By Rafe Calder
Count the curves. Wikipedia says 209. The Bharatpedia article, which reads as a near copy, says 108. A third source says 218. All three are describing the same 46-kilometre railway, and none of them says how it counted.
The line
According to Wikipedia, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway runs from Mettupalayam to Udhagamandalam, also called Ooty, in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. The gauge is 1,000 mm, or metre gauge. The infobox gives the length as 46 km and the text 45.8 km. A third article, on the Indian Railways Fan Club site, gives 45.88 km, made up of 27.03 km from Mettupalayam to Coonoor and 18.85 km from Coonoor to Ootacamund. UNESCO’s own page says 46 km in the overview and 45.88 km in the synthesis. The same UNESCO page says the line climbs from 326 m to 2,203 m.
The rack
Between Mettupalayam and Coonoor, the line uses the Abt rack system, a toothed rail laid between the running rails with a pinion on the locomotive that engages it. Wikipedia calls it the only rack railway in India. UNESCO describes a “unique rack and pinion traction arrangement to negotiate steep gradient”. Wikipedia gives the average gradient on the rack section as 1 in 24.5 (4.08 per cent) and the maximum as 1 in 12 (8.33 per cent), and says the line has the steepest track in Asia. The IRFCA article gives the Coonoor ghat section an average of “I in 12.28”, which looks like a misprint of 1 in 12.28, and credits the idea of the mountain railway to Niklaus Riggenbach of Switzerland and J. L. L. Morant of the Royal Engineers. It also credits “Michael’s 1889 system” with the alternate-biting-teeth arrangement, which does not match the usual name of Roman Abt, and we leave that attribution alone.
The dates
This is where the sources collide.
Wikipedia says plans were made in 1854 and the line was completed and opened for traffic in June 1899, after 45 years. It says the line was extended to Fernhill in September 1908 and to Udagamandalam on 15 October 1908. Its infobox and lead say 1908. UNESCO says the line was first proposed in 1854, that construction began in 1891 and that it was completed in 1908. The IRFCA article says the Mettupalayam to Coonoor section was built by 1897, opened in August 1898 and reopened in June 1899 after heavy rain damage, with the Coonoor to Ootacamund extension completed in 1908.
Our reading: the sources are describing different events as “the opening”. A first section, a reopening after damage and a final extension all happened, and each page picks a different one. None of the pages says this, and we have not seen a primary record.
The engines
Wikipedia says the steam locomotives of the rack section are X Class rack locomotives, most built by the Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works in Winterthur, with the oldest up to eight decades old and the newest completed in August 2021 at Golden Rock. The Bharatpedia copy of the article says the X class are six to eight decades old and gives no build year. The IRFCA article says four Beyer-Peacock locomotives arrived in 1897 and mentions steam locomotives of 1920 and 1952 without saying which are meant. The Bharatpedia article says four Double Fairlie locomotives, built by Avonside in 1879 and 1880, were received in 1907. These cannot all be the same fleet, and no page says how the engines fit together.
Diesel is described two ways in the Wikipedia article. One passage says the line switched to diesel between Mettupalayam and Udhagamandalam; another says diesel runs only between Coonoor and Udagamandalam. Bharatpedia says diesel locomotives run only between Coonoor and Udhagamandalam and that steam can run on any part of the line. We do not choose.
Stations, bridges and tunnels
Wikipedia gives 13 stations in the infobox. The Bharatpedia article’s infobox also gives 13 but its list names 12, and says Kateri Road is listed though trains no longer stop there, and that Kallar is closed to passengers. Wikipedia and Bharatpedia both give 16 tunnels and 250 bridges. IRFCA gives 16 tunnels. Curves are where the figures part, as at the top.
Who owns it
Wikipedia says the British built it. It was first operated by the Madras Railway under an agreement with the government, and the South Indian Railway later bought the company. Today, it says, the Government of India owns it, the Ministry of Railways manages it and Southern Railway handles daily maintenance. The IRFCA article names the Nilgiri Railway Company as builder and manager of the Mettupalayam to Coonoor line.
Running times
Wikipedia gives the uphill run as about 290 minutes and the downhill run as about 215 minutes. It gives no year for those times, and we have not seen a timetable.
The listing
UNESCO inscribed Mountain Railways of India in 1999. Its page lists the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway and the Kalka Shimla Railway, with boundary modifications in 2005 and 2008. Wikipedia’s infobox gives 1999 as the inscription, its body text says an extension in July 2005, and another passage mentions a listing in 1994, which fits neither. We follow UNESCO, which names no 1994 date.
Dates in order
- 1854: a mountain railway planned, according to Wikipedia and UNESCO.
- 1891: construction begins, according to UNESCO.
- 1897: the first section built and engines arrive, according to IRFCA.
- August 1898: the first section opens, according to IRFCA.
- June 1899: completed and opened, according to Wikipedia; reopened after rain damage, according to IRFCA.
- 1907: Double Fairlie locomotives received, according to Bharatpedia.
- 1908: the extension to Fernhill and Udhagamandalam, according to Wikipedia, and completion, according to UNESCO.
- 1999: Mountain Railways of India inscribed, according to UNESCO.
- August 2021: the newest X class engine completed at Golden Rock, according to Wikipedia.
Side by side
The sources agree on the route, the metre gauge, the Abt rack, the 1854 plan, the Swiss-built X class, and the British origin. They disagree on the opening date, the number of curves, the length to the second decimal, the engine fleet and the role of diesel.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia and a copy of it on Bharatpedia, which are open encyclopaedias; the UNESCO World Heritage Centre; and an enthusiast society’s article, which carries typographical slips that we point out. We read no railway timetable, no engineering record and no Southern Railway page. For that reason we give no fares, no timetable and no booking details.
Questions a buyer would ask
Is the ticket for the steam or the diesel section? Which section does the train cover? We name no operator and no price.
What we left out
We left out the cost and tonnage figures for the diesel locomotives, a claim about a train that was stopped, and all fares and booking details. We left out the earlier history of the Nilgiris and anything about the people who built the line, since none of the pages we read covered them in a way we could weigh.
Roam first. Shop later.