The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : ‘Engines-at-ends’ means more profit, less expenditure for SCR

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Saturday, Apr 26, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

‘Engines-at-ends’ means more profit, less expenditure for SCR

K. Srinivas Reddy

Sharad V. Ingale

HYDERABAD: Goods trains have at least two engines to haul the rakes. But why are they linked one after the other? Why can’t they attach one engine in the front and another at the rear?

Those conversant with railway operations might smirk at the question, but it isn’t a laughing matter for a team of railway officials, who proved that if the two engines are connected at both ends of a goods train, it could actually help double the freight. And that also means more profits with minimum expenditure.

Time saving

A conventional goods train shuttling from point A to point B would necessitate de-linking of engines and shifting them to the other end to take the empty rakes back to point A.

It is, however, not all that simple because engines cannot be started and operated immediately. The driver needs to build up air pressure for at least 30 minutes for operation of breaks. When the engines are in tow – placed one behind the other, all the controls of the second engine can be operated by the driver of the first engine through a cable. But when a small team of officers led by Sharad V. Ingale, DRM of Secunderabad, developed systems to operate the engines placed at both ends and connected through a sophisticated radio network, the results were indeed stunning. In effect, the driver sitting in one of the locomotives can remotely operate the second engine at the other end through the radio network.

The ‘engines-at-ends’ goods trains are now being operated daily to haul coal on a 23-km stretch between Rudrampur to Kothagudem Thermal Power Station (KTPS) quite successfully.

As there is no need for reversing the engines, and time is not wasted to build up air pressure for brake application, it has now become possible to unload two trainloads of goods in a day. Earlier, it used to take two days for three trains to be unloaded.

“The engines are almost 600 metres apart. At the end of the journey, the driver would simply get off the engine and walk back to the other end and start the train in reverse direction with the other engine.

All systems are functioning without a hitch,” a smiling Mr. Ingale pointed out. In addition to doubling of operations, the other benefit was the phenomenal reduction in braking distance too, doubling the safety feature too.

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