Tag: Ooty

Ooty toy train

Image by Shachi Sitaram
We are swallowed and disgorged by another tunnel. It’s fun to travel through the tunnels along the line. Everyone shouts as the train chugs through them. It’s a huge party.

Ooty toy train

Image by Shachi Sitaram
As soon as the train chugs out of Ketti station, the superb vistas of Ketti valley unfold. In the distance are the hills around the Kundah reserve forest, extending ridge upon beautiful ridge.

Ooty toy train

Image by Shachi Sitaram
Aravankadu station. The rack rails do not exist at stations, which are on a level gradient. Special rack entries enable the engine to enter and leave the rack portion smoothly. We soon leave the snakes behind at another sweetly lazy station…

Ooty toy train

Image by Shachi Sitaram
We reach Aravankadu — which means ‘snake forest’ in Tamil. The NMR is one of its kind and the steepest mountain railway in Asia with an average gradient of 1 in 12.5. The train takes 5 hours to cover 46 km, climbing from 1069 feet to 7228 feet. The Coonoor-Ooty run takes just over an hour.

Ooty toy train

Image by Shachi Sitaram
Here we are at Lovedale, the highest station on the line at 7,694 ft above sea level. It is another sleepy town — with a post office office opposite the station, and some lovely cottages, a smart biscuity-orange church and the Lawrence school.

Ooty toy train

Image by Shachi Sitaram
Leaving Wellington, the cantonment attached to the Madras Regimental Centre. Wellington, of course, is also famous for the Defense Services Staff College and Field Marshal Manekshaw.

Ooty toy train

Image by Shachi Sitaram
The train approaches a bridge…

Ooty toy train

Image by Shachi Sitaram
We reach Ketti, a small town. The energy level of the passengers is inversely proportional to that of the towns the train chugs through.

Ooty toy train

Image by Shachi Sitaram