Udhagamandalam or "Snooty Ooty" is a hill station built by the British to escape the heat. It is 2,216m above sea-level and we were taking the toy train up the 28miles of track to the top. It was built in 1899 and the train, a real life Thomas the Tank engine, is over 100 years old. It is also the only railway in India to use a rack-and-pinion fail safe system. This means that the journey is steep! Oh and also it was the only sign of any health & safety aspect for the whole journey.
By some luck of fortune we had the best seats in the house, at the front of the train, behind the signalmen (the loco pushes the carriages up). Signalmen entailed two men sitting under an umbrella randomly waving either a red or a green flag.
"Would you want to go over this?"Unfortunately, karma had her revenge for the seats by providing dreadful weather conditions (cloud & rain all the way - so no spectacular views then) and the most ignorant American woman I have had the misfortune to meet sharing our carriage (she didn't even have the courtesy to understand my sarcasm when I said I enjoyed her wet umbrella soaking my trouser leg!).
"All Aboard the Cazza Express! (Except the rude American woman who wouldn't even wait for us to take the photo!)"That said I really enjoyed the 5 hour train journey - anything goes in India especially health & safety rules and regulations, which meant we could wander along the tracks whenever there was a waterstop and look at flooding gorges 50metres below the rails. We might not have had the fantastic views promised but it could have been worse - they shut the line down the next day due to flooding....maybe there is a health & safety policy after all!
"Thomas the tank engine & friends (John & Carrie)"
"We regret to inform you that the 8:45 train to London Bridge has been delayed due to a hunk on the tracks (John for those of you requiring clarification)"
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