The toy train from Shimla to Kalka is considered by many to be one of two of the world's most scenic and spectacular journeys by train anywhere in the world. Since we were here, and were heading to Chandigarh down on the plain, and a bus was not an option, train it was!

It is truly impressive; especially when you consider the specs and stats. The train line was first proposed in 1847, but only completed in 1903. It has 103 tunnels, innumerable bridges and viaducts and it drops 1400m over the course of 90km. It even has one corner with a radius of 37m (that means that the makes a very tight turn, on the side of the mountain, so that the front of the train is actually heading in the direct opposite direction to the back end of the train and is about 5m above the front end!) One tunnel is just over a mile long and is absolutely dead straight. The little station that you stop at allows you to get off and have a look through the tunnel. The light at the end of the tunnel is most definitely not a train, but the line continuing onwards and downwards!

The views are stupendous and the journey is glamorous! Until it was completed, the journey from Delhi to Shimla took weeks. With completed narrow gauge line, it took days, rather than weeks. Considering that the track was first proposed in 1847 and only completed in 1903 and yet it remains as impressive as ever, it is understandable why British engineering was considered the very best in the world. The buildings that still stood in Shimla and that have survived fire, flood, earthquake and landslides and Indian residents and this railway are testament to those skills and abilities. It would be very surprising to see whether British engineering would be able to replicate what their forefathers did in India in general, and Shimla in particular. No wonder Sir James Dyson laments the dilution of British engineering and its eventually loss to other countries around the world!

As you descend you come out of the high mountains and down onto the plains. Cold is replaced by hot and winter clothes are removed and t-shirt and shorts make a much needed appearance. Peaks are cloud shrouded and the plains are heat hazed. If the hill stations are a charming mix of Indianised Britain, then the plains and those that occupy them are wholeheartedly India.