0-4-0STs from the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. These were built as 610 mm-gauge engines, but were converted to 762 mm-gauge in 1901. They were not large enough (they were sold in 1908), and were followed in 1902 by 10 slightly-larger engines with a 0-4-2T wheel arrangement. The locomotives weighed 21.8 t each, and had 762 mm driving wheels and 304.8 mm × 406.4 mm cylinders. Later classified as B-class by the North Western State Railway, they were manufactured by the British Sharp, Stewart and Company.

Thirty larger 2-6-2T locomotives, with slight variations, were introduced between 1904 and 1910. Built by the Hunslet Engine and North British Locomotive Companies, they weighed about 36 t; and had 762 mm drivers and 355,6 mm × 406,4 mm cylinders. Later classed K and K2 by the North Western State Railway, they handled most of the rail traffic during the steam era. A pair of Kitson-Meyer 2-6-2+2-6-2 articulated locomotives, classed TD, were supplied in 1928. However, they quickly fell into disfavour because it often took all day for enough freight to be assembled to justify operating a goods train hauled by one of these locomotives. Shippers looking for faster service began turning to road transport. These 69.09 t locomotives were soon transferred to the Kangra Valley Railway, and were converted to 1,000 mm metre gauge in Pakistan. Regular steam-locomotive operation ended in 1971.

The railway's first diesel locomotives, class ZDM-1 manufactured by Arnold Jung Lokomotivfabrik (articulated with two prime movers), began operating in 1955; they were regauged, reclassified as NDM-1 and used on the Matheran Hill Railway during the 1970s. In the 1960s, class ZDM-2 locomotives from Maschinenbau Kiel (MaK) was introduced; they were later transferred to other lines.

The KSR currently operates with class ZDM-3 diesel-hydraulic locomotives (522 kW or 700 hp, 50 km/h), built between 1970 and 1982 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works with a single-cab road-switcher body. Six locomotives of that class were built in 2008 and 2009 by the Central Railway Loco Workshop in Parel, with updated components and a dual-cab body providing better track vision.

The railway opened with conventional four-wheel and bogie coaches. Their tare weight meant that only four bogie coaches could be hauled by the 2-6-2T locomotives. In a 1908 effort to increase capacity, the coach stock was rebuilt as 10,1 by 2,1 m bogie coaches with steel frames and bodies. To further save weight, the roofs were made of aluminium. The weight savings meant that the locomotives could now haul six of the larger coaches. This was an early example of the use of aluminium in coach construction to reduce tare weight.

Goods rolling stock was constructed on a common 9,1 by 2,1 m pressed-steel underframe. Open and covered wagons were provided, with the open wagons having a capacity of 19,30 t and the covered wagons 17,8 t.

During the winter months snow cutters are attached to the engine to clear the snow from the track.

TRAINS

Shivalik Deluxe Express: Ten coaches, with chair cars and meal service

Kalka Shimla Express: First and second class and unreserved seating

Himalayan Queen: Connects at Kalka with the express mail of the same name and the Kalka Shatabdi Express to Delhi.

Kalka Shimla Passenger: First and second class and unreserved seating

Rail Motor: First-class railbus with a glass roof and a front view

Shivalik Queen: Ten-carriage luxury fleet. Each carriage accommodates up to eight people and has two toilets, wall-to-wall carpeting and large windows. Available through IRCTC's Chandigarh office.

IN POPULAR CULTURE

BBC Four televised Indian Hill Railways, a series of three programmes which featured the KSR in its third episode, in February 2010; the first two episodes covered the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and Nilgiri Mountain Railway. The episodes, directed by Tarun Bhartiya, Hugo Smith and Nick Mattingly respectively, were produced by Gerry Troyna. Indian Hill Railways won a Royal Television Society award in June 2010. The KSR also featured in the Punjab episode of CNN's Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.

In 2018, the KSR was featured in an episode of the BBC Two programme Great Indian Railway Journeys.

WIKIPEDIA

Steam Loco WP 7161 was utilized for hauling of Steam Special from Delhi Cant. to Alwar. The information of the Engine is given below:

Easily recognized by the cone shaped bulging nose with (usually) a silver star painted on it, this locomotive became the standard passenger locomotive on Indian Railways post 1947. Experiencing a severe shortage of locomotive on the system in the mid 1940s coupled with unhappy past experiences with the IRS class of locomotives looming large, the order for 100 prototype WP was restricted to a mere 16 engines (on scale of two for each major broad gauge route). Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW), Philadelphia was awarded the task of building the first sixteen prototype WP class locomotives. These were numbered from 7200 to 7215 and went to GIPR, BB&CIR and EIR. The initial locos were called WP/P, the extra P indicating prototype. These engines soon earned the reputation for free steaming, fuel economy and good riding characteristics, also there was none of the ‘tail wag’ experience with these engines that was so characteristic of the XC class. On establishing their success further orders for WP locomotives went to Baldwin Canadian Locomotive Company (CLC) and Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) who shared the manufacturing the next 300 WP engines. These engines were numbered from 7216 to 7515 in order of the Railway to which they were allotted. A further 120 engines were ordered from Canadian Locomotive Company in 1955-56 and 60 more engines came from Poland and Austria between 1957-59, this loco was in production for 20 years from 1947 to 1967 from 53 locos in 1953, it reached a peak holding of 167 locos on Northern Railways in 1967. This Pacific class of broad gauge loco marked the change the coding from ‘X’ to ‘W’ for broad gauge locomotives. It was capable of doing up to 110 Km/h and remained Indian Railways crack locomotives for many years and hauled prestigious express trains. WP’s were designed specifically for low-calorie, high-ash Indian coal and its ease of handling made it a hot favourite amongst Loco drivers. Several WP’s remained in service until the late 80’s. Early prototypes from Baldwin were labelled WP/P, CLW versions after 1965 were labelled WP/1.

Rewari shed homes the WP 7200 and WP 7161, the former is from the first lot of prototypes that were handed over to Indian Railways by the United States in 1947. The locomotive was a part of Central Railway System (GIPR) but was transferred to Northern Railway later. Homed at Moradabad shed this locomotive was later shifted to Saharanpur shed, before it retired from active service. It is believed that WP 7200 was the first WP class of engine that was handed over to Indian Railways in USA on 15th August 1947, India’s Independent Day, though the engine physically arrived on the Indian shores in Oct’47. This adds to the historic importance of this locomotive, with this in mind, this locomotive previously called Shahjahan, after the great Mughal emperor who build the Taj Mahal, has been re-christened “AZAD”, meaning free in hindi.

WP 7161 is the Chittranjan Locomotive Works built engine, inducted into active service in 1965, this locomotive was also there was none of the ‘tail wag’ experience with these engines that was so characteristic of the XC class.

On establishing their success further orders for WP locomotives went to Baldwin Canadian Locomotive Company (CLC) and Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW) who shared the manufacturing the next 300 WP engines. These engines were numbered from 7216 to 7515 in order of the Railway to which they were allotted. A further 120 engines were ordered from Canadian Locomotive Company in 1955-56 and 60 more engines came from Poland and Austria between 1957-59, this loco was in production for 20 years from 1947 to 1967 from 53 locos in 1953, it reached a peak holding of 167 locos on Northern Railways in 1967.

This Pacific class of broad gauge loco marked the change the coding from ‘X’ to ‘W’ for broad gauge locomotives. It was capable of doing up to 110 Km/h and remained Indian Railways crack locomotives for many years Source IRCTC

KALKA-SHIMLA RAILWAY

The Kalka–Shimla railway is a 762 mm narrow-gauge railway in North India which traverses a mostly-mountainous route from Kalka to Shimla. It is known for dramatic views of the hills and surrounding villages. The railway was built under the direction of Herbert Septimus Harington between 1898 and 1903 to connect Shimla, the summer capital of India during the British Raj, with the rest of the Indian rail system.

Its early locomotives were manufactured by Sharp, Stewart and Company. Larger locomotives were introduced, which were manufactured by the Hunslet Engine Company. Diesel and diesel-hydraulic locomotives began operation in 1955 and 1970, respectively.

On 8 July 2008, UNESCO added the Kalka–Shimla railway to the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site.

HISTORY

Shimla (then spelt Simla), which was settled by the British shortly after the first Anglo-Gurkha war, is located at 2,169 m in the foothills of the Himalayas. The idea of connecting Shimla by rail was first raised by a correspondent to the Delhi gazette in November 1847.

Shimla became the summer capital of British India in 1864, and was the headquarters of the Indian army. This meant that twice a year it was necessary to transfer the entire government between Calcutta and Shimla by horse and ox drawn carts.

In 1891 the 1,676 mm broad-gauge Delhi–Kalka line opened, which made the construction of a branch line up to Shimla feasible.

The earliest survey was made in 1884 followed by another survey in 1885. Based on these two surveys, a project report was submitted in 1887 to the government of British India. Fresh surveys were made in 1892, and 1893 which lead to four alternative schemes being suggested - two adhesion lines 108.23 km and 112.25 km long and two rack lines. Fresh surveys were again made in 1895 from Kalka to Solan with a view to determine whether a 1 in 12 rack or 1 in 25 adhesion line should be chosen. After much debate an adhesion line was chosen in preference to a rack system.

Construction of the Kalka–Shimla railway on 610 mm narrow-gauge tracks was begun by the privately funded Delhi-Ambala-Kalka Railway Company following the signing of a contract between the secretary of state and the company on 29 June 1898. The contract specified that the line would be built without any financial aid or guarantee from the government. The government however provided the land free of charge to the company. The estimated cost of 8,678,500 rupees doubled by the time the line was opened. The Chief Engineer of the project was Herbert Septimus Harington.

The 95,68 km line opened for traffic on 9 November 1903 and was dedicated by Viceroy Lord Curzon. This line was further extended from Shimla to Shimla Goods (which had once housed the bullock cart office) on 27 June 1909 making it 96,60 km.

The Indian Army were sceptical about the two feet gauge chosen for the line and requested that a wider standard gauge be used for mountain and light strategic railways. Eventually the government agreed that the gauge was too narrow for was essentially a capital city and for military purposes. As a result, the contract with the railway company was revised on 15 November 1901 and the line gauge changed to 762 mm with the track built to date being regauged. Some sources however state the regauging wasn't undertaken until 1905.

In 1905 the company took delivery of a 10-ton Cowans Sheldon travelling crane to assist with lifting rolling stock back onto the tracks after accidents and for general track maintenance.

Due to the high capital and maintenance costs and difficult working conditions, the railway was allowed to charge higher fares than on other lines. Nevertheless, the company had spent 16.525.000 rupees by 1904 with no sign of the line becoming profitable, which lead to it being purchased by the government on 1 January 1906 for 17.107.748 rupees.

Once it came under the control of the government the line was originally managed as an independent unit from the North West Railway office in Lahore until 1926, when it was transferred to Delhi Division. Since July 1987, the line has been managed by the Ambala Division from Ambala Cantt.

In 2007, the Himachal Pradesh government declared the railway a heritage property. For about a week, beginning on 11 September 2007, a UNESCO team visited the railway to inspect it for possible selection as a World Heritage Site. On 8 July 2008, it became part of the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site with the Darjeeling Himalayan and Nilgiri Mountain Railways.

BABA BALKHU RAM´S CONTRIBUTION

Baba Balkhu Ram was a poor, illeterate man of a Shimla's backward village, since he gave great contriution in the construction of challenging railway. Apart of his majy contributions in Kalka- Shimla Railway, his most remembering contribution was of the construction of Barog tunnel. At that time the Captain Barog who was assigned to complete the construction work of the heritage railway, started the digging work of the Barog tunnel in the mountain, but he was constantly stopped by Baba Bakhu Ram to not to dig this side, but Captain Barog did not listen to him, he was thinking that he was mad, but eventually after some days of digging, water started coming out the digging part. Captain Barog then fined with the then (Rupee 1) by the British Government. Captain Barog took this as his insult and committed suicide in Barog area, where now his resting place is situated. Then Baba Balkhu Ram was the person who helped the another engineers assigned for the construction, being a local resident he had the ample knowledge about the place, because of his vision Barog tunnel which is the 33rd tunnel of the route from Kalka (longest of all the 103 tunnels of the track) got constructed. In his memory on 7 July 2011 Indian Railways opened the Baba Bhalku Rail Museum to document the history of the railway line and to display related artefacts below Old Bus Stand in Shimla.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

The track has 20 picturesque stations, 103 tunnels, 912 curves, 969 bridges and 3% slope (1:33 gradient). The 1.14..61 m tunnel at Barog immediately before the Barog station is longest, a 18,29 m bridge is the longest and the sharpest curve has a 38 m radius of curvature. The railway line originally used 20,8 kg/m rail, which was later replaced with 29,8 kg/m rail. The train has an average speed of 25–30 km/hr but the railcar is almost 50–60 km/hr. Both the train and railcar are equipped with vistadomes.

The temperature range and annual rainfall are 0–45 C and 200–250 cm, respectively.

OPERATORS

The KSR and its assets, including the stations, line and vehicles, belong to the government of India under the Ministry of Railways. The Northern Railway handles day-to-day maintenance and management, and several programs, divisions and departments of Indian Railways are responsible for repairs.

ROUTE

The route winds from a height of 656 metres at Kalka in the Himalayan Shivalik Hills foothills, past Dharampur, Solan, Kandaghat, Taradevi, Barog, Salogra, Totu (Jutogh) and Summerhill, to Shimla at an altitude of 2.075 metres. The difference in height between the two ends of line is 1.419 metres.

BRIDGES AND VIADUCTS

The railway has 988 bridges and viaducts and a ruling gradient of 1 in 33, or three percent. It has 917 curves and the sharpest is 48 degrees (a radius of 37,47 m.

The most architecturally complex bridge is No. 226 which spans a deep valley which required that it had to be constructed in five stages with each level having its own stone arched tier.

TUNNELS

One hundred seven tunnels were originally built, but as a result of landslides only 102 remain in use.

ROLLING STOCK

The first locomotives were two class-B 0-4-0STs from the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. These were built as 610 mm-gauge engines, but were converted to 762 mm-gauge in 1901. They were not large enough (they were sold in 1908), and were followed in 1902 by 10 slightly-larger engines with a 0-4-2T wheel arrangement. The locomotives weighed 21.8 t each, and had 762 mm driving wheels and 304.8 mm × 406.4 mm cylinders. Later classified as B-class by the North Western State Railway, they were manufactured by the British Sharp, Stewart and Company.

Thirty larger 2-6-2T locomotives, with slight variations, were introduced between 1904 and 1910. Built by the Hunslet Engine and North British Locomotive Companies, they weighed about 36 t; and had 762 mm drivers and 355,6 mm × 406,4 mm cylinders. Later classed K and K2 by the North Western State Railway, they handled most of the rail traffic during the steam era. A pair of Kitson-Meyer 2-6-2+2-6-2 articulated locomotives, classed TD, were supplied in 1928. However, they quickly fell into disfavour because it often took all day for enough freight to be assembled to justify operating a goods train hauled by one of these locomotives. Shippers looking for faster service began turning to road transport. These 69.09 t locomotives were soon transferred to the Kangra Valley Railway, and were converted to 1,000 mm metre gauge in Pakistan. Regular steam-locomotive operation ended in 1971.

The railway's first diesel locomotives, class ZDM-1 manufactured by Arnold Jung Lokomotivfabrik (articulated with two prime movers), began operating in 1955; they were regauged, reclassified as NDM-1 and used on the Matheran Hill Railway during the 1970s. In the 1960s, class ZDM-2 locomotives from Maschinenbau Kiel (MaK) was introduced; they were later transferred to other lines.

The KSR currently operates with class ZDM-3 diesel-hydraulic locomotives (522 kW or 700 hp, 50 km/h), built between 1970 and 1982 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works with a single-cab road-switcher body. Six locomotives of that class were built in 2008 and 2009 by the Central Railway Loco Workshop in Parel, with updated components and a dual-cab body providing better track vision.

The railway opened with conventional four-wheel and bogie coaches. Their tare weight meant that only four bogie coaches could be hauled by the 2-6-2T locomotives. In a 1908 effort to increase capacity, the coach stock was rebuilt as 10,1 by 2,1 m bogie coaches with steel frames and bodies. To further save weight, the roofs were made of aluminium. The weight savings meant that the locomotives could now haul six of the larger coaches. This was an early example of the use of aluminium in coach construction to reduce tare weight.

Goods rolling stock was constructed on a common 9,1 by 2,1 m pressed-steel underframe. Open and covered wagons were provided, with the open wagons having a capacity of 19,30 t and the covered wagons 17,8 t.

During the winter months snow cutters are attached to the engine to clear the snow from the track.

TRAINS

Shivalik Deluxe Express: Ten coaches, with chair cars and meal service

Kalka Shimla Express: First and second class and unreserved seating

Himalayan Queen: Connects at Kalka with the express mail of the same name and the Kalka Shatabdi Express to Delhi.

Kalka Shimla Passenger: First and second class and unreserved seating

Rail Motor: First-class railbus with a glass roof and a front view

Shivalik Queen: Ten-carriage luxury fleet. Each carriage accommodates up to eight people and has two toilets, wall-to-wall carpeting and large windows. Available through IRCTC's Chandigarh office.

IN POPULAR CULTURE

BBC Four televised Indian Hill Railways, a series of three programmes which featured the KSR in its third episode, in February 2010; the first two episodes covered the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and Nilgiri Mountain Railway. The episodes, directed by Tarun Bhartiya, Hugo Smith and Nick Mattingly respectively, were produced by Gerry Troyna. Indian Hill Railways won a Royal Television Society award in June 2010. The KSR also featured in the Punjab episode of CNN's Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.

In 2018, the KSR was featured in an episode of the BBC Two programme Great Indian Railway Journeys.

WIKIPEDIA

KALKA-SHIMLA RAILWAY

The Kalka–Shimla railway is a 762 mm narrow-gauge railway in North India which traverses a mostly-mountainous route from Kalka to Shimla. It is known for dramatic views of the hills and surrounding villages. The railway was built under the direction of Herbert Septimus Harington between 1898 and 1903 to connect Shimla, the summer capital of India during the British Raj, with the rest of the Indian rail system.

Its early locomotives were manufactured by Sharp, Stewart and Company. Larger locomotives were introduced, which were manufactured by the Hunslet Engine Company. Diesel and diesel-hydraulic locomotives began operation in 1955 and 1970, respectively.

On 8 July 2008, UNESCO added the Kalka–Shimla railway to the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site.

HISTORY

Shimla (then spelt Simla), which was settled by the British shortly after the first Anglo-Gurkha war, is located at 2,169 m in the foothills of the Himalayas. The idea of connecting Shimla by rail was first raised by a correspondent to the Delhi gazette in November 1847.

Shimla became the summer capital of British India in 1864, and was the headquarters of the Indian army. This meant that twice a year it was necessary to transfer the entire government between Calcutta and Shimla by horse and ox drawn carts.

In 1891 the 1,676 mm broad-gauge Delhi–Kalka line opened, which made the construction of a branch line up to Shimla feasible.

The earliest survey was made in 1884 followed by another survey in 1885. Based on these two surveys, a project report was submitted in 1887 to the government of British India. Fresh surveys were made in 1892, and 1893 which lead to four alternative schemes being suggested - two adhesion lines 108.23 km and 112.25 km long and two rack lines. Fresh surveys were again made in 1895 from Kalka to Solan with a view to determine whether a 1 in 12 rack or 1 in 25 adhesion line should be chosen. After much debate an adhesion line was chosen in preference to a rack system.

Construction of the Kalka–Shimla railway on 610 mm narrow-gauge tracks was begun by the privately funded Delhi-Ambala-Kalka Railway Company following the signing of a contract between the secretary of state and the company on 29 June 1898. The contract specified that the line would be built without any financial aid or guarantee from the government. The government however provided the land free of charge to the company. The estimated cost of 8,678,500 rupees doubled by the time the line was opened. The Chief Engineer of the project was Herbert Septimus Harington.

The 95,68 km line opened for traffic on 9 November 1903 and was dedicated by Viceroy Lord Curzon. This line was further extended from Shimla to Shimla Goods (which had once housed the bullock cart office) on 27 June 1909 making it 96,60 km.

The Indian Army were sceptical about the two feet gauge chosen for the line and requested that a wider standard gauge be used for mountain and light strategic railways. Eventually the government agreed that the gauge was too narrow for was essentially a capital city and for military purposes. As a result, the contract with the railway company was revised on 15 November 1901 and the line gauge changed to 762 mm with the track built to date being regauged. Some sources however state the regauging wasn't undertaken until 1905.

In 1905 the company took delivery of a 10-ton Cowans Sheldon travelling crane to assist with lifting rolling stock back onto the tracks after accidents and for general track maintenance.

Due to the high capital and maintenance costs and difficult working conditions, the railway was allowed to charge higher fares than on other lines. Nevertheless, the company had spent 16.525.000 rupees by 1904 with no sign of the line becoming profitable, which lead to it being purchased by the government on 1 January 1906 for 17.107.748 rupees.

Once it came under the control of the government the line was originally managed as an independent unit from the North West Railway office in Lahore until 1926, when it was transferred to Delhi Division. Since July 1987, the line has been managed by the Ambala Division from Ambala Cantt.

In 2007, the Himachal Pradesh government declared the railway a heritage property. For about a week, beginning on 11 September 2007, a UNESCO team visited the railway to inspect it for possible selection as a World Heritage Site. On 8 July 2008, it became part of the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site with the Darjeeling Himalayan and Nilgiri Mountain Railways.

BABA BALKHU RAM´S CONTRIBUTION

Baba Balkhu Ram was a poor, illeterate man of a Shimla's backward village, since he gave great contriution in the construction of challenging railway. Apart of his majy contributions in Kalka- Shimla Railway, his most remembering contribution was of the construction of Barog tunnel. At that time the Captain Barog who was assigned to complete the construction work of the heritage railway, started the digging work of the Barog tunnel in the mountain, but he was constantly stopped by Baba Bakhu Ram to not to dig this side, but Captain Barog did not listen to him, he was thinking that he was mad, but eventually after some days of digging, water started coming out the digging part. Captain Barog then fined with the then (Rupee 1) by the British Government. Captain Barog took this as his insult and committed suicide in Barog area, where now his resting place is situated. Then Baba Balkhu Ram was the person who helped the another engineers assigned for the construction, being a local resident he had the ample knowledge about the place, because of his vision Barog tunnel which is the 33rd tunnel of the route from Kalka (longest of all the 103 tunnels of the track) got constructed. In his memory on 7 July 2011 Indian Railways opened the Baba Bhalku Rail Museum to document the history of the railway line and to display related artefacts below Old Bus Stand in Shimla.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

The track has 20 picturesque stations, 103 tunnels, 912 curves, 969 bridges and 3% slope (1:33 gradient). The 1.14..61 m tunnel at Barog immediately before the Barog station is longest, a 18,29 m bridge is the longest and the sharpest curve has a 38 m radius of curvature. The railway line originally used 20,8 kg/m rail, which was later replaced with 29,8 kg/m rail. The train has an average speed of 25–30 km/hr but the railcar is almost 50–60 km/hr. Both the train and railcar are equipped with vistadomes.

The temperature range and annual rainfall are 0–45 C and 200–250 cm, respectively.

OPERATORS

The KSR and its assets, including the stations, line and vehicles, belong to the government of India under the Ministry of Railways. The Northern Railway handles day-to-day maintenance and management, and several programs, divisions and departments of Indian Railways are responsible for repairs.

ROUTE

The route winds from a height of 656 metres at Kalka in the Himalayan Shivalik Hills foothills, past Dharampur, Solan, Kandaghat, Taradevi, Barog, Salogra, Totu (Jutogh) and Summerhill, to Shimla at an altitude of 2.075 metres. The difference in height between the two ends of line is 1.419 metres.

BRIDGES AND VIADUCTS

The railway has 988 bridges and viaducts and a ruling gradient of 1 in 33, or three percent. It has 917 curves and the sharpest is 48 degrees (a radius of 37,47 m.

The most architecturally complex bridge is No. 226 which spans a deep valley which required that it had to be constructed in five stages with each level having its own stone arched tier.

TUNNELS

One hundred seven tunnels were originally built, but as a result of landslides only 102 remain in use.

ROLLING STOCK

The first locomotives were two class-B 0-4-0STs from the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. These were built as 610 mm-gauge engines, but were converted to 762 mm-gauge in 1901. They were not large enough (they were sold in 1908), and were followed in 1902 by 10 slightly-larger engines with a 0-4-2T wheel arrangement. The locomotives weighed 21.8 t each, and had 762 mm driving wheels and 304.8 mm × 406.4 mm cylinders. Later classified as B-class by the North Western State Railway, they were manufactured by the British Sharp, Stewart and Company.

Thirty larger 2-6-2T locomotives, with slight variations, were introduced between 1904 and 1910. Built by the Hunslet Engine and North British Locomotive Companies, they weighed about 36 t; and had 762 mm drivers and 355,6 mm × 406,4 mm cylinders. Later classed K and K2 by the North Western State Railway, they handled most of the rail traffic during the steam era. A pair of Kitson-Meyer 2-6-2+2-6-2 articulated locomotives, classed TD, were supplied in 1928. However, they quickly fell into disfavour because it often took all day for enough freight to be assembled to justify operating a goods train hauled by one of these locomotives. Shippers looking for faster service began turning to road transport. These 69.09 t locomotives were soon transferred to the Kangra Valley Railway, and were converted to 1,000 mm metre gauge in Pakistan. Regular steam-locomotive operation ended in 1971.

The railway's first diesel locomotives, class ZDM-1 manufactured by Arnold Jung Lokomotivfabrik (articulated with two prime movers), began operating in 1955; they were regauged, reclassified as NDM-1 and used on the Matheran Hill Railway during the 1970s. In the 1960s, class ZDM-2 locomotives from Maschinenbau Kiel (MaK) was introduced; they were later transferred to other lines.

The KSR currently operates with class ZDM-3 diesel-hydraulic locomotives (522 kW or 700 hp, 50 km/h), built between 1970 and 1982 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works with a single-cab road-switcher body. Six locomotives of that class were built in 2008 and 2009 by the Central Railway Loco Workshop in Parel, with updated components and a dual-cab body providing better track vision.

The railway opened with conventional four-wheel and bogie coaches. Their tare weight meant that only four bogie coaches could be hauled by the 2-6-2T locomotives. In a 1908 effort to increase capacity, the coach stock was rebuilt as 10,1 by 2,1 m bogie coaches with steel frames and bodies. To further save weight, the roofs were made of aluminium. The weight savings meant that the locomotives could now haul six of the larger coaches. This was an early example of the use of aluminium in coach construction to reduce tare weight.

Goods rolling stock was constructed on a common 9,1 by 2,1 m pressed-steel underframe. Open and covered wagons were provided, with the open wagons having a capacity of 19,30 t and the covered wagons 17,8 t.

During the winter months snow cutters are attached to the engine to clear the snow from the track.

TRAINS

Shivalik Deluxe Express: Ten coaches, with chair cars and meal service

Kalka Shimla Express: First and second class and unreserved seating

Himalayan Queen: Connects at Kalka with the express mail of the same name and the Kalka Shatabdi Express to Delhi.

Kalka Shimla Passenger: First and second class and unreserved seating

Rail Motor: First-class railbus with a glass roof and a front view

Shivalik Queen: Ten-carriage luxury fleet. Each carriage accommodates up to eight people and has two toilets, wall-to-wall carpeting and large windows. Available through IRCTC's Chandigarh office.

IN POPULAR CULTURE

BBC Four televised Indian Hill Railways, a series of three programmes which featured the KSR in its third episode, in February 2010; the first two episodes covered the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and Nilgiri Mountain Railway. The episodes, directed by Tarun Bhartiya, Hugo Smith and Nick Mattingly respectively, were produced by Gerry Troyna. Indian Hill Railways won a Royal Television Society award in June 2010. The KSR also featured in the Punjab episode of CNN's Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.

In 2018, the KSR was featured in an episode of the BBC Two programme Great Indian Railway Journeys.

WIKIPEDIA

Basic information this app 1) this app are available in play store 2) lunch app 1 Dec.2017 3) google go information in ::--Social, Entertainment, Sport, News, Shopping, Reference, Banking, Gavernment, Education, Travel, Job, Apps & Game 4) social App :--Facebook, Quora, Pinterest, Yahoo, WhatsApp, MSN, LinkedIn, Blogger, Twitter, Instagram 5) Entertainment:-- YouTube, Book My Show, Gaana, IMDb, Hotstar, Saavn, Ozee, BollywoodLife, LyricsTED, Filmibeat, Filmipop, StarsUnfolded, Bollymoviereviewz, StyleCraze, World4movies, WittyFeed 6) Sports :-- Cricbuzz, ESPNcricinfo, IPLT20, NDTV Sports 7) News :-- The Times of India, The Indian Express, NDTV, Moneycontrol, India.com, India Today, Hindustan. Times, NDTV Gadgets, NDTV Khabar, JagranJosh, GSM Arena, AajTak , Dainik Jagran, Amar Ujala, The Economic Times, Dainik Bhaskar, Firstpost, Daily Mail, News18, WorldNews, Network, The Hindu, AccuWeather, Navbharat Times, Raftaar, DNA India, News18 Hindi, BBC, WebDunia, The Guardian,Rediff 8) Shopping :-- Amazon, Justdial, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Quikr, 91mobiles, Sulekha, Zomato, MySmartPrice, Indiamart, Smartprix, Airtel, Carwale, Bikewale, Samsung, 99acres, Mi, Practo, TicketNew, ShopClues, 1mg, Myntra, CarDekho, Goibibo, eBay 9) Reference :-- Shabdkosh, Wikipedia (Hindi), Wikipedia (English), WikiHow, MapsofIndia, Wikimedia, NCBI, WebMD, Shutterstock, Google Maps, TabletWise, Dictionary, Healthline, Shabdkosh Raftaar, Internet Archive 10) Banking :-- state bank of India, Paytm, HDFC bank, Bankbazar, icici bank, bank IFSC code, Axis bank, SBI Credit card, BillDesk, LIC of India 11) Government :-- National Portal of India, Government Services Portal, India Post, UIDAI / Aadhaar, Andaman and Nicobar, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Dadra and, Nagar, Haveli, Daman and Diu, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Lakshdweep, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram,Nagaland, Odisha, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal 12) Travel :-- India Rail Info, Makemytrip, National Train Enquiry System, RailYatri, Indian Railways, IRCTC, Trains PNR Status, TripAdvisor, Cleartrip, etrain, Running Status, Yatra 13) Education :-- AglaSem Admission, West Bengal SSC, SarvGyan, Meritnation, Careers 360, AglaSem Schools, CollegeDunia 14) Jobs :-- Naukri, Sarkari Result, FreeJobAlert, Uptet, Indeed, JobRiya, DesiSpy, Uptet News , Sarkari Exam 15) Apps & Games :-- Snake, Solitaire, Tic Tac Toe, Bollywood Quiz, Cricket Quiz, Geography Quiz, Math Quiz, Vocabulary Quiz, Quick, Draw!, Oskar Fischinger, Code for Carrots, Cricket, Hip Hop, Pony Express, Beethoven, Giorgio Cam, Google Play Watch channel :- www.youtube.com/channel/UCgQrINKTbqcq2_0eA-wnKAA Facebook :- ift.tt/2jxfoEP Facebook page :- ift.tt/2BpYu1h What's up :- ift.tt/2zWmvxA Google + :- ift.tt/2kcQCJr Email 🆔 :- pavanpatel02785@gmail.com Pavanpatelyoutube.1234

KALKA-SHIMLA RAILWAY

The Kalka–Shimla railway is a 762 mm narrow-gauge railway in North India which traverses a mostly-mountainous route from Kalka to Shimla. It is known for dramatic views of the hills and surrounding villages. The railway was built under the direction of Herbert Septimus Harington between 1898 and 1903 to connect Shimla, the summer capital of India during the British Raj, with the rest of the Indian rail system.

Its early locomotives were manufactured by Sharp, Stewart and Company. Larger locomotives were introduced, which were manufactured by the Hunslet Engine Company. Diesel and diesel-hydraulic locomotives began operation in 1955 and 1970, respectively.

On 8 July 2008, UNESCO added the Kalka–Shimla railway to the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site.

HISTORY

Shimla (then spelt Simla), which was settled by the British shortly after the first Anglo-Gurkha war, is located at 2,169 m in the foothills of the Himalayas. The idea of connecting Shimla by rail was first raised by a correspondent to the Delhi gazette in November 1847.

Shimla became the summer capital of British India in 1864, and was the headquarters of the Indian army. This meant that twice a year it was necessary to transfer the entire government between Calcutta and Shimla by horse and ox drawn carts.

In 1891 the 1,676 mm broad-gauge Delhi–Kalka line opened, which made the construction of a branch line up to Shimla feasible.

The earliest survey was made in 1884 followed by another survey in 1885. Based on these two surveys, a project report was submitted in 1887 to the government of British India. Fresh surveys were made in 1892, and 1893 which lead to four alternative schemes being suggested - two adhesion lines 108.23 km and 112.25 km long and two rack lines. Fresh surveys were again made in 1895 from Kalka to Solan with a view to determine whether a 1 in 12 rack or 1 in 25 adhesion line should be chosen. After much debate an adhesion line was chosen in preference to a rack system.

Construction of the Kalka–Shimla railway on 610 mm narrow-gauge tracks was begun by the privately funded Delhi-Ambala-Kalka Railway Company following the signing of a contract between the secretary of state and the company on 29 June 1898. The contract specified that the line would be built without any financial aid or guarantee from the government. The government however provided the land free of charge to the company. The estimated cost of 8,678,500 rupees doubled by the time the line was opened. The Chief Engineer of the project was Herbert Septimus Harington.

The 95,68 km line opened for traffic on 9 November 1903 and was dedicated by Viceroy Lord Curzon. This line was further extended from Shimla to Shimla Goods (which had once housed the bullock cart office) on 27 June 1909 making it 96,60 km.

The Indian Army were sceptical about the two feet gauge chosen for the line and requested that a wider standard gauge be used for mountain and light strategic railways. Eventually the government agreed that the gauge was too narrow for was essentially a capital city and for military purposes. As a result, the contract with the railway company was revised on 15 November 1901 and the line gauge changed to 762 mm with the track built to date being regauged. Some sources however state the regauging wasn't undertaken until 1905.

In 1905 the company took delivery of a 10-ton Cowans Sheldon travelling crane to assist with lifting rolling stock back onto the tracks after accidents and for general track maintenance.

Due to the high capital and maintenance costs and difficult working conditions, the railway was allowed to charge higher fares than on other lines. Nevertheless, the company had spent 16.525.000 rupees by 1904 with no sign of the line becoming profitable, which lead to it being purchased by the government on 1 January 1906 for 17.107.748 rupees.

Once it came under the control of the government the line was originally managed as an independent unit from the North West Railway office in Lahore until 1926, when it was transferred to Delhi Division. Since July 1987, the line has been managed by the Ambala Division from Ambala Cantt.

In 2007, the Himachal Pradesh government declared the railway a heritage property. For about a week, beginning on 11 September 2007, a UNESCO team visited the railway to inspect it for possible selection as a World Heritage Site. On 8 July 2008, it became part of the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site with the Darjeeling Himalayan and Nilgiri Mountain Railways.

BABA BALKHU RAM´S CONTRIBUTION

Baba Balkhu Ram was a poor, illeterate man of a Shimla's backward village, since he gave great contriution in the construction of challenging railway. Apart of his majy contributions in Kalka- Shimla Railway, his most remembering contribution was of the construction of Barog tunnel. At that time the Captain Barog who was assigned to complete the construction work of the heritage railway, started the digging work of the Barog tunnel in the mountain, but he was constantly stopped by Baba Bakhu Ram to not to dig this side, but Captain Barog did not listen to him, he was thinking that he was mad, but eventually after some days of digging, water started coming out the digging part. Captain Barog then fined with the then (Rupee 1) by the British Government. Captain Barog took this as his insult and committed suicide in Barog area, where now his resting place is situated. Then Baba Balkhu Ram was the person who helped the another engineers assigned for the construction, being a local resident he had the ample knowledge about the place, because of his vision Barog tunnel which is the 33rd tunnel of the route from Kalka (longest of all the 103 tunnels of the track) got constructed. In his memory on 7 July 2011 Indian Railways opened the Baba Bhalku Rail Museum to document the history of the railway line and to display related artefacts below Old Bus Stand in Shimla.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

The track has 20 picturesque stations, 103 tunnels, 912 curves, 969 bridges and 3% slope (1:33 gradient). The 1.14..61 m tunnel at Barog immediately before the Barog station is longest, a 18,29 m bridge is the longest and the sharpest curve has a 38 m radius of curvature. The railway line originally used 20,8 kg/m rail, which was later replaced with 29,8 kg/m rail. The train has an average speed of 25–30 km/hr but the railcar is almost 50–60 km/hr. Both the train and railcar are equipped with vistadomes.

The temperature range and annual rainfall are 0–45 C and 200–250 cm, respectively.

OPERATORS

The KSR and its assets, including the stations, line and vehicles, belong to the government of India under the Ministry of Railways. The Northern Railway handles day-to-day maintenance and management, and several programs, divisions and departments of Indian Railways are responsible for repairs.

ROUTE

The route winds from a height of 656 metres at Kalka in the Himalayan Shivalik Hills foothills, past Dharampur, Solan, Kandaghat, Taradevi, Barog, Salogra, Totu (Jutogh) and Summerhill, to Shimla at an altitude of 2.075 metres. The difference in height between the two ends of line is 1.419 metres.

BRIDGES AND VIADUCTS

The railway has 988 bridges and viaducts and a ruling gradient of 1 in 33, or three percent. It has 917 curves and the sharpest is 48 degrees (a radius of 37,47 m.

The most architecturally complex bridge is No. 226 which spans a deep valley which required that it had to be constructed in five stages with each level having its own stone arched tier.

TUNNELS

One hundred seven tunnels were originally built, but as a result of landslides only 102 remain in use.

ROLLING STOCK

The first locomotives were two class-B 0-4-0STs from the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. These were built as 610 mm-gauge engines, but were converted to 762 mm-gauge in 1901. They were not large enough (they were sold in 1908), and were followed in 1902 by 10 slightly-larger engines with a 0-4-2T wheel arrangement. The locomotives weighed 21.8 t each, and had 762 mm driving wheels and 304.8 mm × 406.4 mm cylinders. Later classified as B-class by the North Western State Railway, they were manufactured by the British Sharp, Stewart and Company.

Thirty larger 2-6-2T locomotives, with slight variations, were introduced between 1904 and 1910. Built by the Hunslet Engine and North British Locomotive Companies, they weighed about 36 t; and had 762 mm drivers and 355,6 mm × 406,4 mm cylinders. Later classed K and K2 by the North Western State Railway, they handled most of the rail traffic during the steam era. A pair of Kitson-Meyer 2-6-2+2-6-2 articulated locomotives, classed TD, were supplied in 1928. However, they quickly fell into disfavour because it often took all day for enough freight to be assembled to justify operating a goods train hauled by one of these locomotives. Shippers looking for faster service began turning to road transport. These 69.09 t locomotives were soon transferred to the Kangra Valley Railway, and were converted to 1,000 mm metre gauge in Pakistan. Regular steam-locomotive operation ended in 1971.

The railway's first diesel locomotives, class ZDM-1 manufactured by Arnold Jung Lokomotivfabrik (articulated with two prime movers), began operating in 1955; they were regauged, reclassified as NDM-1 and used on the Matheran Hill Railway during the 1970s. In the 1960s, class ZDM-2 locomotives from Maschinenbau Kiel (MaK) was introduced; they were later transferred to other lines.

The KSR currently operates with class ZDM-3 diesel-hydraulic locomotives (522 kW or 700 hp, 50 km/h), built between 1970 and 1982 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works with a single-cab road-switcher body. Six locomotives of that class were built in 2008 and 2009 by the Central Railway Loco Workshop in Parel, with updated components and a dual-cab body providing better track vision.

The railway opened with conventional four-wheel and bogie coaches. Their tare weight meant that only four bogie coaches could be hauled by the 2-6-2T locomotives. In a 1908 effort to increase capacity, the coach stock was rebuilt as 10,1 by 2,1 m bogie coaches with steel frames and bodies. To further save weight, the roofs were made of aluminium. The weight savings meant that the locomotives could now haul six of the larger coaches. This was an early example of the use of aluminium in coach construction to reduce tare weight.

Goods rolling stock was constructed on a common 9,1 by 2,1 m pressed-steel underframe. Open and covered wagons were provided, with the open wagons having a capacity of 19,30 t and the covered wagons 17,8 t.

During the winter months snow cutters are attached to the engine to clear the snow from the track.

TRAINS

Shivalik Deluxe Express: Ten coaches, with chair cars and meal service

Kalka Shimla Express: First and second class and unreserved seating

Himalayan Queen: Connects at Kalka with the express mail of the same name and the Kalka Shatabdi Express to Delhi.

Kalka Shimla Passenger: First and second class and unreserved seating

Rail Motor: First-class railbus with a glass roof and a front view

Shivalik Queen: Ten-carriage luxury fleet. Each carriage accommodates up to eight people and has two toilets, wall-to-wall carpeting and large windows. Available through IRCTC's Chandigarh office.

IN POPULAR CULTURE

BBC Four televised Indian Hill Railways, a series of three programmes which featured the KSR in its third episode, in February 2010; the first two episodes covered the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and Nilgiri Mountain Railway. The episodes, directed by Tarun Bhartiya, Hugo Smith and Nick Mattingly respectively, were produced by Gerry Troyna. Indian Hill Railways won a Royal Television Society award in June 2010. The KSR also featured in the Punjab episode of CNN's Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.

In 2018, the KSR was featured in an episode of the BBC Two programme Great Indian Railway Journeys.

WIKIPEDIA

KALKA-SHIMLA RAILWAY

The Kalka–Shimla railway is a 762 mm narrow-gauge railway in North India which traverses a mostly-mountainous route from Kalka to Shimla. It is known for dramatic views of the hills and surrounding villages. The railway was built under the direction of Herbert Septimus Harington between 1898 and 1903 to connect Shimla, the summer capital of India during the British Raj, with the rest of the Indian rail system.

Its early locomotives were manufactured by Sharp, Stewart and Company. Larger locomotives were introduced, which were manufactured by the Hunslet Engine Company. Diesel and diesel-hydraulic locomotives began operation in 1955 and 1970, respectively.

On 8 July 2008, UNESCO added the Kalka–Shimla railway to the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site.

HISTORY

Shimla (then spelt Simla), which was settled by the British shortly after the first Anglo-Gurkha war, is located at 2,169 m in the foothills of the Himalayas. The idea of connecting Shimla by rail was first raised by a correspondent to the Delhi gazette in November 1847.

Shimla became the summer capital of British India in 1864, and was the headquarters of the Indian army. This meant that twice a year it was necessary to transfer the entire government between Calcutta and Shimla by horse and ox drawn carts.

In 1891 the 1,676 mm broad-gauge Delhi–Kalka line opened, which made the construction of a branch line up to Shimla feasible.

The earliest survey was made in 1884 followed by another survey in 1885. Based on these two surveys, a project report was submitted in 1887 to the government of British India. Fresh surveys were made in 1892, and 1893 which lead to four alternative schemes being suggested - two adhesion lines 108.23 km and 112.25 km long and two rack lines. Fresh surveys were again made in 1895 from Kalka to Solan with a view to determine whether a 1 in 12 rack or 1 in 25 adhesion line should be chosen. After much debate an adhesion line was chosen in preference to a rack system.

Construction of the Kalka–Shimla railway on 610 mm narrow-gauge tracks was begun by the privately funded Delhi-Ambala-Kalka Railway Company following the signing of a contract between the secretary of state and the company on 29 June 1898. The contract specified that the line would be built without any financial aid or guarantee from the government. The government however provided the land free of charge to the company. The estimated cost of 8,678,500 rupees doubled by the time the line was opened. The Chief Engineer of the project was Herbert Septimus Harington.

The 95,68 km line opened for traffic on 9 November 1903 and was dedicated by Viceroy Lord Curzon. This line was further extended from Shimla to Shimla Goods (which had once housed the bullock cart office) on 27 June 1909 making it 96,60 km.

The Indian Army were sceptical about the two feet gauge chosen for the line and requested that a wider standard gauge be used for mountain and light strategic railways. Eventually the government agreed that the gauge was too narrow for was essentially a capital city and for military purposes. As a result, the contract with the railway company was revised on 15 November 1901 and the line gauge changed to 762 mm with the track built to date being regauged. Some sources however state the regauging wasn't undertaken until 1905.

In 1905 the company took delivery of a 10-ton Cowans Sheldon travelling crane to assist with lifting rolling stock back onto the tracks after accidents and for general track maintenance.

Due to the high capital and maintenance costs and difficult working conditions, the railway was allowed to charge higher fares than on other lines. Nevertheless, the company had spent 16.525.000 rupees by 1904 with no sign of the line becoming profitable, which lead to it being purchased by the government on 1 January 1906 for 17.107.748 rupees.

Once it came under the control of the government the line was originally managed as an independent unit from the North West Railway office in Lahore until 1926, when it was transferred to Delhi Division. Since July 1987, the line has been managed by the Ambala Division from Ambala Cantt.

In 2007, the Himachal Pradesh government declared the railway a heritage property. For about a week, beginning on 11 September 2007, a UNESCO team visited the railway to inspect it for possible selection as a World Heritage Site. On 8 July 2008, it became part of the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site with the Darjeeling Himalayan and Nilgiri Mountain Railways.

BABA BALKHU RAM´S CONTRIBUTION

Baba Balkhu Ram was a poor, illeterate man of a Shimla's backward village, since he gave great contriution in the construction of challenging railway. Apart of his majy contributions in Kalka- Shimla Railway, his most remembering contribution was of the construction of Barog tunnel. At that time the Captain Barog who was assigned to complete the construction work of the heritage railway, started the digging work of the Barog tunnel in the mountain, but he was constantly stopped by Baba Bakhu Ram to not to dig this side, but Captain Barog did not listen to him, he was thinking that he was mad, but eventually after some days of digging, water started coming out the digging part. Captain Barog then fined with the then (Rupee 1) by the British Government. Captain Barog took this as his insult and committed suicide in Barog area, where now his resting place is situated. Then Baba Balkhu Ram was the person who helped the another engineers assigned for the construction, being a local resident he had the ample knowledge about the place, because of his vision Barog tunnel which is the 33rd tunnel of the route from Kalka (longest of all the 103 tunnels of the track) got constructed. In his memory on 7 July 2011 Indian Railways opened the Baba Bhalku Rail Museum to document the history of the railway line and to display related artefacts below Old Bus Stand in Shimla.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

The track has 20 picturesque stations, 103 tunnels, 912 curves, 969 bridges and 3% slope (1:33 gradient). The 1.14..61 m tunnel at Barog immediately before the Barog station is longest, a 18,29 m bridge is the longest and the sharpest curve has a 38 m radius of curvature. The railway line originally used 20,8 kg/m rail, which was later replaced with 29,8 kg/m rail. The train has an average speed of 25–30 km/hr but the railcar is almost 50–60 km/hr. Both the train and railcar are equipped with vistadomes.

The temperature range and annual rainfall are 0–45 C and 200–250 cm, respectively.

OPERATORS

The KSR and its assets, including the stations, line and vehicles, belong to the government of India under the Ministry of Railways. The Northern Railway handles day-to-day maintenance and management, and several programs, divisions and departments of Indian Railways are responsible for repairs.

ROUTE

The route winds from a height of 656 metres at Kalka in the Himalayan Shivalik Hills foothills, past Dharampur, Solan, Kandaghat, Taradevi, Barog, Salogra, Totu (Jutogh) and Summerhill, to Shimla at an altitude of 2.075 metres. The difference in height between the two ends of line is 1.419 metres.

BRIDGES AND VIADUCTS

The railway has 988 bridges and viaducts and a ruling gradient of 1 in 33, or three percent. It has 917 curves and the sharpest is 48 degrees (a radius of 37,47 m.

The most architecturally complex bridge is No. 226 which spans a deep valley which required that it had to be constructed in five stages with each level having its own stone arched tier.

TUNNELS

One hundred seven tunnels were originally built, but as a result of landslides only 102 remain in use.

ROLLING STOCK

The first locomotives were two class-B 0-4-0STs from the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. These were built as 610 mm-gauge engines, but were converted to 762 mm-gauge in 1901. They were not large enough (they were sold in 1908), and were followed in 1902 by 10 slightly-larger engines with a 0-4-2T wheel arrangement. The locomotives weighed 21.8 t each, and had 762 mm driving wheels and 304.8 mm × 406.4 mm cylinders. Later classified as B-class by the North Western State Railway, they were manufactured by the British Sharp, Stewart and Company.

Thirty larger 2-6-2T locomotives, with slight variations, were introduced between 1904 and 1910. Built by the Hunslet Engine and North British Locomotive Companies, they weighed about 36 t; and had 762 mm drivers and 355,6 mm × 406,4 mm cylinders. Later classed K and K2 by the North Western State Railway, they handled most of the rail traffic during the steam era. A pair of Kitson-Meyer 2-6-2+2-6-2 articulated locomotives, classed TD, were supplied in 1928. However, they quickly fell into disfavour because it often took all day for enough freight to be assembled to justify operating a goods train hauled by one of these locomotives. Shippers looking for faster service began turning to road transport. These 69.09 t locomotives were soon transferred to the Kangra Valley Railway, and were converted to 1,000 mm metre gauge in Pakistan. Regular steam-locomotive operation ended in 1971.

The railway's first diesel locomotives, class ZDM-1 manufactured by Arnold Jung Lokomotivfabrik (articulated with two prime movers), began operating in 1955; they were regauged, reclassified as NDM-1 and used on the Matheran Hill Railway during the 1970s. In the 1960s, class ZDM-2 locomotives from Maschinenbau Kiel (MaK) was introduced; they were later transferred to other lines.

The KSR currently operates with class ZDM-3 diesel-hydraulic locomotives (522 kW or 700 hp, 50 km/h), built between 1970 and 1982 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works with a single-cab road-switcher body. Six locomotives of that class were built in 2008 and 2009 by the Central Railway Loco Workshop in Parel, with updated components and a dual-cab body providing better track vision.

The railway opened with conventional four-wheel and bogie coaches. Their tare weight meant that only four bogie coaches could be hauled by the 2-6-2T locomotives. In a 1908 effort to increase capacity, the coach stock was rebuilt as 10,1 by 2,1 m bogie coaches with steel frames and bodies. To further save weight, the roofs were made of aluminium. The weight savings meant that the locomotives could now haul six of the larger coaches. This was an early example of the use of aluminium in coach construction to reduce tare weight.

Goods rolling stock was constructed on a common 9,1 by 2,1 m pressed-steel underframe. Open and covered wagons were provided, with the open wagons having a capacity of 19,30 t and the covered wagons 17,8 t.

During the winter months snow cutters are attached to the engine to clear the snow from the track.

TRAINS

Shivalik Deluxe Express: Ten coaches, with chair cars and meal service

Kalka Shimla Express: First and second class and unreserved seating

Himalayan Queen: Connects at Kalka with the express mail of the same name and the Kalka Shatabdi Express to Delhi.

Kalka Shimla Passenger: First and second class and unreserved seating

Rail Motor: First-class railbus with a glass roof and a front view

Shivalik Queen: Ten-carriage luxury fleet. Each carriage accommodates up to eight people and has two toilets, wall-to-wall carpeting and large windows. Available through IRCTC's Chandigarh office.

IN POPULAR CULTURE

BBC Four televised Indian Hill Railways, a series of three programmes which featured the KSR in its third episode, in February 2010; the first two episodes covered the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and Nilgiri Mountain Railway. The episodes, directed by Tarun Bhartiya, Hugo Smith and Nick Mattingly respectively, were produced by Gerry Troyna. Indian Hill Railways won a Royal Television Society award in June 2010. The KSR also featured in the Punjab episode of CNN's Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.

In 2018, the KSR was featured in an episode of the BBC Two programme Great Indian Railway Journeys.

WIKIPEDIA

The stalls at the platform also serves as an instant railway inquiry counters. They are happy to help you out with accurate information.

Shot Info :

Jhansi Railway Platform

50mm, 1/100 sec at f/8, ISO-400

Facebook ~ Blog

KALKA-SHIMLA RAILWAY

The Kalka–Shimla railway is a 762 mm narrow-gauge railway in North India which traverses a mostly-mountainous route from Kalka to Shimla. It is known for dramatic views of the hills and surrounding villages. The railway was built under the direction of Herbert Septimus Harington between 1898 and 1903 to connect Shimla, the summer capital of India during the British Raj, with the rest of the Indian rail system.

Its early locomotives were manufactured by Sharp, Stewart and Company. Larger locomotives were introduced, which were manufactured by the Hunslet Engine Company. Diesel and diesel-hydraulic locomotives began operation in 1955 and 1970, respectively.

On 8 July 2008, UNESCO added the Kalka–Shimla railway to the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site.

HISTORY

Shimla (then spelt Simla), which was settled by the British shortly after the first Anglo-Gurkha war, is located at 2,169 m in the foothills of the Himalayas. The idea of connecting Shimla by rail was first raised by a correspondent to the Delhi gazette in November 1847.

Shimla became the summer capital of British India in 1864, and was the headquarters of the Indian army. This meant that twice a year it was necessary to transfer the entire government between Calcutta and Shimla by horse and ox drawn carts.

In 1891 the 1,676 mm broad-gauge Delhi–Kalka line opened, which made the construction of a branch line up to Shimla feasible.

The earliest survey was made in 1884 followed by another survey in 1885. Based on these two surveys, a project report was submitted in 1887 to the government of British India. Fresh surveys were made in 1892, and 1893 which lead to four alternative schemes being suggested - two adhesion lines 108.23 km and 112.25 km long and two rack lines. Fresh surveys were again made in 1895 from Kalka to Solan with a view to determine whether a 1 in 12 rack or 1 in 25 adhesion line should be chosen. After much debate an adhesion line was chosen in preference to a rack system.

Construction of the Kalka–Shimla railway on 610 mm narrow-gauge tracks was begun by the privately funded Delhi-Ambala-Kalka Railway Company following the signing of a contract between the secretary of state and the company on 29 June 1898. The contract specified that the line would be built without any financial aid or guarantee from the government. The government however provided the land free of charge to the company. The estimated cost of 8,678,500 rupees doubled by the time the line was opened. The Chief Engineer of the project was Herbert Septimus Harington.

The 95,68 km line opened for traffic on 9 November 1903 and was dedicated by Viceroy Lord Curzon. This line was further extended from Shimla to Shimla Goods (which had once housed the bullock cart office) on 27 June 1909 making it 96,60 km.

The Indian Army were sceptical about the two feet gauge chosen for the line and requested that a wider standard gauge be used for mountain and light strategic railways. Eventually the government agreed that the gauge was too narrow for was essentially a capital city and for military purposes. As a result, the contract with the railway company was revised on 15 November 1901 and the line gauge changed to 762 mm with the track built to date being regauged. Some sources however state the regauging wasn't undertaken until 1905.

In 1905 the company took delivery of a 10-ton Cowans Sheldon travelling crane to assist with lifting rolling stock back onto the tracks after accidents and for general track maintenance.

Due to the high capital and maintenance costs and difficult working conditions, the railway was allowed to charge higher fares than on other lines. Nevertheless, the company had spent 16.525.000 rupees by 1904 with no sign of the line becoming profitable, which lead to it being purchased by the government on 1 January 1906 for 17.107.748 rupees.

Once it came under the control of the government the line was originally managed as an independent unit from the North West Railway office in Lahore until 1926, when it was transferred to Delhi Division. Since July 1987, the line has been managed by the Ambala Division from Ambala Cantt.

In 2007, the Himachal Pradesh government declared the railway a heritage property. For about a week, beginning on 11 September 2007, a UNESCO team visited the railway to inspect it for possible selection as a World Heritage Site. On 8 July 2008, it became part of the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site with the Darjeeling Himalayan and Nilgiri Mountain Railways.

BABA BALKHU RAM´S CONTRIBUTION

Baba Balkhu Ram was a poor, illeterate man of a Shimla's backward village, since he gave great contriution in the construction of challenging railway. Apart of his majy contributions in Kalka- Shimla Railway, his most remembering contribution was of the construction of Barog tunnel. At that time the Captain Barog who was assigned to complete the construction work of the heritage railway, started the digging work of the Barog tunnel in the mountain, but he was constantly stopped by Baba Bakhu Ram to not to dig this side, but Captain Barog did not listen to him, he was thinking that he was mad, but eventually after some days of digging, water started coming out the digging part. Captain Barog then fined with the then (Rupee 1) by the British Government. Captain Barog took this as his insult and committed suicide in Barog area, where now his resting place is situated. Then Baba Balkhu Ram was the person who helped the another engineers assigned for the construction, being a local resident he had the ample knowledge about the place, because of his vision Barog tunnel which is the 33rd tunnel of the route from Kalka (longest of all the 103 tunnels of the track) got constructed. In his memory on 7 July 2011 Indian Railways opened the Baba Bhalku Rail Museum to document the history of the railway line and to display related artefacts below Old Bus Stand in Shimla.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

The track has 20 picturesque stations, 103 tunnels, 912 curves, 969 bridges and 3% slope (1:33 gradient). The 1.14..61 m tunnel at Barog immediately before the Barog station is longest, a 18,29 m bridge is the longest and the sharpest curve has a 38 m radius of curvature. The railway line originally used 20,8 kg/m rail, which was later replaced with 29,8 kg/m rail. The train has an average speed of 25–30 km/hr but the railcar is almost 50–60 km/hr. Both the train and railcar are equipped with vistadomes.

The temperature range and annual rainfall are 0–45 C and 200–250 cm, respectively.

OPERATORS

The KSR and its assets, including the stations, line and vehicles, belong to the government of India under the Ministry of Railways. The Northern Railway handles day-to-day maintenance and management, and several programs, divisions and departments of Indian Railways are responsible for repairs.

ROUTE

The route winds from a height of 656 metres at Kalka in the Himalayan Shivalik Hills foothills, past Dharampur, Solan, Kandaghat, Taradevi, Barog, Salogra, Totu (Jutogh) and Summerhill, to Shimla at an altitude of 2.075 metres. The difference in height between the two ends of line is 1.419 metres.

BRIDGES AND VIADUCTS

The railway has 988 bridges and viaducts and a ruling gradient of 1 in 33, or three percent. It has 917 curves and the sharpest is 48 degrees (a radius of 37,47 m.

The most architecturally complex bridge is No. 226 which spans a deep valley which required that it had to be constructed in five stages with each level having its own stone arched tier.

TUNNELS

One hundred seven tunnels were originally built, but as a result of landslides only 102 remain in use.

ROLLING STOCK

The first locomotives were two class-B 0-4-0STs from the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. These were built as 610 mm-gauge engines, but were converted to 762 mm-gauge in 1901. They were not large enough (they were sold in 1908), and were followed in 1902 by 10 slightly-larger engines with a 0-4-2T wheel arrangement. The locomotives weighed 21.8 t each, and had 762 mm driving wheels and 304.8 mm × 406.4 mm cylinders. Later classified as B-class by the North Western State Railway, they were manufactured by the British Sharp, Stewart and Company.

Thirty larger 2-6-2T locomotives, with slight variations, were introduced between 1904 and 1910. Built by the Hunslet Engine and North British Locomotive Companies, they weighed about 36 t; and had 762 mm drivers and 355,6 mm × 406,4 mm cylinders. Later classed K and K2 by the North Western State Railway, they handled most of the rail traffic during the steam era. A pair of Kitson-Meyer 2-6-2+2-6-2 articulated locomotives, classed TD, were supplied in 1928. However, they quickly fell into disfavour because it often took all day for enough freight to be assembled to justify operating a goods train hauled by one of these locomotives. Shippers looking for faster service began turning to road transport. These 69.09 t locomotives were soon transferred to the Kangra Valley Railway, and were converted to 1,000 mm metre gauge in Pakistan. Regular steam-locomotive operation ended in 1971.

The railway's first diesel locomotives, class ZDM-1 manufactured by Arnold Jung Lokomotivfabrik (articulated with two prime movers), began operating in 1955; they were regauged, reclassified as NDM-1 and used on the Matheran Hill Railway during the 1970s. In the 1960s, class ZDM-2 locomotives from Maschinenbau Kiel (MaK) was introduced; they were later transferred to other lines.

The KSR currently operates with class ZDM-3 diesel-hydraulic locomotives (522 kW or 700 hp, 50 km/h), built between 1970 and 1982 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works with a single-cab road-switcher body. Six locomotives of that class were built in 2008 and 2009 by the Central Railway Loco Workshop in Parel, with updated components and a dual-cab body providing better track vision.

The railway opened with conventional four-wheel and bogie coaches. Their tare weight meant that only four bogie coaches could be hauled by the 2-6-2T locomotives. In a 1908 effort to increase capacity, the coach stock was rebuilt as 10,1 by 2,1 m bogie coaches with steel frames and bodies. To further save weight, the roofs were made of aluminium. The weight savings meant that the locomotives could now haul six of the larger coaches. This was an early example of the use of aluminium in coach construction to reduce tare weight.

Goods rolling stock was constructed on a common 9,1 by 2,1 m pressed-steel underframe. Open and covered wagons were provided, with the open wagons having a capacity of 19,30 t and the covered wagons 17,8 t.

During the winter months snow cutters are attached to the engine to clear the snow from the track.

TRAINS

Shivalik Deluxe Express: Ten coaches, with chair cars and meal service

Kalka Shimla Express: First and second class and unreserved seating

Himalayan Queen: Connects at Kalka with the express mail of the same name and the Kalka Shatabdi Express to Delhi.

Kalka Shimla Passenger: First and second class and unreserved seating

Rail Motor: First-class railbus with a glass roof and a front view

Shivalik Queen: Ten-carriage luxury fleet. Each carriage accommodates up to eight people and has two toilets, wall-to-wall carpeting and large windows. Available through IRCTC's Chandigarh office.

IN POPULAR CULTURE

BBC Four televised Indian Hill Railways, a series of three programmes which featured the KSR in its third episode, in February 2010; the first two episodes covered the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and Nilgiri Mountain Railway. The episodes, directed by Tarun Bhartiya, Hugo Smith and Nick Mattingly respectively, were produced by Gerry Troyna. Indian Hill Railways won a Royal Television Society award in June 2010. The KSR also featured in the Punjab episode of CNN's Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.

In 2018, the KSR was featured in an episode of the BBC Two programme Great Indian Railway Journeys.

WIKIPEDIA

KALKA-SHIMLA RAILWAY

The Kalka–Shimla railway is a 762 mm narrow-gauge railway in North India which traverses a mostly-mountainous route from Kalka to Shimla. It is known for dramatic views of the hills and surrounding villages. The railway was built under the direction of Herbert Septimus Harington between 1898 and 1903 to connect Shimla, the summer capital of India during the British Raj, with the rest of the Indian rail system.

Its early locomotives were manufactured by Sharp, Stewart and Company. Larger locomotives were introduced, which were manufactured by the Hunslet Engine Company. Diesel and diesel-hydraulic locomotives began operation in 1955 and 1970, respectively.

On 8 July 2008, UNESCO added the Kalka–Shimla railway to the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site.

HISTORY

Shimla (then spelt Simla), which was settled by the British shortly after the first Anglo-Gurkha war, is located at 2,169 m in the foothills of the Himalayas. The idea of connecting Shimla by rail was first raised by a correspondent to the Delhi gazette in November 1847.

Shimla became the summer capital of British India in 1864, and was the headquarters of the Indian army. This meant that twice a year it was necessary to transfer the entire government between Calcutta and Shimla by horse and ox drawn carts.

In 1891 the 1,676 mm broad-gauge Delhi–Kalka line opened, which made the construction of a branch line up to Shimla feasible.

The earliest survey was made in 1884 followed by another survey in 1885. Based on these two surveys, a project report was submitted in 1887 to the government of British India. Fresh surveys were made in 1892, and 1893 which lead to four alternative schemes being suggested - two adhesion lines 108.23 km and 112.25 km long and two rack lines. Fresh surveys were again made in 1895 from Kalka to Solan with a view to determine whether a 1 in 12 rack or 1 in 25 adhesion line should be chosen. After much debate an adhesion line was chosen in preference to a rack system.

Construction of the Kalka–Shimla railway on 610 mm narrow-gauge tracks was begun by the privately funded Delhi-Ambala-Kalka Railway Company following the signing of a contract between the secretary of state and the company on 29 June 1898. The contract specified that the line would be built without any financial aid or guarantee from the government. The government however provided the land free of charge to the company. The estimated cost of 8,678,500 rupees doubled by the time the line was opened. The Chief Engineer of the project was Herbert Septimus Harington.

The 95,68 km line opened for traffic on 9 November 1903 and was dedicated by Viceroy Lord Curzon. This line was further extended from Shimla to Shimla Goods (which had once housed the bullock cart office) on 27 June 1909 making it 96,60 km.

The Indian Army were sceptical about the two feet gauge chosen for the line and requested that a wider standard gauge be used for mountain and light strategic railways. Eventually the government agreed that the gauge was too narrow for was essentially a capital city and for military purposes. As a result, the contract with the railway company was revised on 15 November 1901 and the line gauge changed to 762 mm with the track built to date being regauged. Some sources however state the regauging wasn't undertaken until 1905.

In 1905 the company took delivery of a 10-ton Cowans Sheldon travelling crane to assist with lifting rolling stock back onto the tracks after accidents and for general track maintenance.

Due to the high capital and maintenance costs and difficult working conditions, the railway was allowed to charge higher fares than on other lines. Nevertheless, the company had spent 16.525.000 rupees by 1904 with no sign of the line becoming profitable, which lead to it being purchased by the government on 1 January 1906 for 17.107.748 rupees.

Once it came under the control of the government the line was originally managed as an independent unit from the North West Railway office in Lahore until 1926, when it was transferred to Delhi Division. Since July 1987, the line has been managed by the Ambala Division from Ambala Cantt.

In 2007, the Himachal Pradesh government declared the railway a heritage property. For about a week, beginning on 11 September 2007, a UNESCO team visited the railway to inspect it for possible selection as a World Heritage Site. On 8 July 2008, it became part of the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site with the Darjeeling Himalayan and Nilgiri Mountain Railways.

BABA BALKHU RAM´S CONTRIBUTION

Baba Balkhu Ram was a poor, illeterate man of a Shimla's backward village, since he gave great contriution in the construction of challenging railway. Apart of his majy contributions in Kalka- Shimla Railway, his most remembering contribution was of the construction of Barog tunnel. At that time the Captain Barog who was assigned to complete the construction work of the heritage railway, started the digging work of the Barog tunnel in the mountain, but he was constantly stopped by Baba Bakhu Ram to not to dig this side, but Captain Barog did not listen to him, he was thinking that he was mad, but eventually after some days of digging, water started coming out the digging part. Captain Barog then fined with the then (Rupee 1) by the British Government. Captain Barog took this as his insult and committed suicide in Barog area, where now his resting place is situated. Then Baba Balkhu Ram was the person who helped the another engineers assigned for the construction, being a local resident he had the ample knowledge about the place, because of his vision Barog tunnel which is the 33rd tunnel of the route from Kalka (longest of all the 103 tunnels of the track) got constructed. In his memory on 7 July 2011 Indian Railways opened the Baba Bhalku Rail Museum to document the history of the railway line and to display related artefacts below Old Bus Stand in Shimla.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

The track has 20 picturesque stations, 103 tunnels, 912 curves, 969 bridges and 3% slope (1:33 gradient). The 1.14..61 m tunnel at Barog immediately before the Barog station is longest, a 18,29 m bridge is the longest and the sharpest curve has a 38 m radius of curvature. The railway line originally used 20,8 kg/m rail, which was later replaced with 29,8 kg/m rail. The train has an average speed of 25–30 km/hr but the railcar is almost 50–60 km/hr. Both the train and railcar are equipped with vistadomes.

The temperature range and annual rainfall are 0–45 C and 200–250 cm, respectively.

OPERATORS

The KSR and its assets, including the stations, line and vehicles, belong to the government of India under the Ministry of Railways. The Northern Railway handles day-to-day maintenance and management, and several programs, divisions and departments of Indian Railways are responsible for repairs.

ROUTE

The route winds from a height of 656 metres at Kalka in the Himalayan Shivalik Hills foothills, past Dharampur, Solan, Kandaghat, Taradevi, Barog, Salogra, Totu (Jutogh) and Summerhill, to Shimla at an altitude of 2.075 metres. The difference in height between the two ends of line is 1.419 metres.

BRIDGES AND VIADUCTS

The railway has 988 bridges and viaducts and a ruling gradient of 1 in 33, or three percent. It has 917 curves and the sharpest is 48 degrees (a radius of 37,47 m.

The most architecturally complex bridge is No. 226 which spans a deep valley which required that it had to be constructed in five stages with each level having its own stone arched tier.

TUNNELS

One hundred seven tunnels were originally built, but as a result of landslides only 102 remain in use.

ROLLING STOCK

The first locomotives were two class-B 0-4-0STs from the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. These were built as 610 mm-gauge engines, but were converted to 762 mm-gauge in 1901. They were not large enough (they were sold in 1908), and were followed in 1902 by 10 slightly-larger engines with a 0-4-2T wheel arrangement. The locomotives weighed 21.8 t each, and had 762 mm driving wheels and 304.8 mm × 406.4 mm cylinders. Later classified as B-class by the North Western State Railway, they were manufactured by the British Sharp, Stewart and Company.

Thirty larger 2-6-2T locomotives, with slight variations, were introduced between 1904 and 1910. Built by the Hunslet Engine and North British Locomotive Companies, they weighed about 36 t; and had 762 mm drivers and 355,6 mm × 406,4 mm cylinders. Later classed K and K2 by the North Western State Railway, they handled most of the rail traffic during the steam era. A pair of Kitson-Meyer 2-6-2+2-6-2 articulated locomotives, classed TD, were supplied in 1928. However, they quickly fell into disfavour because it often took all day for enough freight to be assembled to justify operating a goods train hauled by one of these locomotives. Shippers looking for faster service began turning to road transport. These 69.09 t locomotives were soon transferred to the Kangra Valley Railway, and were converted to 1,000 mm metre gauge in Pakistan. Regular steam-locomotive operation ended in 1971.

The railway's first diesel locomotives, class ZDM-1 manufactured by Arnold Jung Lokomotivfabrik (articulated with two prime movers), began operating in 1955; they were regauged, reclassified as NDM-1 and used on the Matheran Hill Railway during the 1970s. In the 1960s, class ZDM-2 locomotives from Maschinenbau Kiel (MaK) was introduced; they were later transferred to other lines.

The KSR currently operates with class ZDM-3 diesel-hydraulic locomotives (522 kW or 700 hp, 50 km/h), built between 1970 and 1982 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works with a single-cab road-switcher body. Six locomotives of that class were built in 2008 and 2009 by the Central Railway Loco Workshop in Parel, with updated components and a dual-cab body providing better track vision.

The railway opened with conventional four-wheel and bogie coaches. Their tare weight meant that only four bogie coaches could be hauled by the 2-6-2T locomotives. In a 1908 effort to increase capacity, the coach stock was rebuilt as 10,1 by 2,1 m bogie coaches with steel frames and bodies. To further save weight, the roofs were made of aluminium. The weight savings meant that the locomotives could now haul six of the larger coaches. This was an early example of the use of aluminium in coach construction to reduce tare weight.

Goods rolling stock was constructed on a common 9,1 by 2,1 m pressed-steel underframe. Open and covered wagons were provided, with the open wagons having a capacity of 19,30 t and the covered wagons 17,8 t.

During the winter months snow cutters are attached to the engine to clear the snow from the track.

TRAINS

Shivalik Deluxe Express: Ten coaches, with chair cars and meal service

Kalka Shimla Express: First and second class and unreserved seating

Himalayan Queen: Connects at Kalka with the express mail of the same name and the Kalka Shatabdi Express to Delhi.

Kalka Shimla Passenger: First and second class and unreserved seating

Rail Motor: First-class railbus with a glass roof and a front view

Shivalik Queen: Ten-carriage luxury fleet. Each carriage accommodates up to eight people and has two toilets, wall-to-wall carpeting and large windows. Available through IRCTC's Chandigarh office.

IN POPULAR CULTURE

BBC Four televised Indian Hill Railways, a series of three programmes which featured the KSR in its third episode, in February 2010; the first two episodes covered the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and Nilgiri Mountain Railway. The episodes, directed by Tarun Bhartiya, Hugo Smith and Nick Mattingly respectively, were produced by Gerry Troyna. Indian Hill Railways won a Royal Television Society award in June 2010. The KSR also featured in the Punjab episode of CNN's Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.

In 2018, the KSR was featured in an episode of the BBC Two programme Great Indian Railway Journeys.

WIKIPEDIA

KALKA-SHIMLA RAILWAY

The Kalka–Shimla railway is a 762 mm narrow-gauge railway in North India which traverses a mostly-mountainous route from Kalka to Shimla. It is known for dramatic views of the hills and surrounding villages. The railway was built under the direction of Herbert Septimus Harington between 1898 and 1903 to connect Shimla, the summer capital of India during the British Raj, with the rest of the Indian rail system.

Its early locomotives were manufactured by Sharp, Stewart and Company. Larger locomotives were introduced, which were manufactured by the Hunslet Engine Company. Diesel and diesel-hydraulic locomotives began operation in 1955 and 1970, respectively.

On 8 July 2008, UNESCO added the Kalka–Shimla railway to the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site.

HISTORY

Shimla (then spelt Simla), which was settled by the British shortly after the first Anglo-Gurkha war, is located at 2,169 m in the foothills of the Himalayas. The idea of connecting Shimla by rail was first raised by a correspondent to the Delhi gazette in November 1847.

Shimla became the summer capital of British India in 1864, and was the headquarters of the Indian army. This meant that twice a year it was necessary to transfer the entire government between Calcutta and Shimla by horse and ox drawn carts.

In 1891 the 1,676 mm broad-gauge Delhi–Kalka line opened, which made the construction of a branch line up to Shimla feasible.

The earliest survey was made in 1884 followed by another survey in 1885. Based on these two surveys, a project report was submitted in 1887 to the government of British India. Fresh surveys were made in 1892, and 1893 which lead to four alternative schemes being suggested - two adhesion lines 108.23 km and 112.25 km long and two rack lines. Fresh surveys were again made in 1895 from Kalka to Solan with a view to determine whether a 1 in 12 rack or 1 in 25 adhesion line should be chosen. After much debate an adhesion line was chosen in preference to a rack system.

Construction of the Kalka–Shimla railway on 610 mm narrow-gauge tracks was begun by the privately funded Delhi-Ambala-Kalka Railway Company following the signing of a contract between the secretary of state and the company on 29 June 1898. The contract specified that the line would be built without any financial aid or guarantee from the government. The government however provided the land free of charge to the company. The estimated cost of 8,678,500 rupees doubled by the time the line was opened. The Chief Engineer of the project was Herbert Septimus Harington.

The 95,68 km line opened for traffic on 9 November 1903 and was dedicated by Viceroy Lord Curzon. This line was further extended from Shimla to Shimla Goods (which had once housed the bullock cart office) on 27 June 1909 making it 96,60 km.

The Indian Army were sceptical about the two feet gauge chosen for the line and requested that a wider standard gauge be used for mountain and light strategic railways. Eventually the government agreed that the gauge was too narrow for was essentially a capital city and for military purposes. As a result, the contract with the railway company was revised on 15 November 1901 and the line gauge changed to 762 mm with the track built to date being regauged. Some sources however state the regauging wasn't undertaken until 1905.

In 1905 the company took delivery of a 10-ton Cowans Sheldon travelling crane to assist with lifting rolling stock back onto the tracks after accidents and for general track maintenance.

Due to the high capital and maintenance costs and difficult working conditions, the railway was allowed to charge higher fares than on other lines. Nevertheless, the company had spent 16.525.000 rupees by 1904 with no sign of the line becoming profitable, which lead to it being purchased by the government on 1 January 1906 for 17.107.748 rupees.

Once it came under the control of the government the line was originally managed as an independent unit from the North West Railway office in Lahore until 1926, when it was transferred to Delhi Division. Since July 1987, the line has been managed by the Ambala Division from Ambala Cantt.

In 2007, the Himachal Pradesh government declared the railway a heritage property. For about a week, beginning on 11 September 2007, a UNESCO team visited the railway to inspect it for possible selection as a World Heritage Site. On 8 July 2008, it became part of the mountain railways of India World Heritage Site with the Darjeeling Himalayan and Nilgiri Mountain Railways.

BABA BALKHU RAM´S CONTRIBUTION

Baba Balkhu Ram was a poor, illeterate man of a Shimla's backward village, since he gave great contriution in the construction of challenging railway. Apart of his majy contributions in Kalka- Shimla Railway, his most remembering contribution was of the construction of Barog tunnel. At that time the Captain Barog who was assigned to complete the construction work of the heritage railway, started the digging work of the Barog tunnel in the mountain, but he was constantly stopped by Baba Bakhu Ram to not to dig this side, but Captain Barog did not listen to him, he was thinking that he was mad, but eventually after some days of digging, water started coming out the digging part. Captain Barog then fined with the then (Rupee 1) by the British Government. Captain Barog took this as his insult and committed suicide in Barog area, where now his resting place is situated. Then Baba Balkhu Ram was the person who helped the another engineers assigned for the construction, being a local resident he had the ample knowledge about the place, because of his vision Barog tunnel which is the 33rd tunnel of the route from Kalka (longest of all the 103 tunnels of the track) got constructed. In his memory on 7 July 2011 Indian Railways opened the Baba Bhalku Rail Museum to document the history of the railway line and to display related artefacts below Old Bus Stand in Shimla.

TECHNICAL DETAILS

The track has 20 picturesque stations, 103 tunnels, 912 curves, 969 bridges and 3% slope (1:33 gradient). The 1.14..61 m tunnel at Barog immediately before the Barog station is longest, a 18,29 m bridge is the longest and the sharpest curve has a 38 m radius of curvature. The railway line originally used 20,8 kg/m rail, which was later replaced with 29,8 kg/m rail. The train has an average speed of 25–30 km/hr but the railcar is almost 50–60 km/hr. Both the train and railcar are equipped with vistadomes.

The temperature range and annual rainfall are 0–45 C and 200–250 cm, respectively.

OPERATORS

The KSR and its assets, including the stations, line and vehicles, belong to the government of India under the Ministry of Railways. The Northern Railway handles day-to-day maintenance and management, and several programs, divisions and departments of Indian Railways are responsible for repairs.

ROUTE

The route winds from a height of 656 metres at Kalka in the Himalayan Shivalik Hills foothills, past Dharampur, Solan, Kandaghat, Taradevi, Barog, Salogra, Totu (Jutogh) and Summerhill, to Shimla at an altitude of 2.075 metres. The difference in height between the two ends of line is 1.419 metres.

BRIDGES AND VIADUCTS

The railway has 988 bridges and viaducts and a ruling gradient of 1 in 33, or three percent. It has 917 curves and the sharpest is 48 degrees (a radius of 37,47 m.

The most architecturally complex bridge is No. 226 which spans a deep valley which required that it had to be constructed in five stages with each level having its own stone arched tier.

TUNNELS

One hundred seven tunnels were originally built, but as a result of landslides only 102 remain in use.

ROLLING STOCK

The first locomotives were two class-B 0-4-0STs from the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. These were built as 610 mm-gauge engines, but were converted to 762 mm-gauge in 1901. They were not large enough (they were sold in 1908), and were followed in 1902 by 10 slightly-larger engines with a 0-4-2T wheel arrangement. The locomotives weighed 21.8 t each, and had 762 mm driving wheels and 304.8 mm × 406.4 mm cylinders. Later classified as B-class by the North Western State Railway, they were manufactured by the British Sharp, Stewart and Company.

Thirty larger 2-6-2T locomotives, with slight variations, were introduced between 1904 and 1910. Built by the Hunslet Engine and North British Locomotive Companies, they weighed about 36 t; and had 762 mm drivers and 355,6 mm × 406,4 mm cylinders. Later classed K and K2 by the North Western State Railway, they handled most of the rail traffic during the steam era. A pair of Kitson-Meyer 2-6-2+2-6-2 articulated locomotives, classed TD, were supplied in 1928. However, they quickly fell into disfavour because it often took all day for enough freight to be assembled to justify operating a goods train hauled by one of these locomotives. Shippers looking for faster service began turning to road transport. These 69.09 t locomotives were soon transferred to the Kangra Valley Railway, and were converted to 1,000 mm metre gauge in Pakistan. Regular steam-locomotive operation ended in 1971.

The railway's first diesel locomotives, class ZDM-1 manufactured by Arnold Jung Lokomotivfabrik (articulated with two prime movers), began operating in 1955; they were regauged, reclassified as NDM-1 and used on the Matheran Hill Railway during the 1970s. In the 1960s, class ZDM-2 locomotives from Maschinenbau Kiel (MaK) was introduced; they were later transferred to other lines.

The KSR currently operates with class ZDM-3 diesel-hydraulic locomotives (522 kW or 700 hp, 50 km/h), built between 1970 and 1982 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works with a single-cab road-switcher body. Six locomotives of that class were built in 2008 and 2009 by the Central Railway Loco Workshop in Parel, with updated components and a dual-cab body providing better track vision.

The railway opened with conventional four-wheel and bogie coaches. Their tare weight meant that only four bogie coaches could be hauled by the 2-6-2T locomotives. In a 1908 effort to increase capacity, the coach stock was rebuilt as 10,1 by 2,1 m bogie coaches with steel frames and bodies. To further save weight, the roofs were made of aluminium. The weight savings meant that the locomotives could now haul six of the larger coaches. This was an early example of the use of aluminium in coach construction to reduce tare weight.

Goods rolling stock was constructed on a common 9,1 by 2,1 m pressed-steel underframe. Open and covered wagons were provided, with the open wagons having a capacity of 19,30 t and the covered wagons 17,8 t.

During the winter months snow cutters are attached to the engine to clear the snow from the track.

TRAINS

Shivalik Deluxe Express: Ten coaches, with chair cars and meal service

Kalka Shimla Express: First and second class and unreserved seating

Himalayan Queen: Connects at Kalka with the express mail of the same name and the Kalka Shatabdi Express to Delhi.

Kalka Shimla Passenger: First and second class and unreserved seating

Rail Motor: First-class railbus with a glass roof and a front view

Shivalik Queen: Ten-carriage luxury fleet. Each carriage accommodates up to eight people and has two toilets, wall-to-wall carpeting and large windows. Available through IRCTC's Chandigarh office.

IN POPULAR CULTURE

BBC Four televised Indian Hill Railways, a series of three programmes which featured the KSR in its third episode, in February 2010; the first two episodes covered the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and Nilgiri Mountain Railway. The episodes, directed by Tarun Bhartiya, Hugo Smith and Nick Mattingly respectively, were produced by Gerry Troyna. Indian Hill Railways won a Royal Television Society award in June 2010. The KSR also featured in the Punjab episode of CNN's Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown.

In 2018, the KSR was featured in an episode of the BBC Two programme Great Indian Railway Journeys.

WIKIPEDIA

Portrait of a milk trader in a train India. Indian Railway coach.

Kodak ProFoto XL ISO 100 print film. Nikon . Candid Film photography, Street Photography

ALCo WDM3A #16562R of DLS Andal (UDL), ER in charge of the 00561 Kamakhya - Malatipatpur ASTHA SPECIAL, captured at Kamakhya Jn.

Watch the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sshh53v83_A

00561 Kamakhya - Malatipatpur (Puri) ASTHA CIRCUIT SPECIAL TRAIN hauled by ALCo WDM3A #16562R of DLS Andal (UDL), ER; flagged-off from Kamakhya Jn on 17th February, 2017; in the presence of honourable Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal, honourable Minister of Railways (State) Rajen Gohain and other dignitaries.

It is a "Bharat Darshan Special Tourist Train" type special train run by Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. (IRCTC).

Destinations covered: Kolkata, Puri & Bhubaneswar.

Boarding Points: Guwahati - Alipur Duar - New Cooch behar - New Jalpaiguri - Malda - New Farakka - Pakur - Rampurhat - Bolpur

Deboarding Points: Rampurhat - Pakur - New Farakka - Malda - New Jalpaiguri - New Cooch behar - Alipur Duar - Guwahati

Duration:06 Nights/07 Days

Package Tariff (Including Service Tax): ₹ 6,161/-

For more details, please visit the IRCTC's site, here is the link: www.irctctourism.com/TourPackages/RailTour/Bharat-Darshan...

Please LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE and please don't forget to SUBSCRIBE !!

Thanks for watching !!

Child sleeping on the platform somewhere between Calcutta's Howrah station and NJP.

Indian Railways at present have adopted the evolving growth of internet and computerization. Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited (IRCTC) is now online and has adopted digitization through which the passengers can avail infinite facilities from the comfort of home.

GTL WDM3A waiting for starter signal with IRCTC tourist special

Northern Railway’s Saharanpur (SRE) WAG-12B #60157 with BLC rake towards JNPT at Dativali Railway Station

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Passengers and IRCTC catering workers crowding near door of BX-1 (AC 3 tier) coach of Mumbai Rajdhani express at Mumbai central.

02497 Shri Ganganagar - Tiruchchirappalli Humsafar Express.

00561 Kamakhya - Malatipatpur (Puri) ASTHA CIRCUIT SPECIAL TRAIN hauled by ALCo WDM3A #16562R of DLS Andal (UDL), ER; flagged-off from Kamakhya Jn on 17th February, 2017; in the presence of honourable Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal, honourable Minister of Railways (State) Rajen Gohain and other dignitaries.

It is a "Bharat Darshan Special Tourist Train" type special train run by Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. (IRCTC).

Destinations covered: Kolkata, Puri & Bhubaneswar.

Boarding Points: Guwahati - Alipur Duar - New Cooch behar - New Jalpaiguri - Malda - New Farakka - Pakur - Rampurhat - Bolpur

Deboarding Points: Rampurhat - Pakur - New Farakka - Malda - New Jalpaiguri - New Cooch behar - Alipur Duar - Guwahati

Duration:06 Nights/07 Days

Package Tariff (Including Service Tax): ₹ 6,161/-

For more details, please visit the IRCTC's site, here is the link: www.irctctourism.com/TourPackages/RailTour/Bharat-Darshan...

Please LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE and please don't forget to SUBSCRIBE !!

Thanks for watching !!

Watch the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sshh53v83_A

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Mr. Hammad Hussain Ghazi

Train stopped for Signal in a unknown village, Panasonic FZ18 & Photoshop for enhancement.

My First Outdoor night shot

Pls post your comments

Irctc catering Van reversing back after supplying Food stuff into 12951 Mumbai Rajdhani express

00561 Kamakhya - Malatipatpur (Puri) ASTHA CIRCUIT SPECIAL TRAIN hauled by ALCo WDM3A #16562R of DLS Andal (UDL), ER; flagged-off from Kamakhya Jn on 17th February, 2017; in the presence of honourable Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal, honourable Minister of Railways (State) Rajen Gohain and other dignitaries.

It is a "Bharat Darshan Special Tourist Train" type special train run by Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. (IRCTC).

Destinations covered: Kolkata, Puri & Bhubaneswar.

Boarding Points: Guwahati - Alipur Duar - New Cooch behar - New Jalpaiguri - Malda - New Farakka - Pakur - Rampurhat - Bolpur

Deboarding Points: Rampurhat - Pakur - New Farakka - Malda - New Jalpaiguri - New Cooch behar - Alipur Duar - Guwahati

Duration:06 Nights/07 Days

Package Tariff (Including Service Tax): ₹ 6,161/-

For more details, please visit the IRCTC's site, here is the link: www.irctctourism.com/TourPackages/RailTour/Bharat-Darshan...

Please LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE and please don't forget to SUBSCRIBE !!

Thanks for watching !!

Watch the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sshh53v83_A

India's finest maharajas express luxury train by IRCTC, Indian Railways tourism wing works as hospitality and tourism partner for Indian Railway and serves luxurious train tours in India to its global customers.

For more info plz visit:

us.the-maharajas.com/about-maharajas-express.html

HOW TO BOOK TRAIN TICKETS IN INDIA FROM ABROAD (QUICK AND EASY GUIDE!) // Want to know how to book train tickets in India online? This will video will show you how to book foreign tourist quota in Indian railways online and the steps for IRCTC NRI reservation. I will tell you everything you need to know about India train ticket booking from overseas.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwXBm9pfZic

India's finest maharajas express luxury train by IRCTC, Indian Railways tourism wing works as hospitality and tourism partner for Indian Railway and serves luxurious train tours in India to its global customers.

For more info please visit:

us.the-maharajas.com/about-maharajas-express.html

photograph during dussehera

I was on my way to Dehradun, this was taken when my train just started pulling out of Varanasi Jn. by Kaushik Biswas

00561 Kamakhya - Malatipatpur (Puri) ASTHA CIRCUIT SPECIAL TRAIN hauled by ALCo WDM3A #16562R of DLS Andal (UDL), ER; flagged-off from Kamakhya Jn on 17th February, 2017; in the presence of honourable Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal, honourable Minister of Railways (State) Rajen Gohain and other dignitaries.

It is a "Bharat Darshan Special Tourist Train" type special train run by Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. (IRCTC).

Destinations covered: Kolkata, Puri & Bhubaneswar.

Boarding Points: Guwahati - Alipur Duar - New Cooch behar - New Jalpaiguri - Malda - New Farakka - Pakur - Rampurhat - Bolpur

Deboarding Points: Rampurhat - Pakur - New Farakka - Malda - New Jalpaiguri - New Cooch behar - Alipur Duar - Guwahati

Duration:06 Nights/07 Days

Package Tariff (Including Service Tax): ₹ 6,161/-

For more details, please visit the IRCTC's site, here is the link: www.irctctourism.com/TourPackages/RailTour/Bharat-Darshan...

Please LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE and please don't forget to SUBSCRIBE !!

Thanks for watching !!

Watch the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sshh53v83_A

00561 Kamakhya - Malatipatpur (Puri) ASTHA CIRCUIT SPECIAL TRAIN hauled by ALCo WDM3A #16562R of DLS Andal (UDL), ER; flagged-off from Kamakhya Jn on 17th February, 2017; in the presence of honourable Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal, honourable Minister of Railways (State) Rajen Gohain and other dignitaries.

It is a "Bharat Darshan Special Tourist Train" type special train run by Indian Railways Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd. (IRCTC).

Destinations covered: Kolkata, Puri & Bhubaneswar.

Boarding Points: Guwahati - Alipur Duar - New Cooch behar - New Jalpaiguri - Malda - New Farakka - Pakur - Rampurhat - Bolpur

Deboarding Points: Rampurhat - Pakur - New Farakka - Malda - New Jalpaiguri - New Cooch behar - Alipur Duar - Guwahati

Duration:06 Nights/07 Days

Package Tariff (Including Service Tax): ₹ 6,161/-

For more details, please visit the IRCTC's site, here is the link: www.irctctourism.com/TourPackages/RailTour/Bharat-Darshan...

Please LIKE, COMMENT, SHARE and please don't forget to SUBSCRIBE !!

Thanks for watching !!

Watch the video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sshh53v83_A

IRCTC's Luxury Train is The World Best Luxury Tour Train In India Or Indian Heritage Enjoy Best Luxury Travel In India With Six Different Type Of Luxury Train. Starting From Your Budget

railwayenquirylive.wordpress.com/2018/06/28/best-luxury-t...

About Vadaseri

Vadaseri is a small agricultural village in Thanjavur District, the food grain and temple district of Tamil Nadu, India. Vadaseri is located about 35km, South-East of Thanjavur. It has a population of about 10,000, majority of them are engaged in agricultural activities. The place has many temples such as Sri Kamaatchi Amman Temple, Sri Naachi Amman Temple, Ayyanar Temple and also temples dedicated to Lord Ganesh and Lord Muruga.