RailEnquiry

The historic 1927 British 'rail motor car' that runs through India faces its final journey as engineers can no longer get the spare parts to fix it. 

The train that runs along India's 60-mile long Himalayan Kalka-Shimla linhas has featured in numerous Bollywood films and Michael Palin's TV series Himalaya but its days are now numbered. 

But the carriage - one of four - can no longer service the route as officials said they could no longer source essential spare parts.

Rail motor cars are so called as they are self-propelled passenger rail cars driven by electric motors

These are energized from an electrified roadway or by a generator driven by a diesel or gas turbine engine.

Indian Railways divisional manager for Ambala, P K Sanghi, told The Daily Telegraph that they were forced to suspend services on the train three weeks ago on safety grounds.

He said the wear and tear on its wheels had got so bad that the service had to be stopped as replacement parts couldn't be sourced.

He told the newspaper: 'The wheels are not in shape to be in service.

'The wheels or steel tyres are made of special cast steel and we have difficulty in getting them.

'We are changing the 'tyres' for the first time after its inception. The rail technology has changed drastically and manufacturers are not making spare parts for heritage trains.'

The railway track remains one of India's most popular attractions.

India's 60-mile long Himalayan Kalka-Shimla line, which was built in 1903, and was at the time one of the world's most ambitious engineering projects.

The British train was a central part of India's successful campaign for the railway to be declared a Unesco World Heritage Site along with the countries other mountain train lines in Darjeeling and the Nilgiri Hills in 2008.

The track transformed travelling in the country and drastically reduced the journey time between India's northern plains to the capital Shimlaas to four and a half hours.

The track crosses more than 800 bridges and viaducts and has more than 900 switchback hairpin bends to make the climb from just over 2000 feet to just below 7000.