India’s hill railway: Delhi to Shimla by toy train

When to go

March to June and late September to November are the seasons. May and June are the high season, when the plains are over forty degrees and half of north India comes up to Shimla: the toy trains are full and the rooms at their dearest, above all on weekends. July and August are the monsoon, when landslides can stop the line, sometimes for weeks. From December to February Shimla is cold and sometimes snowy, the trains still run, and the rooms are cheap; Delhi in those months is pleasant by day and smoggy at night.

The stops

Interactive map of the route on our site ›

1. Delhi2 nights

   Connaught Place, the white colonnaded circle at the heart of New Delhi, was built between 1929 and 1933 to a design by Robert Tor Russell. A few kilometres south is Judah Hyam, the only synagogue in Delhi, opened in 1956.

2. Chandigarhone night

   A city planned from 1951 by Le Corbusier as the new capital of Punjab after partition, laid out in numbered sectors; Sector 17 is its centre. The Capitol Complex, with the Palace of Assembly, has been part of a World Heritage site of Le Corbusier’s work since 2016.

3. Rock Gardenstop on the way

   A garden of figures made of broken crockery, tiles and scrap, begun in secret in 1957 by Nek Chand, a road inspector, on government land. When the authorities found it in 1975 it covered some five hectares, and instead of demolishing it the city opened it to the public.

4. Kalkastop on the way

   The foot of the hills and the start of the narrow-gauge Kalka–Shimla Railway, opened on 9 November 1903. Since 2008 it has been part of the World Heritage site Mountain Railways of India, with the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, listed in 1999, and the Nilgiri Mountain Railway, added in 2005.

5. Dharampurstop on the way

   The gauge is just 762 millimetres, two feet six inches, and the curves are so tight that the little trains seem to wind round the same hill again and again as they climb above the plain.

6. Solanstop on the way

   A hill town beside one of the oldest breweries in Asia, founded by Edward Dyer at Kasauli in the 1850s and moved here soon after; it is still working, now as Mohan Meakin.

7. Kanohstop on the way

   Near Kanoh the train crosses the line’s best-known bridge, a gallery viaduct of four storeys of stone arches, built like a Roman aqueduct.

8. Shimla3 nights

   From 1864 the summer capital of British India, at over 2,000 metres. On the Ridge, the open square above the Mall, stands Christ Church, consecrated in 1857, and in 1972 India and Pakistan signed the Simla Agreement in the town, after the war of 1971.

9. Viceregal Lodgestop on the way

   The grey stone palace of the viceroys, finished in 1888 for Lord Dufferin. The Simla Conference on India’s future met here in 1945, and since 1965 it has been the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, with guided tours of its halls and gardens.

10. Jakhoo Templestop on the way

    A temple of Hanuman on the highest hill of Shimla, a steep half-hour walk above the Ridge, with a statue of him about thirty-three metres tall put up in 2010. The monkeys on the path snatch glasses and food; keep both out of sight.

11. Barogone night

    Under Barog runs tunnel No. 33, at about 1,144 metres the longest on the line. It is named after Colonel Barog, the engineer who, the story goes, took his own life after the two ends he had dug from either side failed to meet; the tunnel was finished on a new line in 1903.

12. Kalkastop on the way

    At the foot of the line you change to the broad-gauge Kalka Shatabdi, about four hours to New Delhi.

13. Delhistop on the way

    The Shatabdi ends at New Delhi station, a few minutes from Connaught Place.

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Whole routes, with a room up to $80 at every stop.

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What it costs

Eighty dollars a night is the room, and on this route it buys a good one in Delhi, Chandigarh and Shimla outside the May and June weekends. The train tickets are yours and are not included: they are bought from Indian Railways, on the IRCTC website or at a station reservation office, and the fares are low — the toy train costs a few dollars. There is no rail pass for India; every leg is its own reserved ticket.

What to know

Three things. One: book early. Indian trains are reserved seat by seat and sell out, the Shatabdi from Delhi and the toy trains in season most of all; reservations open about two months ahead, and there is a small quota for foreign tourists. Two: the luggage. The toy train coaches are narrow, with little room for big suitcases, and from Shimla station to the hotels on the Mall is a steep climb; the licensed porters at the station carry bags up for a small fee. Three: time. The toy train climbs ninety-six kilometres in about five to six hours, waits at stations to let the down train pass, and runs late after rain; do not plan a tight connection at either end.

Roads, tolls and rules

This route has no car. It goes up from Delhi by the fast Shatabdi train to Chandigarh, then from Kalka at the foot of the hills by the narrow-gauge Kalka–Shimla Railway to Shimla, the old summer capital of British India, and back down the same line, with a night at Barog halfway, to Kalka and the train to Delhi. The toy train is slow on purpose: it climbs some 1,400 metres through over a hundred tunnels and across hundreds of bridges, so the days are short in kilometres and long at the window. The last day is the long one, two hours down to Kalka and four on the Shatabdi to Delhi. Be honest with yourself about Barog: it is a small hill station with only a few hotels, and when none is free at eighty dollars the site offers two flats at that price instead.

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