NTES is the salt of Railfanning. IRI is the sugar. - Kirti Solanki

When Kalka Mail was introduced in 1866, Calcutta was the Capital/ Rajdhani of the country which was then under the East India Company.....
Now bearing the 'excessively hot and humid' Calcuttan summers were a challenge for the Brits........
Hence Shimla was changed to the 'Summer Capital' while Calcutta stayed on as the Capital otherwise.....
Back in those days air transport wasn't even discovered! So...
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a train specifically 'The Kalka Mail' took birth. The Viceroy and all the high ranking British officials, in other words "The Entire British-India Government " shuffled back and fro from Calcutta.
Numbered 1UP & 2DOWN it was the highest prioritized train in British India!
It carried it imperial legacy into Independent India as well, as the train carried it's 1UP/2 DOWN legacy well into the 1990's when the train numbering system was revised.....
Now running as 12311/12, the train though now only a shade of it's former glory, nevertheless it is still the most important running mail service in Eastern India. A rare train that has still maintained it's status quo as 'Mail train'.
At 25-26 coaches, this train is one of IR's longest running trains, and carries valuable RMS posts to and fro Hubs like Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi, Gaya, Dhanbad, Bardhamaan......
This are the reasons why I referred to this being the " Original Rajdhani " !
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