Keep heritage inventories in mountain railway intact

The Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) has seen a tussle between NMR enthusiasts and the Salem division railway officials whenever development work is taken up in the section.
The recent removal of 400 metres of the old railway track at Ooty railway station was condemned by the Heritage Steam Chariot Trust (HSCT), but the railway officials said the work was done to strengthen the stretch.

“It is highly condemnable that a part of the track has been removed,” said K Natarajan, managing trustee of HSCT.

Harishankar Varma, divisional regional manager, Southern Railway (Salem Division), told TOI: “The part of the track in the Ooty railway station has not been removed permanently. It will be re-laid. This is a process to strength the track.”

“As far as heritage value inventories are concerned, a survey is being conducted in meter gauge railway sections that include NMR and Darjeeling. The exercise of surveying the inventories will be over by mid-March,” said Varma.

On February 15, an old overhead water tank was dismantled by the railway authorities, citing the fact that it was not in use. But Natarajan says such heritage objects belonging to the NMR section should be preserved for posterity. Otherwise, the NMR will lose its heritage value gradually.

When contacted, Subrata Nath, executive director, Heritage, Railway Board, Ministry of Railways, told TOI: “If the said structures are found in the inventory list of heritage objects, then they should be preserved. Even if it is 50 years old, it should be preserved in a heritage site.”

A letter from Railway Senior Section Engineer, Coonoor, addressed to the DRM said the existing steel overhead tank was installed in 1962. So, the tank was over 50 years old.

The dismantled tank has been shifted to Coimbatore.In another incident, a weighing scale of heritage value, which was shifted to the Coimbatore Railway station in 2012, was brought back to its original destination, the Ooty railway station, on November 23, 2016. TOI had reported about the heritage weighing machine of 2-tonne capacity, which was shifted from the Ooty railway station in 2012.

The weighing scale, a 1907-model made by The India Machinery Company Ltd, was brought back by the NMR and has been displayed on the platform for visitors to see.NMR lovers want the Ooty railway station to be maintained and its heritage value preserved. The leftover pieces of colonial history can bring back memories of time gone by, they say.

NMR, Asia’s steepest and longest meter gauge mountain railway, is operated on Scottish designed ‘rack and pinion’ system, which was completed up to Coonoor from Mettupalayam in June 1899. Only in 1908, it was extended to Ooty.

A ride in the “mountain train” is a unique experience.

The NMR was declared as a heritage site by UNESCO in 2005.