The Toy Train to the Hills

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) is a 46-kilometre heritage railway that climbs from Mettupalayam (326 m) to Ooty (2,203 m) through 16 tunnels and over 250 bridges, ascending nearly 1,900 metres. Built between 1899 and 1908 by the Madras Railway Company, it uses a unique rack-and-pinion system on the steepest section (Mettupalayam to Coonoor) — one of the few surviving rack railways in Asia.

The NMR was inscribed as part of the Mountain Railways of India UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005, joining the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway and the Kalka-Shimla Railway.

The Steam Section

The Mettupalayam-Coonoor section (the steepest) is still operated by Swiss-built 'X' class steam locomotives from 1952 and oil-fired versions of the original 1920s locos. The journey takes about 4.5 hours (one way) and is one of India's most scenic rail experiences: the train climbs through tropical forest, crosses bridges over deep ravines, plunges into tunnels, and emerges into the tea gardens of the Nilgiris.

Engineering Achievement

The rack-and-pinion system (Abt system, with two parallel toothed rails) was necessary because the gradient exceeds 1-in-12 in places — far too steep for adhesion alone. The engineering challenges of building a railway up the Nilgiri escarpment in the 1890s — blasting tunnels through hard rock, building curved viaducts across gorges, all with manual labour — were immense. The railway took nearly a decade to complete and remains a monument to Victorian-era engineering ambition.