Nilgiri Mountain Railway, Ooty, Tamil Nadu India

Covering a distance of 46 km in around 5 hours, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway takes tourists from Mettupalayam to Ootacamund or Ooty. This is a truly amazing journey that takes tourists from a height of 1069 feet to 7228 feet. The history of the train can be traced back to the times when it was very difficult to reach Udhagamandalam - as Ooty was called in those days. Travellers needed to ride on a horse back or carried on 'dollies' through a forested path to reach Ooty. It was this access difficulty that gave birth to an idea of constructing a rail line to connect the hilly areas of Coonoor and Ooty from plains. The first thought was kept in the year 1854, however, it took around another forty years before the actual work could begin. A Swiss inventor, Riggenback worked on it, and built up the initial line upto Coonoor by the year 1899. Later, by 1908, the track was extended upto Fernhill and then Ooty.

The uniqueness of this rail line lies in it being the steepest one in Asia. To cope with it, a unique system, ABT (Alternate Biting System) is used, which is also called the rack and pinion system. In this the method, pulling the train is quiet different from the usual one. Instead of the engine pulling the train on level lines, here there are two rack bars out of steps with each other between the rail lines. On these racks, the pinions of the train climbs in the same fashion as a person climbs a ladder. The engine, while going upwards, is on the backside to push the train from behind. On the other hand, it is on the front side on the return journey downhill so as to prevent any collision or derailing.
The Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu were practically inaccessible to the common traveler until the advent of the Nilgiri Mountain Railway or NMR. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway connects the hill town of Ooty with the town of Mettupalayam which is located just at the foot hills. Using the Abt system, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway is the only rack Railway in the whole of India.

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway covers a total distance of about 46 Kilometers to Udhagamandalam and takes an approximate time of four and half hours to do the same. There are five stations at which the Nilgiri Mountain Railway stops between Mettupalayam and Coonoor, these are, Hill Grove, Runnymede, Kateri, Kallar, and Adderley. From Coonoor to Ooty the Nilgiri Mountain Railway used to stop at five other stations, Aruvankadul, Ketti, Wellington, Lovedale and Fren Hill but in the recent past the last one has been closed down.