Toy Train, Coonoor

Toy Train is a journey from Ooty to Coonoor passing through charming views and lush greenary. It is also called as Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) and is a 1,000 mm metre gauge (narrow tracks) railway in Nilgiris. It is operated by the Southern Railway. In July 2005, UNESCO added this NMR railway as an extension to the World Heritage Site of Darjeeling Himalayan Railway. Then it got the name as Mountain Railways of India.

The uphill journey takes around 4.8 hours and the downhill journey takes around 3.6 hours.  The NMR supplies networked computerized ticketing system  and it still issues manual tickets. These tickets were printed on card cut to 31 by 57.2 mm in Edmondson style which was a system for recording the payment of railway fares.This train starts at Mettupalyam and passes through  Kallar, Adderly, Hillgrove, Runneymede, Kateri Road, Coonoor, Wellington, Aravankadu, Ketti, Lovedale, Fern Hill and Ooty stations.

History

In 1854, plans were made to build a mountain railway from Mettupalayam to Nilgiri hills. The line was opened in June 1899. First the Madras Railway operated it and later South Indian Railway purchased it.In September 1908, the line was extended to Fernhill. By 15 October 1908, it was extended to Ooty. These extensions from coonoor over a distance of around 18.91 KM were done at a cost of Rs.2,440,000.

How To Reach

To board the toy train, firstly you have to reach Coonoor railway station and at the ticket counter, you can purchase tickets. To purchase the tickets offline, you have to reach an hour earlier as there is a huge demand. But, it is better to make advance booking of tickets in the IRCTC official website. ONR UAM PASS (56138), MTP UAM PASS (56136) and MTP UAM SPL (06171) are some of the toy trains from Coonoor to Ooty.  You can book any of these trains in advance to experience the unique charming journey.