Facts of Indian Railways

• The total distance covered by the 14,300 trains on the Indian Railways everyday, equals three & half times the distance to moon
• The first train on Indian soil ran between Bombay and Thane on the 16th of April 1853
• IR has about 63,028 route kms. of track
• IR employs about 1.55 million people
• It carries over 13 million passengers & 1.3 million tones of freight everyday
• It runs about 14,300 trains daily
• IR has about 7,000 railway stations
• The longest platform in the world is at Kharagpur and is 2,733 ft. in length
• Nehru Setu on Sone River is the longest Railway bridge
• 42 Railway companies operated in the country before independence
• Electric Locomotives are manufactured at Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, Chittaranjan
• Coaches are manufactured at ICF/Chennai, RCF/Kapurthala and BEML/Bangaluru
• The national Rail Museum at New Delhi was set-up in 1977
• People Employed in Indian Railway are about 1.6 million
• Stations across State Lines are Navapur (Maharashtra and Gujarat) and Bhawani Mandi (Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan)
• Classes of travel on Indian Railway: Ist AC, 2nd AC, 3rd AC, AC Chair Car IInd sleeper & IInd ordinary
• Railway Station with all the Three Gauges is Siliguri Railway Station

IAN MANAGING THE IR

There are 36,500 route miles of railway in India — just a little less than in Canada, or in all of Africa combined; 40% more than in Australia and three times British Railways' tracks. They carry more ton-kilometres of goods than the railways of any country except the USA, USSR, Canada or China and more passenger kilometers than any country apart from the USSR and Japan. To reach this place in the United Nations League-tables the Indian Railways carry about six million passengers a day - that is, at any moment there are likely to be perhaps half a million people standing, sitting or lying in the trains of India. And this calculation omits those who are in the trains without paying their fares, a considerable number of people well warranting the special appeal printed on the back cover of every issue of the All India timetables: a picture of Mahatma Gandhi and requests to passengers willingly to pay their fares due and “to help us stop ticketless travel”.

Any railway which continuously tucks away something like one-sixth the population of New Zealand at all times in its carriages is no small system, and the Indian Railways are forbidding. Serving a sub-continent, they are American in their distances without being American in their speeds – or in their fares. It takes four days and four nights, by the fastest expresses, to travel the hypotenuse of this triangular country – and costs but little more than ten dollars.

A North American may be used to such distances, but for a generation his country has lacked universal branch-line passenger services; in India these are provided with no nonsense of a Mon Wed Fri only sort: the service is daily at worst and European in frequency at best. Yet these branches are not the short, well regulated byways of Europe. Their timetables disregard such incidents as the times of sunrise and sunset; the times of breakfast, lunch and dinner; the times of mainline connections. The typical Indian train travels for hours on end, and only strikes a junction or pulls up at a terminus every 40 miles or so; say, every three hours. It often takes a whole day just to travel out to the end of the branch and back. India takes it time; it is not a country to yield much to whirlwind tourists.

Yet it can give a great deal to he who changes his pace and expectations to suit: steam engines (9,700 of them in1971, besides 1,091 diesel and 552 electric locos); narrow gauge (only 2,690 miles, but by Indian definition the metre is wider than narrow); AC modernity too, but above all a distinctive atmosphere, partly of the country and partly of railway plant and operating practice - which latter two remain obstinately, conservatively British.

Railways, beginning as a British export, changed rapidly when sent to North America and Continental Europe. The Independent British colonies (S. Africa, Australia and the rest) were also not long in discovering that they could reduce costs by resort to North American practices. By the early twentieth century some of the lines run by expatriate Englishmen, especially in Africa, were doing likewise. But not in India; here the dignity and standards of the Raj had to be maintained. Only two major concessions were made: one, early on, was to switch from double tracks to single; the other, to adopt the metre and then narrow gauge, which were thought to conserve capital without lowering standards. For the lines were always properly surveyed and soundly built, with the capacity to carry traffic that didn’t materialize for decades. It would have been better for the economic development of India had the railways been cheaply built and the money saved used to promote industry – even just those industries serving the railways themselves, for up to Independence the greater part of the railway plant was imported. But no, the railways were to be the monument of the Trader’s Raj; impressive with their fine terminals and well-built track. Reclining on his sleeping berth in his reserved compartment, the Trader could feel he had conquered and impressed; great was the Raj and excellent were its railways.

Traces of the grandeur remain, even now that a third class annexe has been added to station after station, and the tracks swarm with third class carriages, even to whole trains. But there have been conscious attempts to jump the British tradition: in locomotives, the new India standardized domestic production on rather North American bar-framed designs, and produced them in such quantity that the prospect of standard, unvarying steam power which so perturbed English railway writers in the early 1950’s, has actually come to pass. And the diesels that are coming are emphatically American, while the electric engines are Continental-International. Yet under the rolling stock, with the high proportion of four-wheel vans, the vacuum brake sighs even yet, while in the cab of express and local train alike there will likely be a Neale’s token.

I hope I can appreciate the symbolism of these, even though I have the considerable limitation of being Australian, so that the things I notice are not always those marked out by a Briton, or a North American. Yet an upbringing on the Australian railways inures one to distance, slowness and perhaps discomfort, even if it also encourages one to glory in the cheap and the makeshift, rather than the solid and the British.

RAIL WHEEL FACTORY

Rail Wheel Factory (earlier known as Wheel and Axle Plant) is situated in Bangalore, India. It is a state-of-the-art plant, meeting bulk of the requirement of wheels, axles and wheel sets for the Indian Railways. The spare capacity available is profitably utilised to meet the domestic demands for non-railway customers and exports.

RWF strives to build successful and lasting relationships with its customers by consistently exceeding their expectations. Customer focus and quality remain our watchwords.

The plant is certified to ISO-9001: 2008 and ISO-14001: 2004 standards by M/s. BVQI. It is also certified to confirm to the Quality Assurance Program of Association of American Railroads (AAR) in respect of manufacture of new wheels and axles.

All products are subjected to stage and final inspection, starting from the chemical composition of the molten metal till the final inspection. This includes micro/macro properties of the material, Magnetic Particle Testing, Ultrasonic Testing, Hardness, warpage, dimensional parameters, surface finish etc.

All our products are accompanied with a Quality Assurance Certificate and carry a warranty of one year from shipment. RWF has the full capability to design and manufacture any size of wheels, axles and wheelsets to suit individual customer’s special requirements.

Rail Coach Factory

The Rail Coach Factory Well known as R.C.F was established in 1986. This was the second rail manufacturing unit of Indian Railways. The Bhoomi Pooja mean the first foundation stone was laid by the late prime minister shri Rajiv Gandhi.
Currently it has manufactured around more then 16000 passenger coaches of about more then 51 differnet types. The out put constitutes over 36% of the total population of coaches on indian railways The RCF has the record manufacturing more then 1400 coaches during the financial year 2005-06

India First AC Double Decker Train

The first air-conditioned double-decker train has been rolled out by the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) Kapurthala. This train will run between Howrah and Dhanbad. Addressing the media on the launch of the train, the General Manager of Rail Coach Factory Kapurthala, Pradeep Kumar said, "It is India's first AC double-decker train and it will ply on Howrah and Dhanbad route." He further informed that the height of the coaches has been developed keeping in mind the over-head structures like bridge, electric traction etc.

Speed upto 180 km/per hour

The double decker train the latest design, which is made of stainless steel and the coaches can comfortably bear speed upto 180 km/per hour. All kinds of safety considerations were kept in mind while developing this train and its design will have minimum imapct in case of any emergency. According to the General Manager, "The train has been developed keeping low cost travelling in mind and each coach of the train can accommodate 128 passengers while Shatabdi carries only 78 passengers in every coach.

Eight coaches will be completely double decked

Starting with Howrah and Dhanbad, this double decker train will gradually be introduced on stretches which are not more than 500 km long as it offers only seating facility. The train will run at a general speed of 160 km/per hour. Power cars attached at both sides of the train will supply power to the train. The new train will be having eight coaches and will be completely double decked. It is India's first double decker train and if it turns out to be a success, then it will be helping the railways in a very strong manner in the future.

Overall height increased marginally

The overall height of double decker coach has been increased marginally by 116 mm (four and a half inches) keeping in view the constraints like overhead structures, bridges, electric traction equipment, platforms etc. so that these coaches can be used without modifying any of the fixed structures except for clearing some minor infringements. Space for the two decks has been generated by optimally using the well space between the two bogies.

Superior technical features

The new air-conditioned double decker coaches have many superior technical features like aesthetically pleasing stainless steel body, high speed Y-Frame bogies with air springs suspension for superior ride quality and many other safety related features. The chairs have been provided in face to face format, so that passengers can enjoy traveling with their families. For better safety, fire retardant upholstery has been used in chairs. These coaches are clear illustration of Indian Railways' capabilities in design and manufacturing of new types of rolling stock. 

Integral Coach Factory

 INAUGURATION

Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, is a premier Production Unit of Indian Railways manufacturing railway passenger coaches. ICF is the first of its kind to be established after Independence for the manufacture of light weight, all steel and all welded ?Integral? railway passenger coaches. The factory was set up in 1955 with Swiss collaboration.

PRODUCTION

ICF?s initial plan was to produce 350 Broad Gauge Third Class shells (unfurnished body of the Railway Coaches) only, which were to be furnished by the Zonal Railways? workshops. Later, in view of the severe limitation of capacity of the Railway workshops and also to take advantage of mass production, a separate Furnishing Division was added on 2nd October, 1962. The capacity was progressively expanded from the initial 350 shells to 750 fully furnished coaches per annum by 1973-74 with additional inputs. This was enhanced progressively from 850 coaches during 1986-87 to 1000 coaches in 1990-91. The modernization project is under last stage of execution to augment capacity to 1250 coaches and will be over by 2010-11.

Capacity is further being enhanced to 1500 coaches per annum through infrastructure additions and modernization of machines.

ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE OF INDIA

The Electric locomotive gets manufacture in West Bengal a place called as Chitranjan. Well knows as Chittranjan locomotive works. CLW manufactures electric locomotives -- 25 kv ac loco with three phase ac drive, 25kv ac locomotive with dc drive. it is one of the largest Electric Locomotive manufacturer in the world. CLW also manufactures AC & DC Traction motors, Switch gears/Control gears, Bogies cast & fabricated, Wheel sets & Steel casting. Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) has been named after the great freedom fighter, leader and statesmen Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das .

The production activity started on 26th January, 1950 the day when India became Republic. The initial product of Chittaranjan Locomotive Works was Steam Locomotive . In the period 1950-1972 Chittaranjan Locomotive Works turned out a total number of 2351 Steam Locomotives

Disel Locomotive of india

In the early year of 1960 the transformation took place in the indian railway from steam engine to diesel engine the two major companies General Motors and ALCO were called for the design submission. After which they started importing the locomotives from ALCO USA. When the constructon of DLW(Diesel Locomotive Works was completed then they produced 12 locomotive with the kit of ALCO imported from USA as per now DLW has produced more then 2400 Locomotives for indian railway in All different categories. 

The Steam Locomotive in India

Hello Blogger

When I was a boy, my father taught me to love steam locomotives. I grew up reading about British, American and Indian steam engines. Lately, my passion for them has been rekindled; I do not know why; it could be due to a subconscious longing for my simple, happy and carefree childhood in the India of the 1970s. Or it could be that I have developed a new appreciation for engineering, having become a fairly experienced engineer myself.  Frequently, I think about the steam locomotives I had known while growing up in India. Sadly, they are all gone today. This web page is my tribute to these wonderful machines which faithfully served India for more than a century.

My father passed away recently.  Till his final days, he continued to pursue his interest in steam locomotives.  This website is dedicated to him.

Click on the underlined hyperlinks below to see some Indian steam engines.  In 100 years, a total of over 80 classes of steam locomotive served the broad gauge system and a similar number on metre gauge lines.  Only a few are listed here.  Some of the pictures were bought from the Corbis collection

Steam To Diesel

Hello Bloggers,

On a previous topic u people have viewed a brief of generation of indian railways when it started and all and a pics of Diesel engine. Now i am gonna tell the change of railway locomotive from steam to diesel.Actually it was very difficult to maintain and expensive to the loco pilots of the steam engine was also falling sick oftentimes due to high temperature and the coal was used in an enormous quantity in which the cost of investment is also so high and the draw backs was also more. In the pic u can see the steam engine. then later on it was taken forward by the Diesel engine which has less drawbacks and easy to operate.

Generation of railway

Railways were first introduced to india in the year 1853. The first train was between Bombay to Thane on a streatch of close to 40Km and it was driven my steam engine. By the year 1947, the year of independence, there were 42 rail systems In 1951 the systems were nationalized as one unit becoming the largest networks of the world.