This Page was last updated on  07/11/06

We seldom care to think about how it has been possible for us to ride a comparatively safer mode of transport while actually we will be enjoying a good night sleep in a rhythmic orchestral music through deep jungles hills plains and over rivers.

In every function there are a few hand that play behind the scene to make it lively success. Here also the railways have their vast fleet people behind the scene. As an ordinary passenger or business man you come across a few representatives. The Station Master(Manager), the Driver , TTE, Guard , Parcel Clerk, PaniPande, Safaiwala etc. At the top you know , the Railway Ministers, Chairman Railway Board, Members railway Board , General Managers, DRMs etc. These are the people who you normally come across in your transaction with the Railways.

BEHIND THE SCREEN   

But behind the screen there are thousands of men and machineries which toil silently to make your journeys safe and comfortable. They make it possible to reach your provisions to your doorstep to make  your life easy and enjoyable. I will try to describe a small part of these activities behind the screen in the pages here.

MAINTENANCE OF ROLLING STOCK

The rolling stock in the Railways comprises of all kind of stuff that roll on the tracks ( except Push Trolleys and Motorised trolleys). The are Locomotives, Coaches and freight cars. They have hundreds of varieties. I have tried to put a few here which are more common and also a few which are extinct or going to extinct to make way for the new generation.

All rolling stocks are required to go through a rigorous maintenace practice divided into shedules. Each vehicle has to under go meticulous examination of external parts before going out for a trip. These are done by a fleet of trained highly skilled staff. These schedules are named as "Trip Schedule" , "Weekly Schedule", "Monthly", " Bi-monthly" "Quarterly", Half-yearly , Yearly ."A", "B", "C", "Primary", "Secondary" "POH", "ROH", "IOH", "MOH" etc. These will be described in short at appropriate places.

LOCOMOTIVES

Eastern Railway presently use two kinds of Locomotives. Diesel and Electric. Prior to these Steam Locomotives were used as in other parts of the world. The steam locomotives were primarily dependant on coal and water. These were low in capacity compared to today's Jumbo locos of electric and Diesel . This led to a large numbers of Loco sheds after a limited distance.

STEAM                                                                     

Eastern Railway 14 steam loco sheds which were full of activities till 1970s. Gradually these were phased out and 
presently there is no maintenance activity in these sheds. The sheds are practically only doing the crew management work for Diesel Loco drivers. They have a few skeleton staff for petty repairs to Diesel Locomotives.
Imagine such vast fleet of staff and equipments rendered redundant after abolition of Steam Locomotives, Their rehabilitation, training  disposal of huge no. of machinery and equipments etc.

DIESEL  

There are Seven Diesel Loco Sheds on Eastern Railway for maintaining the fleet of 472 diesel locomotives and 5 Diesel Electric Multiple Units.(DEMU)

The Holdings are changing frequently and fast. I am however trying to update continually, but there may be slips. 

ELECTRIC LOCO

There are 4 Electric Loco sheds in Eastern Railway homing 444 electric locomotives of different types . Visit my website http://www.geocities.com/lococlw to know more about electric locomotives and details of different types.
(As on 1.5.2001)

Apart from these there are a few EMU and MEMU Car sheds 
EMU at  Howrah and Bandel - homing 50 rakes ( 9 car - 40; 10 car - 10)
EMU at Sealdah, Barasat, Sonarpur - homing 77 rakes ( 9 car - 57; 10 car - 20)
MEMU at Asansol homing 18 rakes ( 12 car - 3; 8 car - 15) 

These information is due updating

COACHES       

There are many sites about Locomotives in the web. The locomotives had been the icon of railways throughout the world. Very little has been said about the coaches and freight cars which are responsible for revenue earning and making the railways operationally viable.

The first passenger coaches were manufactured fully from timber. These were heavy and costly. they were also prone to easy damages and suffered extensive damages both in terms of material and human being.

Over the years improvement was possible.  The first was to replace the wooden under frame with steel, while the body continued to be made out of timber. These were later named as " timber bodied coaches". These coaches presented a sorry state of affairs during accidents. A large no of casualties were reported.

New designs were developed with development of engineering technology and improvement of welding technique. The result was introduction of "all metal coaches". which were lighter in weight but stronger.

In India first change occurred in 1948-50. The Hindustan Aircraft Limited , Bangalore, had plenty of capacity surplus and they were given to manufacture Steel bodied coaches on steel under frames. These were known as HAL (Hindustan Aircraft Limited) coaches in the beginning and now they are better known as BEML (Bharat Earth Movers Limited). Subsequently Indian Railways decided to go for "integral " design in collaboration with M/s Swiss Car and Elevator Manufacturing Corporation Ltd , Zurich, Switzerland. The result was ICF(Perambur) and later RCF(Kapurthala).

THE  TUBULAR TECHNOLOGY

The concept of light weight integral design originated in the recognition of the property of the hollow girder which were found to be far superior to the solid girders from the point of view of strength and utilisation of material. It was also realised that these hollow girders or tubes could be utilised more effectively by adopting "stressed skin" concept. The under frame, side walls and the roof of these coaches are united into what might be called a static tube representing the thin wall of the hollow girder. The compression resistance of this tube has been further increased by provision of suitably welded ribs in the longitudinal direction. Corrugated sheets are used for the trough floor to form a part of the tubular construction as well as to absorb  a large portion of the buffing forces. The pillars together with carlines and under frame cross members form hoops to work as bracings of the tube. The end walls fitted into this "tube" are having anti-telescopic construction to absorb a major portion of the collision shock in case of accidents.

The above is the main ingredients of design of a coach. Further modifications in layout have been done according to the necessity for different types of coaches. To day there are more than 100 such different layouts are in existence catering the need of different class of passengers. There had been numerous changes bogie design for acquiring higher speed.

Unlike wagons these coaches are based at major maintenance depots. In Eastern Railway there are a number of such depots.

LIFE OF COACHES

Average life of coaches : 

POH & IOH SCHEDULE OF  COACHES

Important Dimension of Coaches

Yet to be inserted

COACHING MAINTENANCE DEPOTS   

(This part details will be inserted. Yet under construction)

WAGONS                     

Life of Wagons

1.  4 Wheeler Wagon                :    35 Years

2. Bogie Wagon                        :    35 Years

3. Tank Wagon                          :     45 Years.

SHEDULE OF POH OF FREIGHT STOCK

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