The MG Nilagiri Express between Mettupapaiyam and Ooty used to run till a few decades ago with number 35/ 36.

The Tarikere- NR pura tramway no more exists since the Bhadra dam submerged the rail lines. But during summer, we do occasionally get to see a railway bridge which used to cross the river.
This line was built by the British to transport teak wood from the deciduous jungles of the Muthodi range (Chickmagalur district,Karnataka).

Is this South Indian Railway official time table? Can you scan the cover as well? Thank you.

The practice of not going into the station engine first probably had something to do with keeping the covered area of the terminus station smoke free.

2 hrs 45 min - beat that today's CR!!!

I think its safe to say that 'classy service' on IR disappeared very long ago. Mr.Muirhead (God bless him!) would turn in his grave if he saw what IRCTC were up to today!

A classic! Look at the mighty Vaigai's run - an hour faster than the next fastest train. The BG Vaigai takes exactly the same time from MS to VM.

@Karan - That is not a station. That was how the Spencer's HQ looked, situated on the legendary Mount Road, Madras. A wonderful structure now in the ugly innards of land sharks!

I suppose that the freight wagons are in the front part of the mixed train - next to the steam loco - and it would be a normal shunting process to bifurcate the train into two parts, the loco taking the first part consisting of the goods wagons to CBE and then returning to the balance part of the train to haul it in too. If the passenger coaches were in the front, the priorities get reversed for the shunting process.

Two questions -
1) Which station is this shown in the photo?
2) Do we have any Specner's restaurant alive today on the IR network? If no, when did the last one close?