13-02-2016, 12:49 PM
INDIAN RAILWAY HISTORY
INTRODUCTION
Indian Railways is the state-owned railway company of India. It comes under the Ministry of Railways. Indian Railways has one of the largest and busiest rail networks in the world, transporting over 18 million passengers and more than 2 million tonnes of freight daily. Its revenue is Rs.107.66 billion. It is the world's largest commercial employer, with more than 1.4 million employees. It operates rail transport on 6,909 stations over a total route length of more than 63,327 kilometers(39,350 miles).The fleet of Indian railway includes over 200,000 (freight) wagons, 50,000 coaches and 8,000 locomotives. It also owns locomotive and coach production facilities. It was founded in 1853 under the East India Company.Indian Railways is administered by the Railway Board. Indian Railways is divided into 16 zones. Each zone railway is made up of a certain number of divisions. There are a total of sixty-seven divisions. It also operates the Kolkata metro. There are six manufacturing plants of the Indian Railways. The total length of track used by Indian Railways is about 108,805 km (67,608 mi) while the total route length of the network is 63,465 km (39,435 mi). About 40% of the total track kilometer is electrified & almost all electrified sections use 25,000 V AC. Indian railways uses four rail track gauges.
1. The broad gauge (1670 mm)
2. The meter gauge (1000 mm)
3. Narrow gauge (762 mm)
4. Narrow gauge (610 mm).
Indian Railways operates about 9,000 passenger trains and transports 18 million passengers daily .Indian Railways makes 70% of its revenues and most of its profits from the freight sector, and uses these profits to cross-subsidies the loss-making passenger sector. The Rajdhani Express and Shatabdi Express are the fastest trains of India.
CLASSIFICATION
1. Standard “Gauge” designations and dimensions:-
W = Broad gauge (1.67 m)
Y = Medium gauge ( 1 m)
Z = Narrow gauge ( 0.762 m)
N = Narrow gauge ( 0.610 m)
2. “ Type of Traction” designations:-
D = Diesel-electric traction
C = DC traction
A = AC traction
CA=Dual power AC/DC traction
3. The “ type of load” or “Service” designations:-
M= Mixed service
P = Passenger
G= Goods
S = Shunting
4. “ Horse power ” designations from June 2002 (except WDP-1 & WDM-2 LOCOS)
‘ 3 ’ For 3000 horsepower
‘ 4 ’ For 4000 horsepower
‘ 5 ’ For 5000 horsepower
‘ A ’ For extra 100 horsepower
‘B’ For extra 200 horsepower and so on.
Hence ‘WDM-3A’ indicates a broad gauge loco with diesel-electric traction. It is for mixed services and has 3100 horsepower