There are four operational rail-cars. The driver sits up front just like a bus driver, allowing passengers to watch him drive the little wonder. The cars roll over the narrow gauge track with a kind of lurching, swaying motion and the only thing that's more fun is the hand-pumped track-inspection platform, that makes you feel like one of those doughty engineers who built the line way back in the 19th century.

The rail-cars do indeed go back to the days of the Raj. Back in 1903, the Imperial Railways commissioned the carriages for the exclusive use of officials and their families.

The view from the rail-car windows is stupendous: peaks, forests, valleys... not to mention the innumerable tunnels. Great for honeymooners.

Out of the four carriages on the narrow gauge of the Kalka-Shimla track, one rail-car runs daily, leaving Kalka station at 11.40 a.m. The others are made operational during the tourist season when the rush pours in and the demand for the coaches shoots up. While the cars spell romance to the tourists, the staff at the loco shed think of them rather like extremely aged grandmas a privilege to serve but no easy job attending to their needs and keeping them in good health. "These rail-cars are more than 70 years old. You can imagine how difficult it is to locate spare parts," commented an official at the Kalka station, who is in charge of maintaining the cars.

For instance, the rail-cars have a clutch system, just like a bus. "This is really ancient," says an official. "Nowhere in the world are carriages made like that any more."

"The cars were originally manufactured by General Motors, a US company that is known chiefly as a maker of automobiles rather than railway rolling stock in any case, the company faded into oblivion years ago," said an official.

Two years ago, back in April 1997, the Divisional Railway Manager, Ambala, announced at a press conference: "Rail-cars will continue to operate on this route till at least the end of this year, when they will be replaced by new rail cars by the year-end." Two years down the line and one still witnesses the old rail-cars chugging their way to Shimla. The proposal to encourage the rail-car journey has gathered quite a lot of dust by now.

"We have been hearing it for ages, that new rail-cars would be coming soon, but nothing concrete has happened so far," said an official.

Hence, the railway authorities at Kalka have no option but to continue running the cars as specified in the railway time-table. "Since these have been inducted into the time-table, we have to run them irrespective of the cost and maintenance involved," said an official.

By the way, the journey to Shimla on these little wonders isn't cheap. The journey via ordinary rail-car costs Rs 100 whereas a brush with nature in the deluxe car slices off a straight Rs 300. Reservations are essential as the cars have to be brought out specially and are provided only to those who book them.

All these factors (including laxity on the part of the railway authorities) has conspired to make the little private coaches on the rail-track virtually unknown to most passengers despite their enchanting -- and exclusive -- ambience.