The Himalayan Queen toy train will now run at the speed of 30km per hour on the Shimla-Kalka heritage railway narrow gauge track.
The final trial was conducted with eight modified coaches to increase the speed of the train by a team from Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), Lucknow. RDSO is yet to submit a final report.
The process of preparing the remaining coaches has also been started, which will be ready in two months.
Currently, the train covers a distance of 96-km from Kalka to Shimla at average speed of 23 km/hr in 5 hours. But now, with its speed increased to 30 km/hr, this distance will be covered in about 4 hours.
According to railway officials, with the help of dampers in all trains, balance will be made between the coaches and the wheels on both sides. Due to this, the toy train will not derail from the narrow gauge track.
The plan was to increase the speed till 40 km/hr, but that was not possible as the track has around 600 curves at the angle of 48 degrees. In such a situation, running a 7-coach toy train at a speed exceeding 35km/hr will mean repeating the derailing accident which occurred in October 2015.
In 2015, an attempt was made to increase the speed of the toy train by just 3 to 5 kilometers per hour. However, the toy train derailed twice, in September and October where three British women were killed and 20 people were injured.
