Indian Railways Thread

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 27 Aug 2010 15:14

Some times govt. apathy really makes people form up a plan and act. If what I heard is true, The Kochi International Airport was built by a public limited company (formed mainly by Mallu expatriates) after the various Central Govts. of the day would not spend a penny on building this airport.

The SRR-ERN double line electrified track runs just across the compound wall of this airport and Nedumbassery. The railways does not have any plans to build a Railway Station there. The public limited company had said that they are ready to build a good railway station there, provided railways plan for train stops at this station. Nothing is heard of late, of this proposal.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 27 Aug 2010 19:59

I agree Manish.

People don't seem to realize how important this is. IMHO more critical even than
things like the Yamuna expressway.

Who ever decided to use IR management/control for this project should be taken out and shot.
It is now 9 years since this was proposed.

http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report_de ... ne_1428799

Dedicated Freight Corridor Corp likely to miss Dec deadline

The corporation has managed to acquire merely 555 hectares of land for the project in four years.

The total land required for both 1,515 km western corridor and 1,839 km eastern corridor is 11,179 hectares. According to a railway ministry’s internal report on the progress of the project, only 555 hectares of land has been acquired by the DFCCIL till July this year and a compensation of `215 crore has been awarded to the owners. Of the total land acquired, 400 hectares fall in on the western corridor and 155 hectares on the eastern corridor.

So much for the Western corridor being sparsely populated.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 27 Aug 2010 21:23

with a insane clown like didi at the helm, IR will only touch new lows. it needs a relatively effective minister like dayanidhi maran or praful patel to straighten matters out. and we have this officious loose cannon of a environment minister playing God on everything including the vital navi mumbai airport.

hopefully didi gets to be bengal CM in our lifetime, onlee then she will stop screwing rest of india.

manish · Post by **manish** » 28 Aug 2010 11:08

Theo_Fidel wrote:I agree Manish.

People don't seem to realize how important this is. IMHO more critical even than
things like the Yamuna expressway.

Who ever decided to use IR management/control for this project should be taken out and shot.
It is now 9 years since this was proposed.

This is the key stumbling block here. It would serve us well to recall at this juncture that the only noteworthy piece of large scale railway development done during the first 50 years of independence was the Konkan Railway - and crucially, it was built by an independent arm of the Railway Ministry (KRCL). IR has way too many forces and interests dragging it in many different directions simultaneously at any given point in time. DFCL seems to be 'closesly' managed by IR unlike KRCL which had a relatively free reign (thanks in large part to the political will backing it - something that DFC sorely lacks)

For those who are interested in the finer details of how this engineering and management feat was achieved, I would recommend reading this little gem purportedly by Mr E Sreedharan, whose achievements at KRCL resulted in him being appointed at the helm of the only other success story on the rail infra sector in India, namely, the Delhi Metro.

The linked PDF is hosted on Praja.in, so cannot be sure that it will be there for long. Save it if you like it. It also details how KRCL tackled the land acquisition problems which coincidentally is the major sticking point for DFCs.

Some quotes:

The Konkan Railway project is 760-km railway line connecting Bombay to Mangalore along the West Coast of the country. This strip of land along the West Coast, bounded by the majestic Sahyadri hills on the east and the mighty Arabian Sea on the west, is a very narrow strip of land, criss –crossed by mountain ranges and a large number of rivers and tidal estuaries. This is one of the most difficult terrian ever encountered in the history of railway construction.

For your information, I will explain to you the advantages of this project. The normal haulage distance between Bombay and Mangalore is 2,041 km. If the Konkan Railway were constructed, it would be 914 km. Thus, there would be a saving of 1,127 km. when the line is completed. So, it is of immence advantage to the nation.

A similar saving in railway distance between Mangalore and Ahmedabad would be something like 1,295 km. The saving in haulage distance between Mangalore and Delhi would be 764 km, between Cochin and Bombay it would be 513 km. As a corollary, the saving in travel time would also be immense. The saving between Bombay and Mangalore is something like 26 hours. Before the Konkan Railway project was completed the fastest train between Bombay and Mangalore used to take 41 hours. After this line was completed, it will take only 15 hours, a saving of 26 hours. Between Cochin and Bombay the saving was 12 hours and between Bombay and Goa 10 hours.

We have to acquire land from something like 40,000 landowneres. An entirely new strategy was evolved to take possession of the land needed for this project. A very pragmatic and very practical approach we adopted for taking over the land, which included a combination of selling the project to the people of that area and getting them on our side. Then, if there were difficulties for the land owners, we saw to it that those difficulties are immediately redressed.

In many cases, we have to take over the households and have them demolished. We said “please hand over your house. You can move to any other house you want. We will pay the rental charge for that house for the next one year or 1½ years till you are ready with your own house with the compensation we give. You can dismantle from your own house and retrieve whatever you can, doors, windows, tiles, anything you want and construct your new house.” This sort of very pragmetic approach we had adopted.

To tell you very frankly, within 8 or 9 months, the entire land required for the project was in our possession. I feel that this is a very mighty achievement.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 31 Aug 2010 16:49

Another century-old steam loco to be resurrected

A fresh lease of life is being injected into a century-old steam locomotive at the Golden Rock Railway Workshop here, for putting it to operation once again in the hilly Darjeeling Himalayan Railway (DHR) section soon.

The ‘B' class narrow gauge coal-fired DHR engine is being rehabilitated at a cost of about Rs. 50 lakh to enhance the life of the locomotive that is to be restored in the Siliguri-Darjeeling section.

The Railway Board had entrusted the workshop with the task of refurbishing the engine which was originally built in 1892 by Sharp & Stewart Company Limited. The old components of the engine that have been replaced with new ones include the cylinders, boilers, link motion components, water tank and boiler mountings. The engine's loco pilot cabin is also new though its old under frame and wheels have been retained. Workshop authorities said the rehabilitation work had entered the final stage and the revamped loco was expected to be dispatched in September. The exterior portion of the loco would be given a fresh coat of enamel painting, a senior official said adding that rehabilitation work would be carried out without changing the heritage look of the steam engine, christened “Wanderer”.

Weighing 15 tonnes, the engine can run at a maximum speed of 40 km per hour in plains and 20 km per hour in gradient. The hauling capacity of the loco is 56 tonnes with its water capacity being 1,818 litres. The three-metre height engine has a capacity to hold two tonnes of coal in its coal bunker. The length of the loco is 5.8 metres and its width 1.7 metres.

This is the fourth DHR loco to be rehabilitated by the over 80-year-old workshop. It had rehabilitated and dispatched three steam locos for the DHR over the past three years, the official said. The workshop is also engaged in the task of overhauling a metre gauge steam locomotive for the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) besides being involved in the manufacture of four new oil-fired steam engines for the NMR.

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 31 Aug 2010 17:09

Singha wrote:with a insane clown like didi at the helm, IR will only touch new lows. it needs a relatively effective minister like dayanidhi maran or praful patel to straighten matters out. and we have this officious loose cannon of a environment minister playing God on everything including the vital navi mumbai airport.

hopefully didi gets to be bengal CM in our lifetime, onlee then she will stop screwing rest of india.

hear hear !
for that matter for all her histronics she screws bengal too, trying to take over the KMRC management and screwing it in the process. increasing the route length of kolkata metro without any associated improvements and so on.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 31 Aug 2010 19:12

Rahul M wrote:hear hear !
for that matter for all her histronics she screws bengal too, trying to take over the KMRC management and screwing it in the process. increasing the route length of kolkata metro without any associated improvements and so on.

Didi might not be able to screw Bengal which has already been terminally screwed by lefties of all hues.In fact things might improve only as they can not fall any further.
On a side note didi has approved many destinations for KMRC which would better the system and she intends to do it before elections.

SRoy · Post by **SRoy** » 31 Aug 2010 21:25

Rahul M wrote:. increasing the route length of kolkata metro without any associated improvements and so on.

Of sure, the Metro must remain the sole preserve of the privileged "bhadraloks" of Kolkata. How dare commoners like us get to use it.

The KMRC as such at present is an useless white elephant. Runs is deprecated old Kolkata. It doesn't serve the expanding northern suburbs or the newer eastern townships.

Expansion is a right step. New lines will be update to date anyway. There is no bearing on technological obsolecse of the old lines vis-a-vis new lines. They are mutually exclusive issues.

nachiket · Post by **nachiket** » 31 Aug 2010 22:08

SRoy wrote: Runs is deprecated old Kolkata. It doesn't serve the expanding northern suburbs or the newer eastern townships.

I am sure you mean "decrepit" saar.

SRoy · Post by **SRoy** » 31 Aug 2010 22:10

nachiket wrote:
SRoy wrote: Runs is deprecated old Kolkata. It doesn't serve the expanding northern suburbs or the newer eastern townships.

I am sure you mean "decrepit" saar.

Well actually, I meant both "decrepit" and "deprecated".

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 01 Sep 2010 07:55

It appears that a concerted attempt is being made to derail trains in Tamilnadu
Luckily, trains have escaped major disasters in TN in recent months. How long can luck hold ?

Trains passing the Uthukuli and Vijayamangalam stations encountered heavy stones and a concrete post on the track on Monday night and early hours of Tuesday. The stones were found in six places.

The ‘cattle guard' fitted on the front side of the engines threw off the stones and pushed aside the concrete post kept on the track.

Railway sources told The Hindu that the first incident occurred around 9.30 p.m. on Monday when the engine of Inter-city Express running from Chennai to Coimbatore hit a 5-kg stone.

Minutes later, Kerala Express from Thiruvananthapuram to New Delhi hit a 4-foot-long concrete ‘hectometre post.' “The miscreants had plucked out this hectometre post which was planted by the Railways adjacent to the track,” railway officials said. At 10.10 p.m., railway officials found another stone on the track while checking the area. Even as senior police and railway officials commenced the surveillance of the area, Tea Garden Express hit a stone a few metres from where officials were standing in the early hours of Tuesday. Chennai-Alappuzha was the next train to encounter a stone at 3.35 a.m. Another stone came to the notice of railway police officials while patrolling at 4.25 a.m.

Though such incidents had taken place in the last few months on the same stretch the local and railway police were unable to track down the culprits.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 01 Sep 2010 09:57

SSridhar wrote:Trains passing the Uthukuli and Vijayamangalam stations

This area is in the Twin Single Line block working section between Salem (SA) and Coimbatore (CBE) if I am not mistaken. Most of the night express trains crosses these are in the wee hours of morning (12:00 to 04:00 Hrs). Any idea whether this area have naxal problems or any thing like that? I dont think there are communal violence/jihad activity in these places. Seems to be the handiwork of people who actually stay close and watch the movements of the patrolling staff/gang men.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 01 Sep 2010 22:02

^^

Could be TNLA or some other LTTE sympathisers. Naxals , not heard much in these parts so far.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 09 Sep 2010 09:59

Boulders on the track once again

For the sixth time in a year, a boulder was found on railway track between Perundurai and Uthukuli section on Wednesday. Fortunately, the boulder was smashed by a goods train which crossed the spot near Perundurai railway station.

It is said that while a goods train was proceeding from Chennai to Angamali in Kerala, engine driver Saravanan saw four persons, clad in lungis, standing 1 km away from the track at 6.10 am. At that time, the train was crossing Perundurai.

Saravanan, who grew suspicious, slowed down the train. However, it smashed a boulder which was half metre in height. {Really appreciate the alertness of the engine driver. There is at least some information now.} Fortunately, the train did not face any problem, while the persons escaped from the scene. Later, he informed the Perundurai RS police station.

SP T Jayachandran, Perundurai DSP Subramaniam, Chennimalai inspector Raju, railway police inspector Ajithkumar and officials visited the spot and held an inquiry. The SP said that he did not find any boulder of in the area as stated by the driver. The police, however, secured four north Indians near Vijayamangalam on suspicion and interrogated them.

The officials said they did not see any conspiracy for derailment behind the incident. They asserted that only small stones were kept and not boulders. Meanwhile, some persons complained about a stone pelting incident on Intercity Express near Uthukuli station.

Police sources in Erode said that following repeated incidents, the ‘Q’ branch police were holding inquiries in nearby villages for the past few days. They noted that so far two policemen had died as trains hit them while on bandobust duty on the tracks.

Sachin, Dharmapuri is the area that is normally associated with Communist activities. It had also seen Naxal activities in the 70s when it was smashed by Walter Davaram, who was a terror in those days and he used to lead from the front. There has been some TNLA activity too in these areas. There have been isolated incidents in three different areas in TN railway network in the last one year. One was the hijacking of a suburban EMU from the busy Central station, which case is yet to be resolved. The police have reached a dead end. In the same tracks, there was an attempt to derail at Pattabhiram a couple of weeks back. The other was the major incident a couple of months back when a piece of the track was found blasted away near Villupuram. The third is a series of attempts in the Salem section. Earlier reports have said of disgruntled employees of the Salem Division (this is a new Division whose creation has been controversial) creating a scare without actually causing a derailment so that some officials would be transferred out.

Chaanakya, some Eelam liberation hand-written material were found near the site of the Villupuram incident. The police feel that they were probably to distract attention.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 09 Sep 2010 20:15

SSridhar wrote:Earlier reports have said of disgruntled employees of the Salem Division (this is a new Division whose creation has been controversial) creating a scare without actually causing a derailment so that some officials would be transferred out.

Salem Division was formed by carving out a large area which was under the Palakkad Division. I dont know if any area from an existing railway division in TN also was reduced in size to form SA division. And disgruntled Mallu railwaymen trying to play nasty tricks? Hmm.. chances are very less. At the maximum these chaps might stage a few rail rokos in PGT and perhaps the commie unions would use this opportunity to break the heads of a few Kerala police men.

KumarS · Post by **KumarS** » 10 Sep 2010 16:01

One room houses for those living beside Rly tracks: Mamata

A project to build a one-room houses for families living along railway lines in different zones in the country has been cleared, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee announced today.

"I have just cleared a project to build one-room houses for those living alongside railway tracks and railway land will be used for commercial projects," Banerjee told a programme here.

"The people living beside railway lines in shanties face problems and their children are often in danger of accident while crossing tracks," she said.

The pilot project would be called 'Sukhi Griha Kon' (Happy Home) for which the Railways would provide land.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 10 Sep 2010 16:39

Sachin wrote:I dont know if any area from an existing railway division in TN also was reduced in size to form SA division.

Parts of Trichy Division are now part of Salem. I do not think Railway employees from Palakkad were suspects at any time. That apart, it appears that there is some light at the end of the tunnel as far as the sabotage attempts go. Thanks should go to the goods train driver who reported seeing 4 suspicious looking lungi-clad characters near the tracks. Apparently, these migrant labourers from Bihar, working in a poultry farm nearby, used to keep rocks on the tracks just for fun seeing them getting smashed without realizing the danger of their actions. They started with small stones and slowly increased the size to boulders and slabs ! In India, serious dangers can come in many forms, sizes and shapes. The police are making sure that their hands were there in all instances because some of them were at somewhat far away places to which they would not go normally.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 11 Sep 2010 01:01

Thought you guys might be interested in this!
We are like this only...

Well done to the cops.

Now the questions is, if this is common in the East could it
have contributed to some of the recent accidents.

http://www.hindu.com/2010/09/10/stories ... 000900.htm

Stones on rail track: four workers from Bihar held

ERODE: Four persons, all natives of Bihar, were arrested for allegedly placing stones on the railway track between Erode and Uttukuli stations, on Wednesday.

“The four used to place stones on the track and watch trains running into them. They were doing this just for fun,” Mr. Sivanandi said.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 11 Sep 2010 11:59

^^ Theo and SSridhar

Yes. that could be a possibility. But seems too easy. Migrant Labourers doing it for fun seems bizarre.Yet , if correct, must be punished .

TNLA and elem sympathisers are quite upto any mischief. SO I would not be surprised if they do this. They don't love PC either. I again reiterate that Naxals have not been much heard during recent times ( 70s may be but not now) as Srilankan crisis was more than enough to engage Tamil attention. Veerappan had links with TNLA.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 13 Sep 2010 11:43

Hmm.. So Bihari labourers is it ??

I am sorry to say this. Looks like folks from Bihar are very keen on making every single person in India turn against them. In Maharashtra these folks got one doze, now looks like our pals wants the whole of TN also to go that way.

Aditya_V · Post by **Aditya_V** » 13 Sep 2010 14:56

I have a confession to make here, when i was 11 years old, a friend of mine and me near chetpet railway station used to put granite stones from under the tracks and put them on the tracks and see them become powered by trains. we started with really small stones to ones which were 3 Inches high, even a few 1 rupee coins were placed. This went on for half an hour before some intelligent people around chased us away and draove us from there. Didn't realise the extremly stupid thing we were doing then, what if ended up puttting a bigger stone and a Train Derailed? Phew, thank GOD.

Sachin-> I think it is very unfair to charecterize all Biharis based on the action of 4 poeple, a timilian and malayalee friend of mine, albeit at 11 years, were guilty of the same thing

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 14 Sep 2010 12:36

Railway staff gets blamed for Sainthia accident

Most of the findings are known from the day of accident. There is the puzzle of speeding train and no attempt to stop it.Brakes seems to be fine. Cabin staff and Station Masters are positively to be blamed as they failed to block and isolate the section when it had Vanachal just starting.

The preliminary report of the commissioner of railway safety, eastern circle, does not address the most vital question dogging investigators: why were the brakes not applied?

The answer cannot come without the viscera report, which is expected “soon” from a parallel investigation being conducted by the CID.

The report by safety commissioner R.P. Yadav said it was “intriguing” that the two Uttar Banga drivers, both of whom died when their train rammed into the stationary Vananchal Express from the rear on July 19, had ignored the stop signal.

Also, their train was running at a speed of 87kmph, much higher than what should be while approaching a station.

A Railway Board member said from Delhi that “there is nothing particularly new” in the report. “We still don’t know why the train did not slow down, why no effort was made to stop the train or why it jumped the red signal.”

The train was running at such high speed despite a scheduled stoppage at Sainthia and a bridge before the station for which there was a temporary speed restriction of 30kmph. “The complete inaction on the part of the loco pilot and the assistant loco pilot simultaneously is a matter of intrigue,” the report said.

A senior CID official said this evening that the viscera report was “expected soon”. “We hope that this will resolve the mystery around the accident.”

After probing the circumstances leading to the crash, a section of rail officials had suspected that the Uttar Banga drivers had become unconscious. This, they believe, was the reason why the brakes were not applied.

“There can be no other reason,” a railway official had said a day after the accident. “Otherwise it would amount to committing suicide by the driver and the assistant driver, which is absolutely unlikely.”

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 549153.cms
The Uttarbanga Express was running at a speed of 87 km per hour, lending credence to the "sabotage" theory that the driver and his assistant were drugged and incapacitated. The train crossed Gadadharpur station at 1.53 am and reached the outer signal of Sainthia junction at 2.01 am, indicating the train covered the seven-km stretch in around seven minutes.

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 17 Sep 2010 22:32

Railways to introduce five-digit train numbering.

Passengers booking tickets in Mail and Express trains need to add prefix 1 before the existing four-digit numbers while checking the reservation position through the enquiry system.

Aiming at bringing uniformity and logical basis for numbering of trains, Indian Railways have decided to introduce five-digit numbering system for all passenger-carrying trains.

The new five-digit numbering system will be effective from December this year.

Currently, trains have varying numbers including three- digit, four-digit and alphabetical-numerical ones.

Five-digit train numbering has become necessary as the four-digit system has got exhausted, a senior Railway Ministry official said. However, the official clarified that the names of the trains are not being changed.

The five-digit scheme proposes to cover all passenger carrying trains including Duronto, Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Garibrath and suburban holiday specials. However, it will not cover the freight trains.

"CRIS (Centre for Railway Information Systems) has been instructed to make necessary changes to modify the software accordingly," said the official.

After the software is ready, the new numbers will be reflected in the passenger reservation system and the train enquiry system.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 18 Sep 2010 12:32

Vipul wrote:Aiming at bringing uniformity and logical basis for numbering of trains, Indian Railways have decided to introduce five-digit numbering system for all passenger-carrying trains.

If I am not mistaken there is a rationale behind the current 4 digit numbering system. The first letter denotes the Railway Zone (SR,WR,CR etc.), the second being the Railway Division etc. Passenger/local trains had the 3 digit numbering system. Special trains also had numbers which started with 0.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 18 Sep 2010 17:25

Sachin, The Hindu states

The addition will be in the form of a prefix 1 (one). The name of the trains will remain the same.

The new five-digit number will be applicable to all scheduled and regular express and superfast trains

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 18 Sep 2010 21:47

Sachin wrote:
Vipul wrote:Aiming at bringing uniformity and logical basis for numbering of trains, Indian Railways have decided to introduce five-digit numbering system for all passenger-carrying trains.
If I am not mistaken there is a rationale behind the current 4 digit numbering system. The first letter denotes the Railway Zone (SR,WR,CR etc.), the second being the Railway Division etc. Passenger/local trains had the 3 digit numbering system. Special trains also had numbers which started with 0.

sachin , you're right. This is the current numbering system IR follows
The first digit indicates the region or zonal railway, as indicated below:

* 0 is for Konkan Railway
* 1 is for CR, WCR and NCR(?)
* 2 is for superfasts, Shatabdi and Jan Shatabdi trains regardless of zones
* 3 is shared by ER and ECR
* 4 is for NR, NCR and NWR
* 5 is shared by NER and NFR
* 6 is for SR and SWR
* 7 is shared by SCR and SWR
* 8 is for SER and ECoR
* 9 is for WR, NWR and WCR
As first digit is being exhausted due to new zones coming up IR has decided to go for two digit zone numbering system. But full detailed are not yet released as software is under development.

Second two digits indicate Home division.

However , including passenger trains IR runs way over 10,000 trains.Hence there is need to evolve new numbering system which would continue to indicate zone, home station , dest station, type of train and routing (via)

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 20 Sep 2010 20:41

Whats happening with "Bharathiya Rail"?

.
Another train collission at MP.
Guess sooner or later we need to get the Anti-Collission Devices in place all across the Railways. This time looks like the engine driver of the goods train did not identify the stop signals and went forward. Are the increased number of trains also triggering such accidents? The trains may be closely following each other because of the already saturated tracks, so that even missing one signal leads to a crash/hit.

PS: Reducing trains, in order to reduce accidents - that is NOT what I am try to say here.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 21 Sep 2010 12:47

It was similar problems as that of Sainthia. I don't know if drivers with color blindness are being recruited off late. Railways used to be very strict in eye test.

Media has not hyped up this ( very cursory reporting) because they could not give reason of naxals attack or mystery , terror attack etc, simply not high profile

It is time that railways include electronic block controls on all its sections and ACD on all trains as a safety measure.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 21 Sep 2010 13:41

chaanakya wrote:It was similar problems as that of Sainthia. I don't know if drivers with color blindness are being recruited off late. Railways used to be very strict in eye test.

The reason which was reported was that it was raining heavily, the driver missed the 'ON' signal also did not realise that he was on a different track, and only saw the stationary train when it was way too close. If I am not mistaken, the goods train driver was not killed in this crash.

A local mallu daily Mathrubhumi had run a feature on the sad conditions in which Engine drivers are forced to operate. In SR it seems there is an acute shortage of engine drivers. Every year or so Engine drivers are to go for a kind of refresher course and medical checkups. This is for around 15 days. Because of driver shortage these trainings now just exist on papers. The paper had compared this to road drivers driving around with an expired driving license.

PS: Today in Tvm. Division station masters are on strike. The main reason of agitation is overwork. At every stop signal, every train would be detained for 2 mins. This is from today 12 midnight for 24 hours. Trains are expected to be hours late, when reaching their final destination.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 21 Sep 2010 14:50

^^ I meant that SM did not follow ABS ( Absolute Block System ) which would prevent a train going on the same line if there is a stationary train two blocks ahead.This is especially true for stations where there are high chances of stationary train. The line should have been blocked. Driver might miss the signal for a variety of reasons but SM should have put Goods train on different track. Sainthia SM had committed similar mistake.

Here also driver did not stop for whatever reason.
But he would have slowed ( goods train would have lower speed) due to rain. Signals are supposed to be visible even during rain, except fog when visibility distance is determined and confirmed by Drivers.

Can you confirm if that section of track followed Automatic Block System, normally followed on trunk lines?

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 21 Sep 2010 16:14

chaanakya wrote:I meant that SM did not follow ABS ( Absolute Block System ) which would prevent a train going on the same line if there is a stationary train two blocks ahead.

Are you sure the line should be clear for two blocks ahead, for each and every train? This may not be practically possible in busy routes. From what I could understand (see URLs below), in absolute blocking the idea is to ensure that only one train is running between a "block" (which is between two stations, or two signal cabins).

During my journeys, I have routinely seen occassions when a slow train is pushed into a loop line, and a faster train following it allowed to proceed. What I noticed is that, as soon as the slow train enters the loop line track circuits etc. indicate that the loop line has a train on it. Now to give the 'line clear' to the faster train, the points have to be changed back to the main line.

So here it looks like the first train had entered the station and since it had to stop, it was routed to a line near the platforms. The signals to the rear were put at 'ON', but the points etc. were still set to the platform line (assuming that if any train is coming, it would stop at the signal at 'ON'). Where as here, the goods train driver did not notice the signal at 'ON', went ahead and since the points were NOT changed to another line, the good train travelled on the same track. The main assumption that a train coming behind would stop at the Red Signal, failed here IMHO.

(British) Absolute Block Signalling: Wiki
Block Working in IR: IRFCA

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 21 Sep 2010 17:45

Yes , actually where Absolute Block system is followed there is always an block station which would be able to receive a runaway train. The train is released once the station leaves the starter signal ( guard bogey should clear the station Block and lock section).

In Automatic Block system trains could keep running as it depends on auto signalling and there may be many blocks between the stations. Mostly all trunk lines follow this to cater to heavy passenger traffic.
Slow moving trains would not be released if an express train or superfast is leaving the station before the intermediate station. Rajdhani shatabdi etc gets through pass between two class A stations.All trains would have to wait till it passes the next station starter signal.

|station Bloack ( with train)|---|----------------------|---|-Station empty|--------|train on track leaving outer signal
======================OUTER=============home++++++++++++++++++outer--------------------------
Block 1------------------------|--------Block 2-------|----------block 3-----------|------block 4----------------

That's a crude representation. Intermediate blocks are left out. On Absolute Block System that is not followed.At stations it is nothing but block and lock system for sections so that no train come one the line if there is a train on that line.

Sravan · Post by **Sravan** » 25 Sep 2010 02:19

change is coming

krisna · Post by **krisna** » 25 Sep 2010 07:37

Ruhelkhand Express derails, co-driver missing

The engine and the adjoining coach of the Budaun-bound Ruhelkhand Express (5309) got derailed and the engine submerged in flood waters in Kanshiram Nagar district on Friday morning after the train left Kasganj station.

The incident took place in a flooded area between Manpur Nagariya and Pitroi railway stations where the sleepers supporting the railway track had flown away with flood water.

The driver has told the track was clearly visible and the train was running at a safe speed of 15 km per hour just before the incident.

another one, thankfully no loss of lives so far.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 25 Sep 2010 10:56

krisna wrote:another one, thankfully no loss of lives so far.

One of the engine drivers is believed to be trapped inside the engine cabin. Most likely he is drowned

.

SSridhar · Post by **SSridhar** » 06 Oct 2010 04:47

New locomotive from CLW

The first WAG 91 class of 6,000 HP three-phase locomotive (WAG 91, Type 31248) fitted with fully IGBT-based propulsion system was flagged off at Chittaranjan Locomotive Works

SaiK · Post by **SaiK** » 06 Oct 2010 05:53

Sravan wrote:change is coming

I see every right word for the changes except hygiene and modern toilets.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 11 Oct 2010 19:57

Hopefully they can bring in a more competent manager for the DFCC now.

I do feel for him however. Despite the media there is no money trail that implicates him.

What he did was to bring the lowest bid up to the estimate so the bidding would not be canceled, thus delaying the project due to government rules. Still he should not have done it. Poor management on his part that he then tried to cover up. We need more and better managers.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Kaul-sack ... 09781.aspx

Kaul sacked for multi-crore freight scam

Tainted Managing Director of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC), V.K. Kaul, has been sacked.
At a meeting with Railway Board members on October 4, Railways Minister Mamata Banerjee directed officials to take immediate punitive action against Kaul — accused in a multi-crore scam
involving three contracts in 2008.

The government has decided to terminate the contractual services of Kaul with immediate effect by making payment of three months’ notice pay, says a Railways order of October 10.

Tharakan’s concerns are legitimate, as a R4,000-crore contract funded by the World Bank is likely to be shortly awarded.
Arguably the biggest Railways scam ever from one location, the DFCC controversy involves the award of contracts at rates higher than the tendered cost.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 11 Oct 2010 20:33

Mean while the local vernacular daily Mathrubhumi reports that the feasibility study for a TVM-MAQ High Speed Rail corridor has started (Mathrubhumi:English). Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is to do the feasibility study. DMRC it seems has out sourced the work to a Bangalore based consultancy Wilber Smith Associates. So guess there is some thoughts on the High Speed Corridor in IR.

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 12 Oct 2010 22:20

SSridhar wrote:New locomotive from CLW
The first WAG 91 class of 6,000 HP three-phase locomotive (WAG 91, Type 31248) fitted with fully IGBT-based propulsion system was flagged off at Chittaranjan Locomotive Works

Also read a report yeaterday about a new 4,500 HP Locomotive developed by DLW- Varanasi.