Nilgiri Mountain Railway

It was called the ‘Dream Project.’ However, it’s not a dream anymore; it’s a reality, a total tourist entertainer. With a maximum speed of the train is 33-km per hour, it traverses 16 tunnels, 26 bridges, with one big viaduct over the Bhavani. These are indeed feats of engineering, as they merge with Nature - never incongruous, never unattractive. We would advise you to take the slow climb to Ooty using the heritage steam engine train, but only if you have enough time.

A railway to connect the beautiful hill stations of Coonoor and Ooty, to the plains was considered necessary. The idea was mooted way back in 1854, but work on this dream project began only in 1891 and was completed in 1908. A Swiss inventor named Riggenback offered to construct the Nilgiri railway on his patented Rigi pattern. But, his conditions could not be met and his proposal fell through. However, in 1882, he came to the Nilgiris on the invitation of the Government and submitted a detailed estimate for laying the line. A local company called “The Nilgiri Rigi Railway Co. Ltd.” was formed. But it was 1886, before work finally commenced on the Rigi-system in metre gauge. Coonoor was the destination until 1899, and then the tracks were extended to Fernhill in 1908 and finally to Ooty a month later. The Madras Railway Company managed the railway line for the government.

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) line has been granted World Heritage Status by UNESCO is bound to warm the cockles of heritage lovers.The Nilgiri Mountain Railway connects Mettupalayam in the foothills to Ooty - as Udagamandalam was called. There was a time when the Nilgiri hills were inaccessible to the common traveller. One had to ride up on horseback following a bridle path or be carried on “dollies” through the forests to reach either Coonoor or Ooty. Whatever be the changes that may have befallen the Nilgiri hills over the last half a century, the corridor through which the NMR meanders up the mountain seems to have been untouched and retains much of the old Nilgiris’ charm.

Tall thickets of bamboo, dark and damp rain forests playing hide and seek with the glittering rays of the sun, frighteningly hanging rocks, deep ravines, grand aerial views of the low lands as the train ascends, imposing massifs overhead, panoramic view of tea gardens, majestic eucalyptus groves, quaint views of Badaga villages, way stations wearing period looks… they are all almost intact.

What is unique about rail relics is the toothed extra rail running in the middle of the normal rails, which holds the train from sliding on the slopes. The Alternate Biting Tooth (Abt) system which operates on most mountain railways in the world, also works for the Ooty train. Interestingly, the name of the man who invented this system was also Michael Abt. The NMR is one of its kind and the steepest mountain railway in Asia with an average gradient of 1 in 12.5.

That is, on an average for every 12.5 feet the train travels the height or altitude rises by one foot. Normally gradients in the railways are only of the order of 1 in 200 or 1 in 1,000. Even mountain railways are ordinarily comfortable with grades no steeper than 1 in 40. Only traction rail systems like the cog railways operate on grades as steep as 1 in 12. The Nilgiri Passenger, as the NMR is called, began its journey in 1899 after decades of pioneering challenges and several financial disasters. It goes to the credit of these pioneers that in its more than a hundred years in operation and still going strong!


Railway Station Codes:

Udagamandalam: UAM

Mettupalayam: MTP

Coimbatore: CBEE. (Other Stations in Coimbatore are Coimbatore Junction: CBE and Coimbatore North: CBF).