Talk:Kalka–Shimla Railway

Merger
I agree with the merger. The two articles are the same. Which of the two names is more appropriate? Any idea? I will work to put the info together. Lost 04:20, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

I guess "Kalka-Shimla" as the "Kalka Shimla" article uses that form twice in the first para! Be careful, as the "Kalka Shimla" article may have some copywrite issues. It appears to have copied some slabes of text from one of the links provided.--Michael Johnson 04:29, 5 June 2006 (UTC)


 * I agree. I will change the text in the next few days and put more references. - Lost 07:24, 5 June 2006 (UTC)

Matter from the other article
THE Kalka-Shimla rail route, completed 100 years on November 9, 2003. This is one of the four narrow gauge rail routes on hill terrain in the country, the other three being the Darjeeling, Ooty and Pathankot-Jogindernagar routes. In fact, the Darjeeling route was used as a model for the Kalka-Shimla route, which was proposed in 1891.

Started during the reign of Lord Curzon in November 1903, mainly to ferry the Bada Sahibs and their families to the then summer capital of Shimla, this rail route featured in the Guinness Book of World Records for offering the steepest rise in altitude in the space of 96 kilometers. More than two-thirds of the track is curved, sometimes at angles as sharp as 48 degrees.

The rail journey
Flanked by hills on both sides, the rail line clings to the steep cliffs and ventures boldly over bridges, built over tiny streams that show off their radiance in the sunlight. The cool breeze sweeps across your face as the train makes an arduous climb of almost 4800 feet from Kalka to Shimla in almost five hours.

The rail line begins its climb almost immediately after its departure from the Kalka railway station. The toy train chugs along the line, whistling through the deodar, pine, ficus, oak and maple woods at a speed of 22 km an hour. As the journey begins, one is taken in with the change in vegetation, and the majestic glory of the railway stations and Gothic-style bridges en route. The most refreshing part of the journey is the experience of sitting by the window, breathing in the cool breeze and taking in the greenery, smell of fresh dew on the vegetation, the chirping of birds and the sight of cattle grazing around the track, especially if you are travelling in either of the two early morning toy trains.

Most of these railway stations on the route are will also mark 100 years of their existence. Painted in white and blue, these railway stations built in the Gothic style take you back in time. Their picturesque location, names of most of the 18 stations and their history — Taksal (where most of the kings of the era had their mint), Koti, Barog — keeps you busy en route. The awed traveller is also forced to think about the splendid engineering and architecture of these railway stations, built in the early days of the mechanical period. The Barog railway station has, for instance, been constructed in such a way that a kuhl is running beneath the building.

The memorabilia of the Raj can be found at most of these stations. Wall clocks, which have to be wound with a key, of SW Benson 1903 make, still adorn the walls of Station Masters of the Summer Hill and Barog railway stations. Though these clocks are now defunct, they still find a place of pride because of their nostalgic value. Similarly, semi-porcelain hand-painted crockery, also made in England, and some furniture (dressing table, chairs) have also been well preserved at the Barog Railway Station. This crockery — an incomplete tea set, rice plates, jugs etc. — have been kept under lock and key as exhibits and are seldom used.

Even as the world has moved into the computer age, ancient systems still work here. Ancient communication and track control system, called Neals Token Instrument System, is still in use on this rail section. Block phones are also used to establish links between two stations. Lanterns, like the ones used in the last century, are still being used to signal the trains to stop or move.

The first main station is at Dharampur, at a height of 4,900 feet and at a distance of 20 miles from Kalka. The gradient here is very steep, and in order to achieve the flatter gradients required by the Railways, the line develops into three loops at Taksal, Gumman and Dharampur. After leaving Dharampur, the rail line gains on the road route by taking short cuts and tunnels so that up to Tara Devi, the distance by rail from Kalka is almost one-fourth mile less than the distance by road.

Twentyfour miles from Kalka, the railway line is 5,200 feet above sea, where it falls to 4,900 feet at Solan, and further to 4,667 feet at Kandaghat (36-and-a half miles from Kalka), where the final ascent to Shimla starts. From Tara Devi, the rail line goes round the Prospect Hill to Jatogh, winding in a series of curves round Summer Hill and burrows under the Inverarm Hill to emerge below the road on the south side of Inverarm, and thus reaches Shimla.

Interestingly, all the 18 stations on this route are located next to bridges. These railway stations were built here for the benefit of the labour employed for constructing the bridges, which could take rest here. Some of these stations have now been abandoned because they were financially unviable. Though many of the small stations have a sale of less than Rs 500 a month, only a few, like Jabli, have been abandoned. Others like Koti, which have a sale of less than Rs 100 a month, cannot be closed because of their operational importance, inform railway officials.

One of the most interesting features of the Kalka-Shimla route is the absence of girder bridges. There is only one 60-foot plate girder span in a pinewood near Dharampur and a steel trestle viaduct, which replaced a stone gallery in 1935. The remaining 866 bridges, representing three per cent of the line, carry the rail track over the ravines and between the hill spurs.

Multi-arched galleries like ancient Roman aqueducts have been used to take the tracks over the difficult terrain, which would otherwise have been difficult to cover. These stone masonary arched bridges, which use lime stone, have as many as four storeys, each storey having an arch and each arch having a different configuration. In fact, the Railway authorities are now making efforts to get the UNESCO to declare three of these bridges — Bridge No 541 (between Kandaghat and Kanoh), Bridge No 226 (between Sanwara and Dharampur), and Bridge No 493 (near Kanoh) — as World Heritage sites.

Most of the 102 tunnels (the 1930’s renumbering, with numbers going up to 103, has not been changed till date though tunnel number 46 does not exist any more) too have a history of their own. An interesting feature about these tunnels is that till today, whenever these tunnels have to be illuminated for maintenance, plain mirrors are used to catch the sunlight and reflect this light inside the tunnel.

Gone are the days of travelling in the rickety coaches with wooden berths. In their place stand freshly painted coaches which provide the comfort of chair cars. Another coach, Shivalik Queen, provides privacy in the form of coupes. For those looking for royal luxury, the Railways provides Shivalik Palace, a separate luxurious compartment with beautiful interiors, provision of sleepers and comfortable sofas for relaxing. This also has a well-equipped kitchen and an attendant to serve foods and drinks, along with an attached bathroom. The other option for tourists is to take the rail car which takes lesser time than regular trains to reach Shimla.

How the rail route was built
It was in 1816 that the British government retained a part of the hill on which Shimla now stands after the close of the Gurkha War. The British established a cantonment at Sabathu and raised the First Nasiri Battalion. Capt. Ross, its commandant, constructed for himself a log hut with a thatched roof, which marked the beginning of Shimla.

Capt. Charles Pratt Kennedy of Bengal Artillery succeeded Ross in 1821, and built a far more pretentious house, which was the first permanent house of the township. Shortly after his appointment, he was entrusted with the control of local matters in the hills and designated as the Deputy Superintendent of Sikh and Hill Affairs. In 1827, Lord Amherst, the Governor-General of India, spent the summer at Shimla and found the place to his liking. It was under his successor, Lord William Bentinck, that Shimla became the summer headquarters of the government of India.

However, the journey from the plains to Shimla was cumbersome. The first major achievement in this direction was the opening of the Grand Hindostan and Tibet Road in 1856. Earlier, the mode of travel to the hills was by jampans (sedan chair fitted with curtains and slung on poles borne by bearers at an even trot) for women, and men usually rode the track via Kasauli, Kakkarhati, Haripur and Syree to Shimla. Then came the 58-mile tract to Shimla passing through Dharampur, Solan, Kairee Ghat, to be followed by the Kalka-Shimla Tonga Service.

It was during the tenure of Marquess of Dufferin as the Viceroy (1884 -1888) that the construction of a railway line was actively considered. A new company, Delhi-Umbala-Kalka Railway, started the construction of the line from Ambala to Kalka in 1891. It took another ten years to extend this line to Shimla when Lord Curzon was the Viceroy, and the line was formally opened on November 9, 1903, after having spent Rs 1.6 crore, with a single track of 2ft. 6 in. gauge.

Connecting Kalka to Shimla was no easy task as the civil engineers had to lay the track so that it did not disturb the pristine surroundings. Chronicled as the most surveyed project of its time, it was a correspondent of the Delhi Gazette who first sketched the route in 1847. No work was done on the project till 1885, when the project was revived again.s Even a second report, prepared for this rail link in 1887, failed to initiate any concrete work. Yet another survey, commissioned in 1895, finally resulted in the signing of the Kalka-Shimla Construction Contract.

Kalka-Shimla Train Photo
I have just added a photo of the Kalka-Shimla Train I took myself several years ago. The photo is old and has the "scanned" look. But I think till the time one of us adds a better picture, we can leave it here. RMehra 16:51, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the image. Will hopefully have a new pic up next week as I will be visiting Shimla -- Lost 16:53, 13 June 2006 (UTC)
 * Great! Have a nice time in Shimla. RMehra 03:42, 14 June 2006 (UTC)

WikiProject Trains
Will see above wikiproject for examples of featured articles on railways. -- Lost 12:08, 26 June 2006 (UTC)

Locomotives
Added infomation on steam locos. Looking forward to info on diesels, and especially on the railcars. This line had a wealth of railcars, of which I know little but would like to learn more.--Michael Johnson 15:05, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

History
The history section has some error. Something important seems to be missing. I am unable to determine what the original editor intended to say, so I am unable to make a change. Can any one throw some light on this? RMehra 03:49, 7 July 2006 (UTC)
 * It needs a major revamp. I am unable to devote time here for the past few days. Please go ahead and make major changes. There are lots of links to refer to. -- Lost 04:43, 7 July 2006 (UTC)


 * This article is the result of a recent merger between two articles, so there is bound to be some problems. Feel free to change or add whatever you want if you have more accurate infomation. --Michael Johnson 07:25, 7 July 2006 (UTC)

Barog
Barog should be mentioned. Axeman89 01:16, 1 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Done, under tunnels. --Michael Johnson 02:10, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

Additonal train photo added
Greetings, I've added an additional picture of the train en route to Shilma from Solan. This is my first Wikipedia contribution and if the formatting or placement of the picture should be changed please do so/let me know.

This photo was taken from the train coming up past Solan on the way to Shimla in July of 2000.

Jonathan Claybaugh

Thanks. I've moved it down the page a bit for aesthetic reasons. --Michael Johnson 00:56, 26 November 2006 (UTC)

Change The pictures
Where is the Train Pictures ??????? I can only see Engines, some please change them —Preceding unsigned comment added by Toprohan (talk • contribs) 15:23, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Here's a pic of the train at Solan station i took this autumn. Hope its good enough User:Leif_edling.17:15, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

Grade
The article had the grade at 4% (I might even have put that there myself). However the "Engineer" article said the grade was 1:33 (3%). I can't imagine why an authoritative journal like Engineer would get that wrong, but they may have. If anybody has a better source for 4% please let us know. --Michael Johnson (talk) 01:20, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Bhalkoo, the "illiterate genius" had played a vital role in the construction of the Kalka-Shimla rail line
This sentence, as it stands, is extremely POV, and is entirely unsourced. Who was Bhalkoo and what did he do that assisted the construction of the Kalka-Shimla railway? Unless we can answer these questions, preferably with sources, we should delete this sentence. --Michael Johnson (talk) 01:28, 1 September 2008 (UTC)
 * OK I found a source, and have edited Bhalkoo into the engineering section, and deleted the offending sentence. --Michael Johnson (talk) 01:51, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Add Pictures
it will be great if someone adds picture of Kalka and Shimla Railway stations. The Kalka Railway Station's present picture is not that good !

Rohan (talk) 09:39, 24 September 2008 (UTC)

ISO Containers
Wagons on this line are 30' long and 7' wide, which are long enough for 20' ISO containers, but not wide enough, unless outriggers are provided. Would the Loading gauge be able to take ISO containers?

Tabletop (talk) 10:28, 20 December 2008 (UTC)

Digging at Both Ends
It is quite normal for long tunnels to be dug from both end, so that is not a "mistake".

Surveyors have a good record of making the two ends of a tunnel dug at both ends meet, with a "error" of only inches. Spin doctors usually make a point of mentioning such accuracy.

It is not said by how much the Barog was misaligned by. Tabletop (talk) 00:45, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

Copyright problem removed
One or more portions of this article duplicated other source(s). Infringing material has been rewritten or removed and must not be restored, unless it is duly released under a compatible license. (For more information, please see "using copyrighted works from others" if you are not the copyright holder of this material, or "donating copyrighted materials" if you are.) For legal reasons, we cannot accept copyrighted text or images borrowed from other web sites or published material; such additions will be deleted. Contributors may use copyrighted publications as a source of information, but not as a source of sentences or phrases. Accordingly, the material may be rewritten, but only if it does not infringe on the copyright of the original or plagiarize from that source. Please see our guideline on non-free text for how to properly implement limited quotations of copyrighted text. Wikipedia takes copyright violations very seriously, and persistent violators will be blocked from editing. While we appreciate contributions, we must require all contributors to understand and comply with these policies. Thank you. MER-C 06:55, 15 February 2010 (UTC)

Citation for "Steepest Incline"
The article states that the railway "is known for . . . for having the greatest incline over its 96 km stretch."

Is there a citation for this claim? I calculate the grade over the 96 km stretch as (2076 - 656)/96000 = 1.479% grade on average.

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilgiri_Mountain_Railway), for instance, has a grade of (2203 - 326)/46000 = 4.08% average grade. I just picked NMR as an example. I don't even know if this one has the highest grade. But it is obvious that there are other mountain railroads with much higher grades. So, I don't understand the statement that this one has the greatest incline. Any clarification on this would be appreciated.

Blogannath (talk) 22:15, 20 July 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree that is one of those silly unsubstantiated claims that probably gets passed around locally. I have a source that says the maximum grade is 1:30 (about 3%), steep certainly but not unusually steep for narrow gauge railways in hilly areas. I'll remove that section. --Michael Johnson (talk) 00:25, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

Michael Johnson (talk) 00:25, 21 July 2010 (UTC)
 * Hi Michael, thank you for the edit. The page on Indian Railways does have this sentence in it:  "The Kalka Shimla Railway till recently featured in the Guinness Book of World Records for offering the steepest rise in altitude in the space of 96 kilometre[26]" under notable trains and achievements.  And the citation for it is as follows:  ^ "100 years of pine-scented travel". http://www.tribuneindia.com/2003/20031108/windows/main1.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-14.  However, that article just repeats the assertion, without any actual details from the Guinness book itself.  In any case, the wording "till recently" seems to indicate that Guinness has had some second thoughts about it, and removed that record from its book or given the record to some other rail route.


 * I will try to get to an old copy of the Guinness book of world records at my library and see if there is any explanation for this record in it. In the meantime, I guess it is better to leave it out of the article.

Blogannath (talk) 15:27, 27 July 2010 (UTC)

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