A typical Nilgiri train on the rack section

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) connects the town of Mettupalayam with the hill station of Ooty (correctly Udhagamandalam), in the Nilgiri Hills of southern India. Both towns are in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is the only rack railway in India. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1669x1184, 537 KB) Summary Nilgiri Mountain Railway train climbs past Kateri Road. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1669x1184, 537 KB) Summary Nilgiri Mountain Railway train climbs past Kateri Road. ... Kalimpong town as viewed from a distant hill. ... Ooty, short for Ootacamund (an anglicized name for Udhagamandalam), is a popular hill station in the state of Tamil Nadu in South India. ... Map of The Nilgiris district The Nilgiris or Blue Mountains are a range of mountains and a district in the south-Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. ... Tamil Nadu (தமிழ் நாடு, Land of the Tamils) is a state at the southern tip of India. ... The rack rail on a cog railway. ...

History

The Nilgiri Mountain railway is one of the oldest mountain railways in India. Under consideration since 1845, the line was finally opened by the British in 1899, and was initially operated by the Madras Railway Company. The railway is one of the few in the world to be dependant on steam locomotives. A mountain railway is a railway that ascends and descends a mountain slope that has a steep grade. ... 1845 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Great Western Railway No. ...

The Palghat division of the Indian Railways, which operates the NMR, incurs an annual shortfall of Rs 4 crores, (~1 million USD). During the Centenary celebrations of Nilgiri Mountain Railway in 1999 the then Railway Minister Nitish Kumar announced that the line would soon be electrified. Palakkad is a district in Indian state Kerala, bordering to Tamil Nadu, Malappuram, and Thrissur. ... Indian Railways (IR) is the state-owned railway company of India. ... A crore is a unit in a traditional number system, still widely used in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Nitish Kumar (born March 1, 1951, Bakhtiarpur, Bihar, India) is an Indian politician from the state of Bihar. ...

In July 2005, UNESCO declared the NMR a World Heritage Site after it satisfied the necessary criteria, thus forcing abandonment of modernisation plans. 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... UNESCO logo UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. ... Site #86: Memphis and its Necropolis, including the Pyramids of Giza (Egypt). ...

Operation

The NMR track is metre gauge, but the railway is isolated from the other metre gauge lines. Narrow-gauge railways are railroads (railways) with track spaced at less than the standard gauge of 4 ft 8½ in (1. ...

Below Coonoor the line uses the rack and pinion system to climb the steep gradient. On the rack section trains are operated by steam rack locomotives manufactured by the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works of Winterthur in Switzerland, which are always marshalled at the downhill (Mettupalayam) end of the train. Coonoor is a small quiet hill town in the Nilgiri hills. ... The rack rail on a cog railway. ... In the above two images, the scalar field is in black and white, black representing higher values, and its corresponding gradient is represented by blue arrows. ... For other uses, see Train (disambiguation). ... Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works or SLM were a railway equipment manufacturer based in Winterthur in Switzerland. ... Winterthur is a city in the Canton of Zurich in Switzerland. ...

The average gradient in this rack section is 1 in 24.5, with a maximum of 1 in 12.

Currently (2005), there is only one train a day over the rack section, starting from Mettupalayam in the early morning and return there in the early evening. 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Between Coonoor and Ooty, the train is operated by a YDM4 diesel locomotive using conventional rail adhesion principles. On this section the locomotive is always at the Coonoor end of the train as although the line is not steep enough to need a rack rail the ruling gradient out of Coonoor is still very steep at 1 in 25. Coonoor is a small quiet hill town in the Nilgiri hills. ... Ooty, short for Ootacamund (an anglicized name for Udhagamandalam), is a popular hill station in the state of Tamil Nadu in South India. ... Great Western Railway No. ... The term adhesion railway or adhesion traction describes the most common type of railway, where power is applied by driving some or all of the wheels of the train and thus it relies on the friction between a steel wheel and a steel rail. ... Coonoor is a small quiet hill town in the Nilgiri hills. ...

Between Coonoor and Ooty (in 2005) there are four trains, each way, a day. 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The diesel locomotives can only operate on upper section, but the steam locomotives can be used either with or without the rack section as well when required.

The majority of repairs to the locomotives are carried out at Coonoor shed but many of the steam locomotives have been rebuilt at the Goldern Rock workshops. Carriages are repaired at Mettupalayam but, like the locomotives, are taken to one of the big railway workshops for major work.

The Route

The train covers a distance of 46 km (28 miles), travels through 208 curves, 16 tunnels, and 250 bridges. The uphill journey takes around 290 minutes and the downhill journey 215 minutes.

A excited crowd receives the Nilgiri Mountain Train at the Ooty station

• Mettupalayam - 0km, 1069ft above sea level - Junction with the Broad Gauge line from Coimbatore. Passengers cross the platform to the Nilgiri train. There is a small locomotive shed here and the carriage workshops for the line.

Leaving Mettupalayum, the line is adhesion worked and actually drops for a short distance before crossing a wide river and starting to climb gently.

• Kallar - 8km, 1260ft - Closed as a passenger station, this is where the rack rail begins. As the train leaves the station, the gradient is 1 in 12.

• Adderly - 13km, 2390ft - Closed as a passenger station but is still a water stop.

A typical Nilgiri train leaving Hillgrove Station

• Hillgrove - 18km, 3580ft - Block post and water stop as well as having refreshments for passengers.

• Runneymede - 21km, 4612ft - Closed as a passenger station but is still a water stop.

• Kateri Road - 25km, 5070ft - Closed as a passenger station, trains do not stop here.

• Coonoor - 28km, 5616ft - main intermediate station on the line at site of the locomotive workshops as well as the top end of the rack rail. Trains must reverse a short distance before continuing their climb to Ooty. It is normal for the locomotive to be changed here with diesel traction being normal for all trains to Ooty.

• Wellington - 29km, 5804ft

The Wellington railway station

• Aravangadu - 32km, 6144ft

• Ketti - 38km, 6864ft

• Lovedale - 42km, 7694ft

The Lovedale railway station

From a short distance before Lovedale the line descends all the way into Ooty.

• Ooty - 46km, 7228ft (2200 m).

Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1280x960, 567 KB) Summary Photographed by Pratheepps Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Nilgiri Mountain Railway Wikipedia:Featured pictures candidates/April-2006 Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1280x960, 567 KB) Summary Photographed by Pratheepps Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Nilgiri Mountain Railway Wikipedia:Featured pictures candidates/April-2006 Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates... Great Western Railway broad gauge steam locomotives awaiting scrapping in 1892 after the conversion to standard gauge. ... Coimbatore (Tamil: கோயம்புத்தூர்) also referred to as Kovai is one of the major industrial cities in South India is the Second largest city in Tamil Nadu. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1402x1232, 452 KB) Summary Nilgiri Mountain Railway train departs Hillgrove Station. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1402x1232, 452 KB) Summary Nilgiri Mountain Railway train departs Hillgrove Station. ... Coonoor is a small quiet hill town in the Nilgiri hills. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (960x1280, 590 KB) Summary Photographed by Pratheepps Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Nilgiri Mountain Railway Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (960x1280, 590 KB) Summary Photographed by Pratheepps Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Nilgiri Mountain Railway Metadata This file contains additional information, probably added from the... Image File history File linksMetadata Lovedale_railway_station. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Lovedale_railway_station. ... Ooty, short for Ootacamund (an anglicized name for Udhagamandalam), is a popular hill station in the state of Tamil Nadu in South India. ...

In fiction

An example of the steam engine from the Nilgiri Mountain Railway can be seen in the Culdee Fell Mountain Railway. The character's name is Cassidy. A map of the Culdee Fell Mountain Railway A map of the Island of Sodor showing the Railway system (click to enlarge). ...

External links

• Indian railways site on the NMR
• Railmuseum
• Images and info
• Toy train chugs on
• Ooty train Photographs

World Heritage Sites in India

Agra Fort | Ajanta Caves | Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park | Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus | Churches and Convents of Goa | Elephanta Caves | Ellora Caves | Fatehpur Sikri | Great Living Chola Temples | Hampi | Humayun's Tomb | Kaziranga | Keoladeo | Khajuraho | Mahabalipuram | Mahabodhi Temple | Manas Wildlife Sanctuary | Darjeeling and Nilgiri Mountain Railways | Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers | Pattadakal | Qutub Minar | Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka | Sanchi | Sun Temple, Konarak | Sundarbans | Taj Mahal Image File history File links Flag_of_India. ... Elabana Falls is in Lamington National Park, part of the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves World Heritage site in Queensland, Australia. ... Agra Fort is located in Agra, India. ... Ajanta takes the name after the village AjinÅ£hā in Aurangabad district in the state of Maharashtra(N. lat. ... Champaner-Pavagadh Archaeological Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which is located in India. ... Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (formerly Victoria Terminus) (better referred to by its acronym CST) - is a historic railway station on Mumbai suburban railway. ... Founded in the 15th century, the city of Goa in south-western India was under Portuguese rule from 1510 until its incorporation in the Republic of India in 1961. ... Carvings line the walls inside the caves. ... Jain cave in Ellora Ellora is an ancient village 30 km (18. ... Fatehpur Sikri is a 16th-century capital city built by the Mughal emperor Akbar on a rocky outcrop near the city of Agra in India. ... The Great Living Chola Temples are temples built during the Chola rule in the south of India. ... Virupaksha Temple Hampi (ಹ೦ಪೆ, Hampe in Kannada) is a village in southern Karnataka, India. ... Humayuns tomb is a complex of buildings of Mughal architecture located in Nizamuddin East, New Delhi. ... Kaziranga National Park is situated on the south bank of the Brahmaputra river in Assam, India. ... The Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan, India is a famous avifauna sanctuary that sees thousands of rare and highly endangered birds such as the Siberian Cranes nest here during the winter season. ... Sculpture from a temple at Khajuraho Hermit monk performing auparashtika on a princely visitor. ... Mahabalipuram (also known as Mamallapuram) is a 7th century port city of the South Indian dynasty of the Pallavas around 60 km south from the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu. ... The Mahabodhi Temple is a Buddhist temple in Bodh Gaya, the location where Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, attained enlightenment. ... Manas National Park, a Project Tiger reserve, lies among the foothills of the Bhutan Himalayas, in the far eastern state of Assam, India. ... The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, nicknamed Toy Train, is a 60cm narrow-gauge railway from Siliguri to Darjeeling in the state of West Bengal in India. ... The Nanda Devi National Park is a national park situated around the peak of Nanda Devi (7,800m) in Jammu and Kashmir in India. ... Valley of flowers is the name of the Himalayan area in Uttaranchal, India. ... Pattadakal is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka famous for its group of monuments that comprise of initial experiments in Hindu temple architecture. ... The Qutub Minar and surrounding ruins. ... Bhimbetka is a place in Madhya Pradesh where the earliest known traces of human life in India were found. ... Sanchi is a small village of India, located 46 km north east of Bhopal, in the central part of the state of Madhya Pradesh. ... Wheel of Konark Stone Work at Konark Konark (or Konarak) (Sanskrit: कोनार्क) is a small town in the state of Orissa, India, on the Bay of Bengal, sixty-five kilometres from Bhubaneswar. ... The Sundarbans National Park is a national park located in the Sundarbans delta in India. ... The Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal (Hindi: , Persian, Urdu: & IPA[ta:dÊ’ mÉ™ha:l]) is a monument located in Agra in India, constructed between 1631 and 1654 by a workforce of 20,000. ...