France's Alstom wins $3 billion Indian Railways contract

[Ankit Kumar]

well my appologies for not using simpler language.
high speed tracks are straighter and laid on much denser or packed soil sub structure. curves are gentler and that often means going in straight lines leading to more bridges and tunnels. this adds to cost as for slower speeds u can have tighter curves and bypass lot of tricky geography (ravines for example).
next comes safety. owing to higher speed better signaling is required. trains like TGV, Shinkansen and Acela have in cab signalling and the driver can drive without needing to look out for signal.
one more factor is track fencing and access control. at high speeds crash with even animals like cow or Buffalo can have drastic impact.
finally u have simpler technical requirements like horse power and

bingo!
eastern DFC will have several feeder routes that will connect mineral lines from states of jharkhand Orrisha and west bengal necessitating heavier trains and loco HP.

GE locos are some of the best in world and their performance in some of toughest lines in Canadian Pacific railways is a testimony to quality.
new locos will have far better ergonomics and reduced driver load by higher automation.
technology wise several new methods of construction, signalling etc have been employed in FCs and hopefully these will bring about positive changes in IR such as punctuality and improvement in safety.
JICA, which has funded WDFC rightly mentioned that DFCs are biggest transportation infra project since country's having massive potential to change industrial landscape of country.

Yes sir.
Some people who work in TATA loco shed and Patratu loco shed hinted at the same feeder systems in Jharkhand. For this, Patratu is at present, replacing its older fleet of Alcos with WDG4s, and will likely get a good chunk of planned locomotives too. They have been told to expand their capacity. TATA too is receiving WAG9s , apart from them Bokaro has also last month received WAG7. There will be at least 3 feeder lines in Jharkhand, connecting it with the Eastern DFC .

Yesterday went to Ranchi railway station to pick up a relative and saw a swarm of WAM4s.At least 2 from TATA and 1 each from MGS and Asansol. Bad luck neither did I had my camera nor my mobile.

 

[anant_s]

Yes sir.
Some people who work in TATA loco shed and Patratu loco shed hinted at the same feeder systems in Jharkhand. For this, Patratu is at present, replacing its older fleet of Alcos with WDG4s, and will likely get a good chunk of planned locomotives too. They have been told to expand their capacity. TATA too is receiving WAG9s , apart from them Bokaro has also last month received WAG7. There will be at least 3 feeder lines in Jharkhand, connecting it with the Eastern DFC .

Yesterday went to Ranchi railway station to pick up a relative and saw a swarm of WAM4s.At least 2 from TATA and 1 each from MGS and Asansol. Bad luck neither did I had my camera nor my mobile.

Last of WAM 4 locos will go out in 3 years from now. Tatanagar and Bhusawal shed WAM 4 are some of the last surviving. Vadodra too has shifted 2 or 3 WAM 4 it had to Valsad.
with this curtains would come down on probably the most iconic of all electric locos ever in India.

 

[Mike_Brando]

Short Hood Facing (SHF) or Long Hood Facing (LHF) term is applicable to Single Drive cabin locomotives. Usually locos are design in such a way that they can be run at rated speed in either mode ensuring the driving staff will have equal time and vision to respond to any situation. That said some mixed traffic locos such as WDM 3 series, while hauling faster trains like Rajdhanis are usually run in SHF mode.
As for the models described above, all are for freight service and therefore i don't think re-design with dual cab is required. Moreover with 6000-8000 tons trains these locos will definitely be run in MUed pair and therefore u get two cabins per loco unit.

WDM 1 was a very low HP loco (~1900 HP if i remember correctly) and in late 60s and 70s as trains started getting heavier, these were coupled together. However for most passenger services they ran single unit only. The same logic applied to WDM 2 (2600HP) in late 90s
View attachment 270850

Sir jee,any idea about the total no. of WDM-3A locos currently in use with the I.R.??Plus,do these locos nowadays exclusively used as shunting engines??

 

[anant_s]

any idea about the total no. of WDM-2A locos currently in use with the I.R.??

Sir, as in October 2015, IR has a fleet of 493 WDM 2 locomotives out of a total of 5151 Diesel locomotives.

You can find monthly data for Diesel locomotives here LINK.

Plus,di these locos nowadays exclusively used as shunting engines??

Not really but older ones are. These are prefixed 0 infront of their road number. However owing to end of codal life, most of them are condemned. Rest are mostly relegated to light trains.

 

[Stephen Cohen]

@anant_s Your knowledge and passion for Railways is very admirable

 

[Abingdonboy]

JICA, which has funded WDFC rightly mentioned that DFCs are biggest transportation infra project since country's having massive potential to change industrial landscape of country.

The DFCs are incredibly exciting 21st century megaprojects that will change the face of India within the space of a decade. The macroeconomic impact they will have cannot be overstated, this kind of capacity stimulus will relate to a noticeable expansion of GDP growth (even 0.2-3% equates to tens of billions a year). This kind of megaproject is the kind that form the foundations of an advanced economy.

The DMIC is another highly exciting prospect that will, to an extent, "piggyback" on the success of the WDFC.

@anant_s Your knowledge and passion for Railways is very admirable

Seconded. @anant_s has been an invaluable resource on these matters and I sincerely thank him for his detailed responses, it is great to have him around here.

 

[livingdead]

@anant_s I too envy your passion and knowledge of trains.

 

[Abingdonboy]

Yes sir.
Some people who work in TATA loco shed and Patratu loco shed hinted at the same feeder systems in Jharkhand. For this, Patratu is at present, replacing its older fleet of Alcos with WDG4s, and will likely get a good chunk of planned locomotives too. They have been told to expand their capacity. TATA too is receiving WAG9s , apart from them Bokaro has also last month received WAG7. There will be at least 3 feeder lines in Jharkhand, connecting it with the Eastern DFC .

Yesterday went to Ranchi railway station to pick up a relative and saw a swarm of WAM4s.At least 2 from TATA and 1 each from MGS and Asansol. Bad luck neither did I had my camera nor my mobile.

What kind of trains are TATA making? I would think TATA were in line to form a high-end JV in the coming years along the lines of their advanced JVs in aerospace (with Boeing, Sikorsky and Airbus) for this sector now that the railways have been opened up to FDI.

TATA should be at the forefront of the quality of locomotives built in India (and hopefully exported at some point).

 

[Ankit Kumar]

@Abingdonboy

Sir it used to make steam locomotives, but no longer produces any locomotives now.

It has a electric loco shed which was the first of its kind in India. And it also maintains WAM 4s, my all time favourite locomotives.

Yes TATA would be a front runner, but there are some issues.... and some if and buts before they step into this. @anant_s , sir I find you more correct person to answer this.

 

[anant_s]

@anant_s I too envy your passion and knowledge of trains.

Together we all get wiser!
Happy Diwali!

What kind of trains are TATA making? I would think TATA were in line to form a high-end JV in the coming years along the lines of their advanced JVs in aerospace (with Boeing, Sikorsky and Airbus) for this sector now that the railways have been opened up to FDI.

TATA should be at the forefront of the quality of locomotives built in India (and hopefully exported at some point).

TELCO was in business of Steam locomotives before Steam loco manufacturing was closed.
That said, given Tata's experience with Diesel engines in automotive sector and its huge reputation for its ethical business practices, Tata should get involved in some capacity.

 

[Abingdonboy]

TELCO was in business of Steam locomotives before Steam loco manufacturing was closed.
That said, given Tata's experience with Diesel engines in automotive sector and its huge reputation for its ethical business practices, Tata should get involved in some capacity.

I see, it seems their engagement in this field is very limited then. They definitely should be expanding their presence then as I agree that they have a lot to offer and their aerospace projects (JVs) provide a very credible (and desirable) model to see what they could do if they devoted their attention to a sector.

 

[rocket booster]

Actually I was really sad when I heard that these countries were handed over the projects.

 

[Abingdonboy]

Actually I was really sad when I heard that these countries were handed over the projects.

For what reason? This is a MASSIVE step forward for India. These assets will pay for themselves many times over during they life spans'. They will be 100% devoted to the DFCs and thus will be decongesting the passenger lines, increasing productivity of Indian industries, expediting mineral extraction- this is nothing to be shirked at.

If your disappointment is in the fact that these orders didn't go to "Indian" companies then you have even less reason to be disappointed as there is simply no Indian company in existence able to satisfy this demand.

 

[sathya]

@anant_s

What are personal ideas for our future indian railways ?

novice like me too was dreaming about railways , after reading a few articles long time back about, how railways can transform India ..

eg 100 Kms electric railway transport vs 100kms roadways transport
How much benefit we will get in railways ..
It's damn huge. I only vaguely remember. Steps to make it success was also mentioned in that article.

 

[Agent_47]

high speed tracks are straighter and laid on much denser or packed soil sub structure. curves are gentler and that often means going in straight lines leading to more bridges and tunnels. this adds to cost as for slower speeds u can have tighter curves and bypass lot of tricky geography (ravines for example).
next comes safety. owing to higher speed better signaling is required. trains like TGV, Shinkansen and Acela have in cab signalling and the driver can drive without needing to look out for signal.
one more factor is track fencing and access control. at high speeds crash with even animals like cow or Buffalo can have drastic impact.

How do we manage these human and animal crossing when we implement high speed trains ?