Mountain Trains of India

A journey through the mountain trains can be romantic, chugging your way up the mountains through deep valleys and long tunnels carved out of the mountains.The Nilgiris (literally Blue Mountain) mountain train starts its journey from Mettupalayam, a small agricultural town near Coimbatore, to Ootacamund (ooty) some 98 Km away. This train is unique in a way because the steam-powered locomotive pushes the carriages from behind, up the steep mountain. This train takes about 4 hours to climb the hills using its unique third cogged rail in between the normal rails to negotiate the steep incline.

The little town of Shimla proved ideal for the Europeans. They built a mountain train up to Shimla through 107 tunnels (the longest being 1107 meters from one end to the other,near Barog ). Incidentally , this narrow gauge train differs from the other mountain train in the south - Nilgiris Train. Both trains were built by the Swiss ,more than 100 years ago.

Nilgiris train uses a rack type of rail in the center of the normal tracks,whereas the Shimla 'Toy train " uses a normal ,but extra track to bear the additional stress in the curves,criss-crossing between the regular tracks.

Travel in this ageing marvel :( the steam engine has been replaced with a diesel ,but the carriages bear ample testimony to the rich past) and savour the romantic ride 6 hours long from Kalka to Shimla. Kalka ,a quaint town at the base of Himalayas ( about 303 km from Old Delhi) forms the other end for this romantic journey.