Howrah-Delhi-Kalka mail celebrates 150-years of operation

The Howrah-Delhi-Kalka Mail train is certainly one of the most prestigious and oldest trains of the Indian Railways and it has completed 150-years of its existence. Its association dates back to the freedom struggle days when Netaji Subhas Bose, the greatest architect of Indian freedom struggle, boarded it from Gomoh, a railway junction station on the Asansol-Gaya section. It was in 1941 and Subhas Bose was in disguise and escaping from the British.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 3 January 2016.

The train dates back to the British period and, history was created as it chugged in at Allahabad junction on Saturday to mark its tryst with destiny. Apart from Netaji, the train was featured in a short story of Indian film director Satyajit Ray. The name of the story was 'The Mystery of the Kalka Mail' and in it, the three main characters travel from Calcutta to Delhi and on to Kalka on this train.
As far as history goes - the train was originally run by East Indian Railway Company and began operation between Calcutta and Delhi in 1866 as the East Indian Railway mail. Later, in 1891, its run was extended from Delhi to Kalka. It was used by the British civil servants to move to their summer capital in Shimla from Calcutta with the entire government machinery traveling on the train at the beginning of the summer months and returning by it at the end of summer. Both Howrah and Kalka had internal carriageways that ran along the platform so that the Viceroy and other high ranking officers could drive up to their rail coaches.

(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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