Driver's Eye View (India) - Nilgiri Mountain Railway - Part 2 - Tunnel No.3 to Runnymede - 4K

The rain has stopped and the sun is shining on the spectacular scenery our train is passing through, crossing deep gorges on lofty viaducts, negotiating narrow ledges cut into rock faces before diving into yet another tunnel and emerging into a vista even more breathtaking than the last one. The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR), sometimes referred to as the "Toy Train" by locals, is a metre gauge railway located in Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. The railway built by the British in 1908 is 46 km long and is India's only operational rack railway. The railway currently uses steam locomotives between Mettupalyam and Coonoor and diesel locomotives on the section between Coonoor Udhagamandalam. In July 2005, UNESCO added the Nilgiri Mountain Railway to the Darjeeling Himalayan and Kalka-Shimla Railways to be collectively designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the name "Mountain Railways of India" Plans were made to build a mountain railway from Mettupalayam into the Nilgiri Hills as long ago as 1854, although it took 45 years to cut through the bureaucratic red tape and complete the line ready for traffic in June 1899. Initially the railway was operated by the Madras Railway under an agreement with the Indian government until the South Indian Railway company purchased it. The railway received four Double Fairlie locomotives in 1907 to work the line, these were part of a batch built by the Avonside Engine Company between 1879 and 1880 for service in Afghanistan, but had been in store since 1887, the Fairlies remained in use until around 1914. In September 1908, the line was extended to Fernhill and by the 15th October 1908, it reached Udagmandalam. Steam locomotives currently in use on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway between Coonoor and Mettupalayam where the gradient can be as steep as 8% are X Class 0-8-2RT rack and pinion compound locomotives. The railway employs the Abt rack and pinion system on these steep sections. The locomotives have two high-pressure and two low-pressure cylinders, located outside of their frames. The low-pressure cylinders drive the rack gears, and are positioned above the two main high-pressure cylinders, which drive the main wheels. These locomotives were acquired to replace the line's original Beyer, Peacock & Company 2-4-0RT rack locomotives, which were not powerful enough to handle the traffic They were bought in two batches from the Swiss Locomotive & Machine Works, Winterthur, Switzerland. The first batch of twelve were delivered between 1914 and 1925, and the second batch of five was delivered in 1952. Four more members of the class were built in India between 2011 and 2014, and another two between 2021 and 2022. Coal-fired No. 37395 was modified to burn oil in 2002, and another locomotive was similarly modified shortly afterwards. The railway intends to convert more locomotives to an oil-fired system, since they are less likely to cause forest fires and require only one fireman rather than the two required. Since April 2022, all oil-fired steam engines use High-Speed Diesel (HSD) because it is less viscous and contains less sulphur, compared to furnace oil. Four new oil-fired X Class steam locomotives to the same basic design as the original locomotives were ordered, the first one (No. X 37396), named “Neela Kurinji” arrived in February 2011, entering service on 24th March, the second (No. X 37397) “Betta Queen” was rolled out at the “Golden Rock Railway Workshop” in February 2012, followed by (No. X 37398) “Nilgiri Queen” in March 2013 and (No. X 37399) “Nilgiri Flycatcher” in March 2014. Central Government placed an order for two further X-Class steam engines with the “Golden Rock Workshop” in 2020, however due to COVID-19, they were not finished on time. X-37400, the coal-powered engine, was eventually rolled out on 25th August, 2021 and the oil-fired locomotive, X-37401 was rolled out on 27th September 2022. Both are currently in service. To watch Part 1, please click on this link -    • Driver's Eye View (India) -  Nilgiri Mount...   Information was sourced from the following Wikipedia articles - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilgiri... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountai... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilgiri... This trip was part of a tour “Railways of the Raj” organised by “The Railway Touring Company” - https://www.railwaytouring.net/ in conjunction with Travel Pals (India) Pvt Ltd Date this video was recorded - 1st December 2024 Track gauge - metre gauge Map 00:20 - Google Earth/Maps Map 00:40 - https://www.openrailwaymap.org/ Music - Track - Composer - Source 00:00 & 47:45 - ES_Archipelago of Relaxation - Mandala Dreams - epidemicsound.com