SolaiShri Nilgiris Chalets Private Limited
Mountain Railways

  • The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) is one of the oldest mountain railways in India. The NMR was declared by the UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in July 2005. This connects Ootacamund with the town of Mettupalayam, at the foothills of the Nilgiri Mountains. It is the only rack railway in India, and uses the Abt system.
  • Ooty is connected to Chennai (formerly Madras) by a nightly connecting train service. Mettupalayam provides the interchange between 'The Nilgiri Passenger' NMR metre gauge service and the Nilgiri Express broad gauge service.
  • A rack-and-pinion railway (also rack railway, cog railway) is a railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with this rack rail. This allows the trains to operate on steep gradients.
  • The Abt system was devised by Roman Abt, a Swiss locomotive engineer. Abt worked for Riggenbach at his works in Olten and later at his IGB rack locomotive company.
  • The pinion wheels can be mounted on the same axle as the rail wheels (as in the picture top).
  • The steam locomotives has separate cylinders driving the pinion wheel in 'X' Class locomotives on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway.
  • The X class locomotives are compound locomotives with two high-pressure and two low-pressure cylinders. All cylinders are outside the locomotive's frames. The two low-pressure cylinders drive the rack wheels. These cylinders are positioned above the two main high-pressure cylinders, which drive the main wheels.
  • In 1891, the Governor of Chennai laid the foundation of the Nilgiri railway and the line was officially inaugurated seven years later, in 1898, between Mettupalayam and Coonoor.
  • By 1908, the line extended up to Ooty although without a rack. Bayer Peacocks were the first engines to haul the train through 16 tunnels and numerous bridges on the route.
  • The track passes over 26 viaducts, 13 tunnels and numerous bends and tropical rain forest to reach Coonoor from Mettupalayam located at altitude of 326 m above MSL.
  • After a steep climb, the train arrives in Coonoor elevated at 1,856 m above MSL, which is surrounded, by tea plantations. From there, the track climbs once more until it reaches Fern Hill at a height of 2,280 m, the highest point on the railroad. Shortly before Ooty, the track dips slightly downhill to 2,240 m above MSL (Atmospheric Pressure – 0.7671 bar).