Kalka-Shimla toy train to get hydrogen engine: Railways picks Barog for fuel plant on UNESCO heritage line

The Kalka-Shimla toy train, which has climbed the Shivalik hills on a narrow-gauge track for more than 120 years, is being lined up for a hydrogen engine. The Ministry of Railways has finished surveying the route and chosen Barog railway station as the place to set up a plant that will supply hydrogen fuel. Northern Railway officials said on Wednesday, 4 November, that a trial run would follow once the remaining clearances are in place.

The project falls under the Centre’s Hydrogen for Heritage programme, announced in 2023 with a plan for 35 hydrogen trains, the Kalka-Shimla line among them. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu wrote to Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in 2024 asking for the toy train to be considered. A hydrogen train runs on fuel cells that turn the gas into electricity, and the main thing left behind is water, so the switch would take diesel exhaust off a line that winds through forested hills.

Trial run still waits on clearances

The project was written into the Railways’ 2024-25 plans, the officials said, but no date has been announced for the trial. The train still needs the ministry’s approval and a finding that the technology works on the route, they said, because steep gradients and the mountain terrain call for engineering built for this particular line. The Barog facility would supply fuel for the operation. Officials called it a significant step for India’s narrow-gauge lines, noting that comparable projects are in progress on broad-gauge routes.

For travellers, the 96-km journey from Kalka in Haryana to the Himachal capital is one of India’s best-known rail rides. Laid between 1898 and 1903, the route runs through 103 tunnels and crosses more than 900 bridges. UNESCO added it in July 2008 to its Mountain Railways of India World Heritage listing, alongside the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and the Nilgiri Mountain Railway.

The next decision rests with the Railway Ministry, which has to clear the trial before a hydrogen engine runs on the line.