Nilgiri Mountain Railway Trains Ooty Station – 3 PCs 1910
Speeding towards Fernhill Station
Approaching Ooty Railway Station, in the foreground is the Ooty Lake
The train passing St Thomas Church and the Ooty Lake
Three 1910 photo postcards of the Nilgiri Mountain Railway Trains near Ooty Station. Compared to regular trains, the ride on a mountain railway railway tends to have greater appeal, beauty, and an old-world charm. When one looks out the rushing train at the incredible beauty of the mountainside, it is literally a seeing-is-believing scene. There are five hill railways in India with each having an allure of its own. The five hill railways are the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, Kalka-Simla Railway, Nilgiri Mountain Railway, Matheran Hill Railway, and the Kangra Valley Railway.
The beautiful image shows the Nilgiri Mountain Railway’s (NMR) Train hurtling towards Fernhill. The Fernhill Station is a stop before Ooty Station. The train fast approaching the Ooty Railway Station in one postcard and passing the over 150 years British built St Thomas Church in the other. The famous Ooty man-made lake appears in two of the postcards. The section between Mettupalayam and Coonoor opened in 1899. The remaining section from Coonoor to Ooty opened in 1908.
Did you know – the NMR is the only one of its kind in Asia. It operated on the “rack and pinion” system, to combat the steep gradient of the mountains. The only other place to see similar “rack” railways is in distant Switzerland.
Past posts – Antique Painting of Madras Fort St George., Inauguration Of Indian Airlines By Nehru, 1953 Photo., Coonoor In Nilgiris – Old Postcard 1910., 1948 Mumbai Great Cyclone – Two Old Newspaper Pages.
