Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by SBajwa »

Question to Mr. VSundar.

What is a bank in IR? You mean to say that once a rail climbs so many meters it need to straighten i.e. flat service where gravity does nothing? is that a bank?

I have been on Kalka-Simla route and some stations are indeed on a slope (don't know how trains stop there) while most are totally flat (like Simla railway station is flat.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

SBajwa wrote:Question to Mr. VSundar.

What is a bank in IR? You mean to say that once a rail climbs so many meters it need to straighten i.e. flat service where gravity does nothing? is that a bank?

I have been on Kalka-Simla route and some stations are indeed on a slope (don't know how trains stop there) while most are totally flat (like Simla railway station is flat.
A banker is the terminology used for an engine attached at the back of a train. The purpose of the engine in the back is to provide motive power to climb steep slopes and to prevent the train from sliding back in case the coupling breaks on the slope. Please watch this video. It is on the famous Thull ghat, Kasara to Igatpuri.
When the train enters Kasara at 10:47 you will see many banker engines waiting at the foot of the Thull ghat at Kasara to push trains up this 1:37 slope steep ghat to Igatpuri. More banker engines at 12:13. Later in the video (this section is triple lined as it sees very heavy traffic between Mumbai-Delhi, Mumbai-Howrah etc) at 18:25 you will see three banker engines returning back to Kasara after pushing trains up to Igatpuri. Also at 15:59 you will see the catch siding, in case a coupling breaks and the banker engine also fails, the train will start rolling down the ghat back to Kasara, and the train will be diverted to the catch siding to prevent an accident, though very likely it would derail before that and fall into a very deep khud.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uO1N903VnE

Both the Thull ghat and Bhor ghat (Pune-Mumbai) are magnificent pieces of engineering for their time. Suresh Prabhu and Cabinet has authorized third line work between Kalyan and Kasara, do not know the progress. Perhaps we are looking at fourth lining Igatpuri-Kasara. In old days at Igatpuri a WP steam loco would haul Punjab Mail either the WP steam loco would be from Jhansi shed or Bhusawal shed with green CR livery. Upto Igatpuri DC electric locos (1500 V DC) from CSTM would do the work with bankers attached at Kasara. Have not been on Kalka Shimla since 1967. Diesel traction had just come in on that NG route.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Gagan »

vsunder wrote:No contracts have been issued for Son Nagar to Dankuni which is to be developed in PPP mode. So how can you see construction? In fact PMO is quite worried about DFC esp. this section as Land acquisition is not yet complete on this section.
There is definitely some construction activity going on at 24.520334, 85.451465. Don't know if it is DFC related or not - maybe not, but it looks like this is a track being planned. Maybe the railways is trying to get a more streamlined route for its existing line, or trying to link up Tilaiya to Koderma.

There is an incomplete track from Tilaiya to the chotanagpur plateau. This might connect to it.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by SBajwa »

Thanks!

so train slows down and these banker engines just push them up the hill? Do they stop to attach?
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

SBajwa wrote:Thanks!

so train slows down and these banker engines just push them up the hill? Do they stop to attach?
Yes indeed. In the video I posted, the first three bankers you saw were presumably waiting to attach themselves to the train from which the video was filmed. Kasara is the start of the Thull ghat and the attachment point for the bankers. Kasara is also the last local train stop for the Central railway Mumbai suburban network. Suburban trains do not go up the Thull ghat. In fact the train of the videographer cut into the tracks in front of the bankers. The bankers would have moved, attached themselves and pushed the train upto Igatpuri and descended empty as we saw those three coming down. For very heavy freight bankers can even be attached to trains going downhill if there is a danger of brake failure. For example a long heavy freight of gasoline and LPG tankers. Would not want early Diwali in a tunnel.

Next time you travel on a train watch for signs at virtually track level which say something like 100 with an arrow pointing up or down. This means you are at the start of a 1:100 slope going uphill or downhill. For very steep slopes like Bhor or Thull ghat there is a mandatory brake test all trains must perform.
Last edited by vsunder on 05 May 2017 03:52, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Gagan wrote:No tunnels visible yet, they are going all the way up the hills !
Look here 24.520334, 85.451465
http://www.asianage.com/india/pmo-worri ... rridor-240

Here is the situation between Dankuni and Son Nagar. It is a very real problem. That construction you see is not DFC but a new line connecting Tilaiya and Koderma. The deviation DFC will take will lie left of this construction. DFC calls this deviation Koderma deviation as Kashi referred to it, but it is a misnomer, the deviation occurs before Koderma.

Here is the info see pages 6 and 8, page 6 gives the grade 1:200 and page 8 the situation near Koderma

http://forestsclearance.nic.in/writerea ... haseII.pdf

This 4 page justification for forest clearance is a compact version of the one above. From the second document, linked below: That is the precise diversion

In Gaya districts the proposed alignment starts at km 157.500, Village, Sarne and terminates at km 180.000, village Manhona. The proposed alignment of approx 22.5 km length

http://forestsclearance.nic.in/writerea ... cation.pdf

You may wish to correlate what is here with Google Earth. That is the alignment.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Singha »

Are bankers used at rear of trains going to vasco da gama? I had a few worried moments when i realized slope was steep down after dudhsagar falls. Could see 2 locos in front but could not check the back.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Singha »

There is a painting of bhor ghat work in railway museum delhi. Small locos and wagons were hauled up on back of elephants. It is noted that 40.000 ppl lost their lives to build the bhor ghat rail but not explained why.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Singha »

Btw in national museum delhi naval heritage room a foxtrot class is labelled as kilo class ...been like that for atleast 3 yrs now.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Singha »

Singha wrote:There is a painting of bhor ghat work in railway museum delhi. Small locos and wagons were hauled up on back of elephants. It is noted that 40.000 ppl lost their lives to build the bhor ghat rail but not explained why.
wiki of bhor ghat claims 25,000 killed.....again a astonishing number. cannot be from accidents in tunnels and earthwork alone . substantial untreated epidemics of dysentery, typhoid , cholera, malaria, starvation, abuse under ruthless supervisors are needed to kill that many working age adults ... thats one mystery I would like to know. almost a genocide imo.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by arshyam »

^^ Lots of such hidden tragedies in the story of our railway. Tharoor in his speech at Oxford mentioned a bigger number aggregated across other railway projects in British times, let me see if I can find it.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by rahulm »

Singha wrote:Are bankers used at rear of trains going to vasco da gama? I had a few worried moments when i realized slope was steep down after dudhsagar falls. Could see 2 locos in front but could not check the back.
Have never seen bankers either to or from VSG on KR. double headed WDM's are common as are the EMD GT46MAC I spend many idle evenings on Pernem station enjoying ALCO clag.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by arshyam »

^^ True, not on KR - it was built to avoid routes like ghat sections we see in the older lines. The ruling gradient is better than 1:100 there, probably 1:150. The DFC is trying to follow a similar approach.

Singha saar is probably asking trains from Miraj side to Vasco - that route traverses the western ghat and has a ghat section called the Braganza ghat. IIRC additional engines are attached in the front for braking when descending from Castle Rock. So the converse will be to attach bankers at the end, which happens at Kulem. Also, it's one of the few sections where Alcos rule the roost for passenger ops as there were visibility problems with the longer EMDs. Even in Alcos, only AEB fitted ones from Gooty are deployed on this route as there are no catch sidings and the AEB keeps the train speed low.

The above is from memory, not sure how much has changed of late.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Austin »

[IRFCA] Inside Rajdhani Express Locomotive, Ultimate Cab Ride in WDP4D Engine

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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by salaam »

Austin wrote:[IRFCA] Inside Rajdhani Express Locomotive, Ultimate Cab Ride in WDP4D Engine

Somebody I know ;), whose grandfather was a guard of Rajdhani, might have been in cab from New Delhi to Kanpur, with fingers on two sirens all the way :)

Of course my memory fails and it might be a dream sequence.

A Hardoi newspaper cutting tells me that the year was 88-89
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

The Railways have released on April 27th construction targets for 2017-2018. There is a whole host of targets. Regarding the video I posted above, Vasind-Usargaon, on Kasara-Kalyan third line (item 4 in Central Railways) 6.5km is a target. One would have wanted to see more as this is a 75 km section heavily used by Mumbai suburban trains and Howrah-Mumbai and Delhi-Mumbai traffic. Tilaiya-Koderma New line is also on the list, East Central Railway ECR (item 15, NL=New line) 25km in a 64 km section. There is also some subterfuge at the end. While all the previous entries are Route kms, being either doubling or a new single line, the last two entries pertain to DFC. Ateli-Phulera is listed as 380km but we all know that is track kms, and since DFC new lines are all doubled, the actual route kms is 190kms.
The target for EDFC is very depressing a measly 18 track kms, or 9 route kms between Karwanda and Sasaram, on the Mughalsarai-Son Nagar section. They should have clarified this point. Balharshah-Wardha third line progress will be 13km. Chandigarh-Dhappar will be doubled finally, thus providing a double line between Delhi and Chandigarh. Also the progress on SWR for Hubli-Arsikere doubling looks good and so does, Vasco da Gama-Tinaighat-Hospet section. Some of the sections have already been commissioned like Tilati-Akalkot Rd. on Mumbai-Chennai doubling but find mention in this list as they were commissioned in early April. Some more block sections on Mumbai-Chennai doubling for potential completion are listed.

http://www.indianrailways.gov.in/railwa ... _17_18.pdf
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Karthik S »

On track! Next-generation Chinese bullet trains that can reach 373MPH will be ready by 2020
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/trave ... m=%2311375

Considering our HSR will not come before 2023, can we collaborate with the Japanese to work on similar lines, we'll get a good experience working with Japanese as well.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Singha »

the rajdhani video is probably assam looking at vegetation, water bodies, diesel loco and single track...and the 110kmph speed limit..dibrugarh rajdhani it has to be.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by arshyam »

^^ Yeah. Very few Rajdhanis run under diesel power elsewhere - Thiruvananthapuram, BLR and Ahmadabad being the only exceptions.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Singha »

is blr hyderabad electrified ?
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Sicanta »

No, i believe. BTW, that engine above with the rajdhani is from Tughlaqabad shed of Delhi division of NR. Mostly this shed serves the trains going to south and central. The only exception being that this may be DBRT rajdhani going through lko (not kanpur) which is hauled the entire way by diesel.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by arshyam »

It's electrified in parts only - between BLR and Gooty, and Wadi-Sec'bad.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by rahulm »

X-post from 'Achievements' thread



Railways starts firing officers convicted of corruption
In a first, the Indian Railways has quietly started terminating the services of officers who have been convicted in corruption cases. In the past six months, four senior officers from zonal railways across the country have been removed from service, signalling a new, tough stance that the government will no longer allow convicted officers to continue enjoying salaries and perks while they fight court cases against their conviction.
A list of 30 officers has been prepared at all levels across India, including Joint Secretary grade, who stand convicted by the CBI for offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act, like taking bribes and possessing assets disproportionate to their income.
The Railway Board, sources said, took legal opinion and the official consent of the Union Public Service Commission to arrive at the conclusion that a “stay on arrest” is not acquittal — some officers had got stay on arrest — and these convictions in CBI cases warrant removal from service.

“Let the officers fight their cases in appeals. If they are acquitted eventually, the government may consider giving them their jobs back. But until then, they cannot remain in service… the rules are clear,” a top officer on the Railway Board said.
This makes me immenesly happy. Once again, though, action in a Central,government service while state government corruption is a holy cow to be left untouched except when it suits electoral and political ends. :-?
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Finally located a video of construction activity of Eastern DFC between Kanpur and Allahabad. GMR construction is the prime contractor. Note the videographer is doing everything but is completely ignorant and oblivious to the fact that his is perhaps the first video to document construction of the DFC on this section. Totally clueless. There are other videos of this section but those people took shots of the left side of the train and missed the southern side where DFC tracks will be located. Note the earthworks stop as they near a village. Similar was the case in October 2015 on the Delhi-Kanpur section, which is now at a more advanced stage with track linking but no electric traction poles and no signals. The state of this section Kanpur-Allahabad-Mughalsarai, does not give me hope of a December 2019 completion. There are no major rivers here except at Allahabad when DFC tracks will veer right and cross the Yamuna. The second station after Kanpur towards Allahabad is Chakeri, which was home to No. 1 Base repair depot BRD of IAF and where AVM Harjinder Singh ruled with an iron hand. YB Chavan as RM moved 1 BRD out to Nagpur and IAF Chakeri became HAL Chakeri. I saw the first Avro HS 748 being built at Chakeri which was named Subroto Mukherjee. Earthworks can be seen at 0:38 onwards more or less continuously. This is the famous Doab, land between two rivers, Ganga and Yamuna and no serious engineering challenges except LA problems.
Here no work gets done, Yogi or otherwise, until you know the magic words Hum Chaubey ke aadmi hain.
And you also need to know Rangbaazi, kantaap, lappad and danga hua to bahut gumma chala.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQZh3R6nc-g

Western DFC, work between Phulera and Ajmer. Note Ateli(near Rewari) to Phulera 190km will be the first section to be commissioned March 2018 in western DFC. This is work after that on the 641 km Iqbalgarh-Rewari section which is the most advanced of all sections on western DFC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCbzEArSDDw

From July 2016, Kanpur towards Khurja(Delhi) eastern DFC. Extreme two tracks are DFC tracks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGGDJa55XEY

These tracks when approaching Kanpur will veer south of Kanpur, jump over the Kanpur Jhansi tracks and perhaps have a junction with IR and then rejoin the alignment parallel to IR tracks near Chakeri in the first video linked above. All the time staying south of IR tracks. Near Allahabad at Manauri, tracks will veer south, behind IAF station Bamrauli(HQ central command) jump over the Allahabad-Katni tracks towards Jabalpur and Mumbai and re-join IR alignment towards Mughalsarai at Karchana, completely bypassing Allahabad.
Incidentally somebody posted on Civil aviation thread a list of UP civilian airports. IAF Chakeri, Kanpur had a civilian enclave/airport for years, flights even went to London before WW2. I once took a Fokker Friendship F-27 flight to Delhi from there. Then it was shut down. Late Wg.-Cdr Trevor Keelor was associated with some Archana Airways flying from there and they had some nasty accidents. Now the civilian enclave has re-started with flights to Delhi. Ditto for Allahabad. There is a civilian enclave in IAF station Bamrauli/ Allahabad and yours truly took a flight out of Bamrauli in Oct 2015 to Delhi. Navigation is easy, plonk yourself on top of the Yamuna river and follow. You also see a whole bunch of Mirage -2000's lined up on the tarmac. Old days since IR tracks pass next to airfield wall, you would always see AN-12's with jet packs on top waiting to take off or Fairchild packets, Flying Boxcars, that was so long ago, 1963 I think.

PS: On Google Earth you can clearly see the Allahabad bypass I alluded above. It begins a little after Manauri station (towards Allahabad) and goes indeed behind Bamrauli airfield and ends near Highway 30 a little before it hits the Jabalpur tracks. There is no earthworks beyond this point. There is a gap at the Yamuna and I cannot see any traces of piers though some foundations for piers have been sunk.
Last edited by vsunder on 17 May 2017 07:07, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Singha »

The packet or caribou had a rr orpheous dorsal jet pack for leh ops. The an12 was fine with its 4 engines
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

deleted
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Kashi »

vsunder wrote: Earthworks can be seen at 0:38 onwards more or less continuously. This is the famous Doab, land between two rivers, Ganga and Yamuna and no serious engineering challenges except LA problems.
They can barely be called earthworks. You are right 2019 deadline seems far far away.
vsunder wrote:From July 2016, Kanpur towards Khurja(Delhi) eastern DFC. Extreme two tracks are DFC tracks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGGDJa55XEY
I thought DFC were supposed to have no level crossings, but they seems to pass through a level crossing around 0:42-43.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Yes DFC will have no level crossings. But the problem is that DFC is running parallel to IR tracks on one of its busiest sections: Howrah-Delhi. So any elimination of level crossings means crossing 4 sets of tracks. Jumping over or under IR tracks is going to be hell, on such a busy route. Let us see how they do it. They cannot have a big traffic block. So I think it means they will be forced to make ROB's (instead of underbridges) and so till those come up there is the road that you see. With the dense population, I wonder about how they will solve the problem of approach roads to the ROB's. This section Khurja-Kanpur is due for commissioning in Dec 2018, at least that is what DFC has announced. I saw some tweets from CR, DRM Solapur about how they had managed to push stuff under tracks without traffic blocks and created a RUB. It is going to be tricky on this section. Just very high traffic.

By the way I looked closely at the Allahabad bypass on Google earth. It is unmistakable, earthworks are visible as a gash and from the regularity of the alignment/gash is clear it is obviously manmade. They indeed have sunk two piers into the Yamuna. You can see the huge loop of earthwork around the city. Earthworks end near highway 30 and re-start near Karchana railway station for a short distance and continue eastwards with breaks towards Mughalsarai. At many places you can see trees in the earthworks and houses, plausibly LA issues. One can also see mounds of material for blanketing. You will need such preparation as DFC has to carry 32.5 tonne axle loads. So from highway 30 to Karchana station nothing has been done.
You can also see quite a few piers over the Tamasa river, beyond Karchana to the east of Karchana. No spans yet. This is the same river where legend has that Rama and company spent their first night in exile and gave the denizens of Ayodhya the slip next morning. The Tamasa flows from the south to North and empties into the Ganga a few miles north of where it cuts the IR and DFC tracks. I have not checked the Kanpur bypass loop on Google earth. It is supposed to cut the Jhansi-Kanpur line between Bhimsen and Kanpur. Bhimsen is basically the first station on Jhansi-Kanpur line. CR used to start here now it is NCR that controls it. Here is a very recent statement that all level crossings on the DFC will be gone. IR will benefit from this too as you have rightly asked.

http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report-gu ... ng-2321530
Look at the drone video of western DFC, there because of the low traffic density relatively they pushed concrete boxes under IR tracks and made RUB's and this they connected with the parallel DFC RUB's. This luxury they will not get on Howrah-Delhi or Surat-JNPT/Mumbai section.

PS: People confuse Tamasa and Tons, two different rivers. The Tons too is a tributary of the Yamuna, joining it northeast of Dehradun.
Last edited by vsunder on 17 May 2017 11:09, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Kashi »

Thanks very much vsunderji, your insights are always a pleasure to read.

Could you post some of these google earth snapshots or coordinates please?
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

I checked Google earth Kanpur. Firstly I am amazed. Places I knew as open fields, jheels and talabs/lakes all gone and new colonies have come up. Indeed earthworks of the bypass are visible. They start from in fact a little east of Chakeri, so east of Kanpur on the Howrah-Delhi line. There seems to be a new station east of Chakeri "Rooma" never existed long ago, the bypass even begins east of Rooma. Loops south around Kanpur, has to avoid all these new colonies of a densely packed city. The earthworks are not continuous, but pieces here, pieces there etc. Then it approaches the Kanpur-Jhansi line between Bhimsen and Kanpur. Just before it cuts this line the earthwork splits. There is a left hand fork going towards Bhimsen station and one going straight ahead. Meaning is clear. DFC will hop over the IR Jhansi-Kanpur tracks. The left hand fork will be the connection of DFC to IR in the direction of Jhansi. The earthworks then stop and start again and then stop. So there is a good piece where nothing has been done to connect to Bhaupur on the Howrah-Delhi line west of Kanpur. So there is a massive amount of work pending. You will see lot of coal rakes on this bypass, coming from Jharia east of Kanpur and taking the bypass and going on to IR towards Jhansi. There is a huge thermal plant Pariccha thermal station 24 km from Jhansi on the Jhansi-Kanpur line that is being doubled. It is currently single lined but electrified a few years ago. There will be a new bridge across the Yamuna at Kalpi to carry the second set of IR tracks. Famous battle took place at Kalpi between Tantya Tope and the British and this area called Kanpur Dehat (village) district has a very old brick temple

http://puratattva.in/2011/12/06/nibiya- ... mplex-1383

Not a single station on the Jhansi-Kanpur line had electricity in the 1960's. Oil lamps is what you had and the single line meant your train halted often. The station master worked in his office with a lantern as the telegraph instrument would come to life and clicked and clacked Morse code.

This is what a rail flyover of DFC looks like

https://twitter.com/dfccil_india/status ... 32/photo/1

This particular flyover is on the Khurja Kanpur section whose video I posted earlier. Approaching Hathras, DFC tracks veer away go into the wilderness, south of IR Delhi-Howrah alignment, hop over NER tracks here(Mathura-Kasganj), come back and join IR tracks Howrah-Delhi. The Mathura-Kasganj tracks themselves go over the Howrah-Delhi line at Hathras Jn.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Kashi you asked:

Bridge being constructed across Yamuna at Allahabad for DFC: Allahabad bypass

25.391836, 81.803526


DFC tracks behind/south of Air force station Bamrauli, Allahabad bypass.(zoom out to see the Air Force station)IR tracks pass north hugging boundary wall of the IAF station
25°25'14.6"N 81°44'00.3"E


Start of Allahabad bypass at Manauri station

25°27'17.1"N 81°41'14.8"E

End of Allahabad bypass at Karchana railway station. Bypass goes around the city of Allahabad and the city of Naini. Naini was where JLN was imprisoned for a time.

25.322377, 81.908122

Bridge being constructed across Tamasa river for DFC(zoom out to see Tamasa meeting Ganga a few miles north of DFC tracks)

25.239211, 82.039769


%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Kanpur bypass for DFC

Start of bypass east of Kanpur at Rooma.
26.331397, 80.449399

Fork in DFC near Bhimsen station, on Kanpur Jhansi line. Note the left hand earthworks will link with IR tracks

26.419868, 80.240845

DFC will re-join IR Howrah-Delhi tracks here, no earthworks visible.
26.468238, 80.129190

Khurja(Delhi)-Kanpur section in fact ends here. West of here to Delhi is scheduled to be commissioned Dec 2018.

A lot of DFC bypass around Kanpur has been mislabeled by Google earth as Outer ring road. So beware.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Bridge being constructed at Kalpi across the Yamuna, Jhansi-Kanpur doubling. Scheduled completion by RVNL is March 2018, do you really believe such drivel nonsense? Ullu banoing is an art form in India. Old bridge on the left was constructed by the Indian Midlands Railway and commissioned in 1889. I must have traveled across it at the age of 1 in the 1950's.

26.130179, 79.761652
Last edited by vsunder on 17 May 2017 19:55, edited 3 times in total.
Kashi
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Kashi »

^^ Many thanks vsunderji.this is wonderful.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Kashi: To further answer your questions: Here is a new ROB to eliminate a level crossing on the DFC, north of Hathras Jn on Delhi-Kanpur section, colour of the concrete indicates its a new structure

27.650812, 78.132144
A few 100 metres from the above, DFC starts to split from main Howrah-Delhi IR line and avoid Hathras Jn.

27.647484, 78.132470

Then it loops and there is an incomplete Rail over Rail flyover over NER tracks Mathura-Kasganj, with DFC above. I posted a twitter pic of construction from 2015, now 2017 but not over yet. Kaam chal raha hai, chikai aur tafri kar rahe hain Large portions of this bypass seem not to be track linked, Dec 2018 kampletion ho jayega?? for Cawnpore-Khurja section? Systems work is non-existent anywhere, khamba for bijli, signals etc.

27.620646, 78.121872

Then DFC comes back after looping around Hathras Jn and rejoins main IR tracks here at Sithrauli towards Cawnpore.

27.573369, 78.145823

Historical note: On his wanderings around India as an unknown parivrajaka after Ramakrishna died, Swami Vivekananda happened to alight at this very Hathras Jn. The stationmaster a Bengali gent, happened to see him and much impressed by his demeanour and appearance, took him home and was his host. At the end of his stay SV so impressed the stationmaster that he resigned his job and became a disciple of SV, his first. This was around 1887.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Sadananda

You should expect a similar rail over rail flyover constructed over Katni-Jabalpur line at Allahabad bypass here. But this will be more elaborate with a connection to IR exactly like at Bhimsen near Kanpur ^^^ above. This will allow steel and minerals from Chhatisgarh and Odisha to move via Bilaspur and Katni onto the DFC towards Punjab. There will be a tell tale fork with just a fork towards Jabalpur here constructed in future days: ( I do not expect a junction with IR for this Hathras flyover as this Mathura-Kasganj line sees little freight traffic)

25.353447, 81.839900

In fact the fork will start here for the Katni tracks:

25.349224, 81.851286

These are the start of the foundations of the rail flyover over the Jabalpur-Katni tracks:

25.350496, 81.848159

25.351617, 81.844118




In fact none of the bypasses are ready between Kanpur and Delhi. Going a little south of Hathras, there is the very important junction of Tundla. Here a line branches out to Agra. Again you see an incomplete bypass, rail flyover over the Agra line is not built and here DFC will connect with a fork to the Agra line. You can see all that on Google earth, earthworks are built up, but no flyover and no tracks laid out.
Last edited by vsunder on 18 May 2017 05:42, edited 1 time in total.
Kashi
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Kashi »

vsunder wrote:Start of Allahabad bypass at Manauri station

25°27'17.1"N 81°41'14.8"E
The existing railway line next to the bypass in the image does not seem to be electrified. This is the Southbound line to Jabalpur etc. isn't it? I thought that all South bound lines from Allahabad were electrified.

Edit: It could be the resolution. I cannot really make out Howrah-Delhi mainline as being electrified either.
vsunder wrote:End of Allahabad bypass at Karchana railway station. Bypass goes around the city of Allahabad and the city of Naini. Naini was where JLN was imprisoned for a time.
....
Bridge being constructed at Kalpi across the Yamuna, Jhansi-Kanpur doubling. Scheduled completion by RVNL is March 2018, do you really believe such drivel nonsense? Ullu banoing is an art form in India. Old bridge on the left was constructed by the Indian Midlands Railway and commissioned in 1889. I must have traveled across it at the age of 1 in the 1950's.
Naini has has a new bridge over Yamuna that was funded by JBIC and constructed by Hyundai. The drive over the bridge when one exits the crowded Naini market is a breeze.

But you are right, the earthworks are barely ready along most of the stretches. At this rate, 2018 seems impossible and even 2019 would be a stretch.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by vsunder »

Kashi wrote:
vsunder wrote:Start of Allahabad bypass at Manauri station

25°27'17.1"N 81°41'14.8"E
The existing railway line next to the bypass in the image does not seem to be electrified. This is the Southbound line to Jabalpur etc. isn't it? I thought that all South bound lines from Allahabad were electrified.

Edit: It could be the resolution. I cannot really make out Howrah-Delhi mainline as being electrified either.
If you mean Manauri station and start of DFC bypass line, Manauri is between Allahabad and Kanpur and thus on Howrah-Delhi trunk line which has been electrified a long time ago 1980's if not earlier.

The Allahabad-Jabalpur-Itarsi line is NOT electrified but is being electrified and some sections commissioned, like Itarsi-Pipariya a few months ago. Allahabad-Jabalpur is still being electrified and so is Jabalpur-Pipariya. There was a CBI raid on the Spanish contractor and sub-contractor for this electrification early in 2015 and this held up the progress of electrification. DFC will pass over the Jabalpur line as I pointed out by means of a rail flyover. There will be a connection between IR Jabalpur line and DFC and I gave the coordinates of the foundation pillars for the rail flyover over the Jabalpur line. See my last post. You will pick out the Jabalpur line, it is doubled, there are traction poles but line is not energized. Work is going on. Here is the Jabalpur line, zoom out a little and you should see DFC bypass approaching the Jabalpur line at coordinates below:(you should see foundation pillars of the rail flyover that take DFC over the tracks below)


25.353447, 81.839900

Incidentally CORE is located in Allahabad--- Central Organization for Railway Electrification.

http://www.core.indianrailways.gov.in/

Standard IR electrification will not do for DFC. It will not be enough to haul 13,000 tonne freights. Though it is 25kV as IR, amps drawn is huge, you can look at the specs for example Sojitz corp has provided. People simply have no clue the scale of this stuff and the plethora of new technologies that are being ushered in. If you put in IR technology all the fuses will blow. It is a simple exercise to calculate, 13,000 tonne freights moving at 100 kmph and even without line loss etc etc, at 25kV the amperage involved is staggering. What they are doing is essentially 50kv, 2x25kv. Japan Engineering Corp had earlier designed such a 2x25kv system for IR after our desi RDSO failed to come up with such a system. This 2x25 system is there on Bina-Katni section(I suppose all those coal rakes) since 1999 I think. Substations are 60-80km apart.

https://www.railelectrica.com/traction- ... on-system/

Substations will be farther apart as line losses will be lower. But this will mean a whole new system. That is why I have been saying that it is not so easy, tracks ho gaya ab khamba lagao and bijli. One added spinoff that is advantageous is that HSR will also most likely use 2x25 kV systems so the DFC will be a proving ground for installation and maintenance of such systems.
Last edited by vsunder on 18 May 2017 21:24, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Kashi »

vsunder wrote:If you mean Manauri station and start of DFC bypass line, Manauri is between Allahabad and Kanpur and thus on Howrah-Delhi trunk line which has been electrified a long time ago 1980's if not earlier.
Like I said, it could be the resolution, because as you pointed out Manauri is "upstream" of Bamrauli on the Howrah-Allahabad line and this section was electrified long back. Looking closely, I think I can make out the pillars, but not the overhead wires.

So the DFC will skip Allahabad completely.
vsunder wrote:DFC will pass over the Jabalpur line as I pointed out by means of a rail flyover. There will be a connection between IR Jabalpur line and DFC and I gave the coordinates of the foundation pillars for the rail flyover over the Jabalpur line. See my last post. You will pick out the Jabalpur line, it is doubled, there are traction poles but line is not energized. Work is going on. Here is the Jabalpur line, zoom out a little and you should see DFC bypass approaching the Jabalpur line at coordinates below:(you should see foundation pillars of the rail flyover that take DFC over the tracks below)
Yes it's clearly visible and after the DFC tracks converge with the regular ones at Karchana, they appear to run side-by-side all the way till Mirzapur perhaps, before veering off south, but I cannot make out the route beyond Shapur Chausa. I wonder what the alignment will be upto Mughal Sarai and beyond.

25.095837, 82.612644
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by Supratik »

OK, saw some videos of the new Tejas trains. The body does not seem to be hammered but machined. If true it is a "giant" leap for IR quality wise.
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by hanumadu »

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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by rahulm »

We finally get automated entry and exit doors which close automatically when the train starts. More useful than time pass ogling at WAP's and ALCO's

Have they got rid of the chain ?
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Re: Indian Railways Thread (Dec 2015)

Post by JohnTitor »

Looks very nice. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

I hope these are maintained well. Both by the railways and the people who use them. All these good services are meaningless if they devolve into broken screens, torn seats etc. Last year when they introduced new coaches, within a week toilets we're broken and seats were ripped.

I remember about 10 years ago when the Volvo busses were introduced in KA, they were wonderful and started off great. Last year I went on one again and it was worse than the red busses. People need to feel that this is their collective property but most don't because they don't pay taxes and hence the bus burning during protests, very sad.
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