Steaming up the mountains
. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway still uses steam locomotives , not so much out of sentimentality but because only steam is powerful enough to cope with the gradient , however I had heard that the original 1920′s engines had been replaced by new oil-fired steam engines. To my great delight however one of the ancient locos chuffed into sight. To my further delight a fellow passenger swapped his window seat with me so that he could sit next to his wife , enabling me to spend most of th journey with my head hanging out of the window like a schoolboy.
The gradient of the track is 1 in 12 at the steepest requiring a “swiss rack” third rail to prevent the train from careering downhill. On some stretches the carriages roll back onto the loco’s buffers and are effectively shunted and jolted up the hill. Occasionally the engine runs out of breath and the train halts whilst t builds up sufficient steam pressure to continue the journey. The mountain scenery is stunning and we passed several waterfalls and ravines. The engineering achievement in constructing this line going 7,000 ft up to Ooty is incredible. For the final flatte leg of the 6 hour journey the venerable steam loco is replaced by a diesel, faster but a lot less fun. ( pictures to folow)
