Nilgiri Moutain Railway

The Mountain train
The Nilgiri Moutain Railway in Nilgiris at TamilNadu
it was added to the World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

Nilgiri Moutain Railway NMR is the only railway line in India which is having the reputation of using rack and pinion system to climb the sharp slope of Nilgiri Hills. Class X steam locomotive engine build in Switzerland of blue and cream with wooden carriages and large windows are considered as engineering masterpiece. There are five stations namely Kallar, Adderley, Hill Grove, Runnymede and Kateri which comes in between Mettupalyam and Coonor. This journey takes approximately 3 hours 30 minutes. To provide greater force to climb up the steep route up to Ooty, generally a diesel engine is replaced at Coonoor. From Coonoor the train takes 1 hour 30 minutes to reach Ooty station. The stations that one would come across in this route are Wellington, Aruvangadu, Ketti and Lovedale. The whole journey for going up to Ooty takes approximately 5 hours, while it takes only 3 hours 30 minutes on its way going down. Another notable thing is the track used in the Mettupalayam-Coonoor section, which is a three-track rail with centre track somewhat toothed. The speed goes down as the train reaches the three-track zone and again increases as it leaves. NMR covers a distance track of about 46 km and crosses through 208 curves, 16 tunnels and 250 bridges.