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BAROG : A Beautiful Railway Station From The British Era 

A part of this journey started with special person  actually there is no planing or not even on schedule but sometime you have to flow in the direction of  water. The same thing happened with me . A beautiful railway station "Barog"  which is situated in the middle of Kalka to Shimla route  is added in my Travel list . I didn't  expect this is going to my first hill station blog and 2nd from Himachal Pradesh Dairy. Let start with the history and environment of the Barog railway station

A pretty hill station  covered  with pine trees and ancient pilgrimage sites .It is located in the Solan district in Himachal Pradesh. Best time to visit here is during the months of April to July. It is a small peaceful hill station will take you back to the British era. The Kalka-Shimla toy train passes through Barog and earlier in the 20th century, the train used to halt here for an hour for the sahibs and memsahibs to enjoy their lunch in a picturesque setting. 

History Of Barog  Railway Station

Barog tunnel is the longest of the 103 operational tunnels on the route of the UNESCO heritage Kalka-Shimla railway, which is 1143.61m long . Barog station is immediately after the tunnel. Trains take about 2.5 minutes to cross this tunnel, running at 25 kilometres per hour. The Railway station named after the name of british engineer 'Barog'. During the construction of tunnel  workers digging the tunnel from the both end according the calculation of 'Colonel Barog' ,but the both point did not meet at certain point. After some time, the workers became hopeless and began doubting the decisions on Colonel Barog. The Colonel also realized that due to his miscalculations, the alignments of the tunnels were wrong, and both the ends of the tunnel could not meet. The Colonel was already very depressed while the decision of the British Government to fine him added to his miseries. The British Government fined Colonel Barog Rs. 1 as he was accused of wasting the property of the government. The workers were also furious because all their hard work went in vain. This was very humiliating for the Colonel.The British engineer could not digest this humiliation and during a walk along with his pet dog, shot himself in sheer desperation. He killed himself near what now is the state government-run Barog Pine Wood Hotel. It is said that his dog upon seeing his master bleeding profusely ran in panic to a village, near the present Barog railway station, for help. However, by the time people reached the spot, Barog had breathed his last.There are different versions about the suicide as some say the dejected engineer shot his dog before he shot himself. He was buried in front of the tunnel, near the Kalka-Shimla national highway, about 1 km from Barog. The forlorn tunnel has now been closed.After the unexpected death of Colonel Barog, Chief Engineer H.S. Herlington was given the charge to bore a new tunnel. Mr. Harrington also faced similar problems in finding proper alignment of the railway track. With the guidance of Baba Bhalku, a local saint from Jhaja, near Chail, Mr. Harrington surveyed the mountainous terrain along with the railway staffs. Finally the tunnel was was constructed approximately one kilometers away from the earlier point with an expense of Rs. 8.40 lakh. The work on the tunnel was commenced in July 1900 and completed in September 1903. The Tunnel No. 33 was given the name to show respect to Colonel Barog. It is believed that Baba Bhalku possessed natural engineering skills. He also helped the British railway engineers to bore other tunnels on the Shimla-Kalka railway track.After the death of Colonel Barog, there were rumors of his ghost being seen lingering in the adjacent areas. It is said that many people saw the ghost of the Colonel in and around the tunnel. He is however believed to be a friendly ghost who would not even shy away from having a friendly chat with the living. People here often tell stories of how they went for a walk in the tunnel, met Barog’s ghost, even sat down with him and shared a laugh. People are damn sure that the darkness of the tunnel, contains something mysterious and eerie in its silence. The tunnel is quite scary with is wet and damp walls.

JOY RIDE IN A TOY TRAIN

PRETTY BAROG STATION

Barog Station is one of the prettiest stations you would ever see.The wooden buildings are painted in blue and white. Hanging baskets of pink geraniums and other yellow and orange colored flowers is a very pretty sight. You may spot beautiful butterflies and colorful birds sitting on these. To watch out our new gallery of tour must visit our instagram page @Travel_freak