Evergreen Nilgiri Mountain Railways

All red, as the train comes to a stand still on a loop. Now the points will be set for its onward journey, with the engine pushing the rake. (Benhur)

The loco smokes and notches up hard as it takes on steep gradient out of coonoor station, and in the process, it smokes out the cabin. (Naveen)

After its scheduled halt at Wellington, the train takes a huge 180 degree curve, passes the bridge across a small river and road. (Raghu Jayaraman)

We found our next vantage point near Ellanalli village, where we saw the train passing through thick woods. (Raghu Jayaraman)

Ketti, one of the most beautiful stations in the route, welcomes the passenger train. (Raghu Jayaraman)

YDM-4 #6664 waits at Ketti with the 5 coach rake of Mettupalayam - Coonoor - Udhagamandalam passenger. (Harish Kumar)

The passenger train moves slowly from Ketti towards its next scheduled halt, Lovedale. View of the train from Aalaada village. (Raghu Jayaraman)

The train twists, turns and climbs amidst spectacular landscape. As seen from Aalaada village in Ketti Valley. (Harish Kumar)

The noon passenger service (56142) to Coonoor pulls out of Udagamandalam, even as the permanent way staff get ready for a ride to inspect the line ahead. (Harish Kumar)

The 56142 Udagamandalam - Coonoor passenger powered by YDM-4 #6664 passes through Fern Hill. (Naveen)

After riding to some off-beat villages in the Nilgiris, we returned back to station just in time to see off the 18:00 hrs passenger service (#56140) to Coonoor departing from Udagamandalam, bang on time. (Harish Kumar)

Three minutes later, the station is deserted, and became all ours, as we were the only occupants in the comforts of a well-maintained retiring room of UAM station. (Harish Kumar)

The station belong to us, all night, as we chose to stay in the Station Retiring room, with our bikes parked right next to the ticket counter. The station has 6 spacious and neat retiring rooms. We also found vacant retiring rooms at Lovedale. (Harish Ku

Early birds at Udagamandalam. Weekend is here and the crowd begin to gather early to board the morning passenger service to Coonoor. (Benhur)

The next morning, we rode to the lovely Lovedale station amidst dense fog. From here we trekked up to Ketti and reached Coonoor by bus. Later in the afternoon, we took the Udagamandalam bound passenger back to Lovedale. (Naveen M)

Amidst thick fog, the Coonoor bound passenger led by YDM-4 #6414 pulls into Lovedale. (Naveen M)

and soon it pulls out of the Lovedale and goes past the road over bridge (Benhur)

Hugging closely to the hill sides, the passenger takes a sharp curve on its way to Ketti. (Raghu Jayaraman)

...and disappears into the foggy jungle (Raghu Jayaraman)

As we trek further down the line with the scenic Ketti Valley to the right, we catch the 56136 Metupalayam - Udagamandalam Passenger coming out of the "Dil Se..." fame tunnel. (Harish Kumar)

With the valley fully envoloped by fog, the passenger train to Udagai, slowly negotiates a sharp curve on its way to Lovedale. (Raghu Jayaraman)

The lower quadrant signal arm greets the passenger train into Lovedale. (Naveen M)

An hour later, it was time to catch another down hill bound train... The noon passenger service (56142) led by YDM-4 #6414 is about to enter a tunnel between Lovedale and Ketti (Naveen M)

We capture the same train from various vantage points. Sequence 1 of 7: Across spectacular landscape... (Naveen M)

Sequence 2 of 7: Through deep rock cuts... (Raghu Jayaraman)

Sequence 3 of 7: Across roads and fields (Benhur)

Sequence 4 of 7: Past tea gardens and villages... (Harish Kumar)