Keep Smiling...............: The Nilgiri Mountain Train

The Nilgiri Mountain train is an experience that touches as much the emotions, as it does the senses. A toy train it's called, an engineering marvel it's also called, one that's been kept alive since 1899.

As it weaves it's way through the mountains, through several dark snaking tunnels, steep curves and sharp bends, over old and at times scary looking bridges, through the valleys and across the gorges, it takes you through a spectacularly picturesque ride.

At times the gentle slopes of tea gardens with pretty streams, valleys with huge waterfalls, and then through forest so dense, that there are times it'll wait for an elephant to cross the track.

A fascinating feature of the train is that it still uses a steam engine, stops at stations to fill water, a sight familiar and nostalgic to those of us who've travelled by train the days of the steam engine. The youngest loco is 50 years old, and the oldest 80. It even sounds so different, the familiar chuk..chug... chuk... chug, as it goes at it's pace of 10 kms per hour. (I could almost imagine Rajesh Khanna singing alonside :)

Yes, it's full of beauty...and romance..... and heritage.

Apart from offering a beautiful journey, the uniqueness of the trip is that it is the steepest in Asia. The train uses a unique system called the 'alternate bite system' which has additional teething rack between the tracks for extra support to handle the slopes and gradients.

It's apparently gone through some near shut down moments, and controversies between the railways and the locals...it's after all such an integral fabric of the area since independence. All this until it was declared a UNESCO heritage site in 2005, after which the site became known as the Mountain Railways of India.

It starts at ooty, at a height of over 7000 feet and goes down through Fernhill, Lovedale, Ketti, Aravankadu, Wellington, Coonoor, Kateri, Hillgroove and onto Mettupalyam, a small town on the banks of river Bhavani. Coimbatore is another hour's drive from Mettupalyam.

Our own experience had plenty of added on adventure. First off, I'd booked the tickets over a month back, and was on waitlist. Because I'd booked so much in advance, or maybe because I'm out of touch with train travel, I was confident we'd have been confirmed.

Dhruva and I are sitting in the station canteen and having lunch, when we see this quiet little station suddenly come alive with full on action, and a long line that appeared from nowhere. We weren't sure what was happening.

Who'd think people get into line to get into a train right? Well, here they do.

And that's when I figure out, to my absolute amazement (shock), that our ticket is yet waitlisted and we can't get onboard. I run to the station master in desperation...for help, advise...anything. I'm like, 'please, please tell me what my options are'. And he's like, "if you're willing to go standing, go buy a general compartment ticket".

I was game, but Dhruva's like, "you kidding amma, the whole purpose is the window, what's the point standing". The voice of reason, see. To me, reason wasn't appealing at that moment... I was like 'think, think, think, need to get aboard that train'. And all this as the train is standing there and hooting and whistling away to glory, increasing my tension by the minute.

Anyways, got ourselves general tickets and we're like let's see if we can get any seats at all, else stand till the next station kinds. We lucked out.....got two seats, non window. When I realized the guy next to me was getting off at Wellington, I breathed easy.

And we're off.

This was actually a stroke of luck, cause this guy next to me, Subhash, is a taxi operator from Ooty, and gave me so much local gyan until Wellington that it became worthwhile. (he was going to wellington to attend the dog show). Most of what's written above came from him.

The wonderful ride went on a good three hours.

Half hour before destination came the next adventure.

Soon after Hillgrove station, around 5 in the evening, our train screeches to a halt, and quickly word spreads that there's a boulder that's fallen onto the track.

Full on excitement. In fact once it got dusk people started saying close doors as there's lots of wild animals here, elephants, cheetahs and the like.

That became an over two hour break, where so many of the men (dhruva included) set about doing all they could to move that boulder. Brilliant impromptu team work there...over a full two hours. It was a big enough event to get into the local papers the next day.

Here's pictures of the ride:

At the Ooty station, and part of the line

It's just 5 bogies. You stick your head out the window and you get to see the engine when it tirns. The windows have no bars, no glass, no shutters, nothing....which was just so so lovely.