Southern Railway has created a supervisors training centre (STC) at diesel traction training centre (DTTC) on the diesel loco shed premises here to impart theoretical and hands-on training to directly-recruited railway maintenance supervisors.
The first batch of the 68 supervisors, including 43 directly recruited by the Railway Recruitment Board, is presently undergoing one year-long training at the STC here on a host of aspects, including maintenance of rolling stock. Hitherto, the new recruits were trained at the STCs in Bangalore, Kharagpur, and Hyderabad.
In addition to the four instructors, guest faculty from railway workshops, diesel sheds, and carriage maintenance of Southern Railway have been engaged to impart training on areas like basic functions of rolling stock and maintenance and inspection procedures.
As part of their training, the trainees are being taken to the diesel loco shed, which houses different types of diesel locomotives for practical exposure on functioning of locomotives and aspects connected with them.
Upon completion of training, the supervisors would be posted to different railway divisions, loco sheds, and workshops falling within the Southern Railway zone.
Although a STC is functioning in Bangalore, it came under the South Western Railway zone, which was created by bifurcating the Southern Railway zone.
Consequently, Southern Railway did not have a dedicated STC facility for long and newly-recruited maintenance supervisors were sent to other centres for training.
The newly-created STC in Tiruchi is the first such establishment in Southern Railway zone, a senior railway official told The Hindu .A proposal has now been forwarded to the Railway Board, New Delhi, to make the maintenance supervisors training at the Tiruchi STC a permanent arrangement.
The DTTC conducts refresher courses at periodic intervals for loco pilots and assistant loco pilots besides organising training in diesel loco simulator established on its premises to enhance the driving skills of loco pilots.
The over 40-year-old diesel loco shed houses 55 high horse power EMD type diesel locomotives, over 50 ‘Alco’ diesel locos, and 23 Diesel Electric Multiple Units besides a few metre gauge diesel engines.
The Tiruchi shed is the largest and lone shed in the Southern Railway zone to house the 4,500 horse power EMD locos which are slightly longer than the conventional diesel locos and are capable of running at a maximum speed of 120 to 140 kilometres per hour.
