The over 80-year-old Golden Rock Railway Workshop here has ventured into a new activity of overhauling Diesel Power Car (DPC) that hauls DEMU (Diesel Electric Multiple Unit) trains.
The Railway Board, New Delhi, has allotted 10 DPCs to the workshop to carry out major overhauling during the year 2020-21 fiscal. Among the 10 DPCs, three pertain to the Tiruchi Railway Division which had been operating DEMU trains in various sections before the lockdown was announced.
The workshop had received one DPC from Tiruchi Division during September for overhauling and completed the task within a month. This is the first time that the workshop had carried out overhauling of a DPC, its Chief Workshop Manager Shyamadhar Ram told The Hindu .
The Tiruchi Division had been sending the DPCs to the Loco Works at Perambur in Chennai for major overhauling all these years. Mr. Shyamadhar Ram said DPCs from Bengaluru and Konkan Railway would be sent to the workshop in the coming months for overhauling.
The core activities of the workshop has been to carry out periodic overhauling of broad gauge diesel locomotives and passenger coaches besides manufacture of container wagons for the Container Corporation of India and overhauling and manufacture of steam locomotives being operated in the hilly Nilgiri Mountain Railway section.
Mr. Shyamadhar Ram said the workshop equipped itself with necessary infrastructure requirements to take up the new activity and all test stands were developed in-house for overhauling the first DPC belonging to Tiruchi Division.
A host of works were carried in the first overhauled DPC. As part of the overhauling work, all control system rubber cables in the driver's cabin were replaced with E beam cables for improved reliability. The CFL-type tube lights in the passenger seating area were replaced with energy efficient LED lights for better illumination.
The exterior colour of the DPC has been changed with a new scheme for aesthetic look and its front lookout glasses completely renewed for perfect visibility, Mr. Shyamadhar Ram said. The first overhauled DPC is to be flagged off at the workshop premises on Saturday.
