We took the Toy Train from Kalka to Shimla on 3-Dec-2018. We had landed in Chandigarh on 2-Dec-2018 and stayed at Taj Chandigarh for the night. We woke up at 4 AM on 3-Dec-2018 to get ready. We boarded the Innova at around 4:30 AM. We had requested Taj to provide us a car to take us to the Kalka Station. We had ordered 3 boxes of breakfast from Taj Chandigarh.
As we were expecting to reach Kalka Station, I realised that the driver did not know the way. He had taken the road to Shimla and driven ahead quite a bit. Our train was scheduled to leave Kalka at 5:45 AM. Anyway, he realised his mistake and did a u-turn and after asking a few truck drivers, was on the right track once again. We reached Kalka station at around 5:35 AM. We took a Coolie (porter) and he helped us find our seats in the train – Shivalik Express. We paid him Rs. 100.
Shivalik Express has 6 First Class coaches. Each coach has 18 seats. And each coach has a Toilet. Food is served by Indian Railways in Shivalik Express – Breakfast during the morning run and Dinner during the Evening run. Each coach has a dedicated attendant.
There are 102 tunnels between Kalka and Shimla. Out of these, the tunnel at Barog is the longest.
Shivalik Express has only one stop between Kalka and Shimla. The stop is at Barog.
Soon after the train started, the attendant provided each of us with a bottle of water (1 litre).
After about 1 hour since we started from Kalka, Ranoo said that she was hungry. So, I gave her one breakfast pack that we had got from Taj. It had a lots of things. So, all three of us shared that (one) pack.
At about 8 AM, Shivalik Express reached the Barog Station. Here the train stopped and the attendant loaded the breakfast packets into the coach.
The attendant served the breakfast soon after the Train started from the Barog Station.
The breakfast served by Indian Railways has both Vegetarian and Non-Vegetarian options. We had to specify the option while booking the tickets. The Vegetarian option consisted of Bread, Butter, Jam, 2 Vegetarian Cutlets. The Non-Vegetarian option consisted of Bread, Butter, Jam, Omlette. Each of us were served one flask of Tea and 2 biscuits. Each flask of tea contained about 2 cups of Tea.
We reached Shimla Station at about 11 AM. The train was about 30 minutes late.
We hired a taxi from the Shimla Station to take us to Hotel Radisson Jazz. The Taxi Driver agreed for a charge of Rs. 300.
I’d love to take a ride in this train one day
You will love it. You will also like to Toy Train ride at Ooty in South India.
There are 2 other very popular Toy Trains in India – one is at Darjeeling (You can see this in many Bollywood movies) and one is at Matheran. I plan to take these rides as well in the near future.
The Toy Trains at Ooty and Darjeeling are pulled by Steam Engines. This makes them more romantic.
Those steam trains sound wonderful. I’m yet to visit India but hope to have an opportunity of visiting sometime soon
I pray you opportunity comes soon.
Visiting India and going around India is a lot comfortable now. There are good facilities at almost all of the places all over India.
We will be very glad to welcome you to our wonderful country.
Thank you so much, I’m certain I’ll be able to travel to India before too long.