Mountain Railway of India

The Mountain Railway of India is a collective name given to the three most popular Mountain Railway systems that were established by the British during the 19^th century to improve the connectivity of the mountains with the plains.

Among them the most popular is the ‘toy train’ or the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway that runs between Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri. It was built between 1879 and 1881. It seems that the British were highly impressed with the tea gardens in the region and also found great business opportunity to exploit. All they needed was means of mass transportation, which translated into the development of railway in this mountainous region.

Next in line is the Kalka-Shimla Railway, which covers a distance of 46 km and connects the bounty plains of Punjab with the Summer Capital of British India. The environmental and visual similarity between the England and Shimla, prompted the British to establish their summer capital here and in order to comfortably reach the town, the Kalka-Shimla rail line was opened in 1903.

Last comes the Nilgiri Mountain Railway in Tamil Nadu. Presently it connects the two towns of Mettupalayam and Ootacamund, in the Nilgiri’s, the Blue Mountains of the country. Known for the steepest racks and its pinion technology, the railways stands as an engineering marvel till date.

Building railway tracks in the midst of deep forests and high mountains in more than hundred years ago is a true achievement. Even today, the Indian Railways haven’t been able to develop such technology or even get close to it. These tracks were laid during the British Era and are still in a running position. This is also the reason that one after another, these rail lines were included in the list of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Later these rail lines became the inspiration for many rail models implemented around the world over.