Team-BHP - Indian Railway’s new WDG5 Locomotive, supported by Electro-Motive Diesel

High Points

- Electro-Motive Diesel Expands presence in India by bringing fresh tech to the Indian railways.

- Setting up World Class Production Facility at Patli, Gurgaon.

- Opening an Engineering Center of Excellence in Lucknow.

- This upcoming diesel locomotive has an output of 5500 BHP, which makes it the strongest diesel locomotive ever run on the Indian rail network. In combination with its record high tractive effort of 560 KN, it can pull significantly more load at higher speeds, thus enabling Indian Railways to increase the system throughput in the rail network.

Indian Railway’s new WDG5 Locomotive, supported by Electro-Motive Diesel-wdg5-picture.jpg

- The WDG5 locomotive design is a significant enhancement over the existing high horsepower diesel locomotives currently in use on the Indian Railways. It includes electronic fuel injection, radial grids and high adhesion, lightweight fabricated bogies. It has a modern driver interface and crew-friendly features, such as an air conditioned cab and toilet, which is another first for the Indian Railways fleet.

- This locomotive is the only one that incorporates salient features from International Union of Railways (UIC) and Association of American Railroads (AAR) crashworthiness criteria and is a major step forward in safety.

Always a great fan of Indian railways, big engines and A** trucks.

Just for the sake of info for our members, following is the designation of Indian railway engines.

Naming convention is very easy to remember. It consists of three alphabet and a number and maybe a letter after that.

First Alphabet denotes track gauges.
W - Broad Gauge, most common
Y - Meter gauge, a dying breed, but some lines are still active.
Z and N narrow gauge, Ah! my hometown has this and some other hill station too.

Second Alphabet denotes fuel/power that engine use
D-Diesel
C-DC electric (can run under DC current only)
A-AC electric (can run under AC current only)
CA-Both DC and AC (Dual traction, can use AC and DC current)

Third Alphabet denotes assigned job for the engine
G-goods (maal gadi)
P-passenger (other than maal gadi, In Shashi Taroor's own word hauls 'cattle class')
M-mixed load both goods and passenger (Maal and Cattle Class)
S-Used for shunting (used at big station/junction to bind and break, align a bogie to a designated train)
U-Electric multiple units (DMU/EMU, mumbai local etc)

Numbers and Alphabets after above three letters demote version/revision

So if we take GTO's above WDG5 in perspective.

W - Wide/Broad gauge
D - Diesel powered
G - Made for hauling goods
5 - Version/Revision 5

Zimple as that! Thanks for reading :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by SirAlec (Post 2524419)

Numbers and Alphabets after above three letters demote version/revision

So if we take GTO's above WDG5 in perspective.

W - Wide/Broad gauge
D - Diesel powered
G - Made for hauling goods
5 - Version/Revision 5

Zimple as that! Thanks for reading :)

A correction here. The number does not denote a version/revision in case of diesel locomotives. The number stands for how many thousand HP does the engine produce. In this case, the number "5" denotes that the engine produces above 5000hp.

Alphabetical suffixes are used to denote the exact hp rating of the engine. WDM3A - is a Broad Gauge, Diesel powered Mixed duty locomotive that produces 3100 hp (where 3 denotes 3000 and "A" denotes an additional 100 hp).

Similarly a WDM3C produces 3300 hp, with the "3" denoting 3000hp and "C" denoting an additional 300 hp.

Going by this system, this locomotive should have been actually named as "WDG5E", but the railways always have their own system of nomenclature.

A small deviation from the system is the WDM7 - that locomotive produces only a shade over 2000hp, but is still called WDM7. The reasoning provided for this is that the WDM7 is NOT a "Main-Line" locomotive, and the new nomenclature system is valid only for "main-line" locomotives.

When the new system came into being, the WDP2 (which is a Broad Gauge Diesel Powered Passenger Duty locomotive, producing 3100hp) was renamed as "WDP3A".

Similarly the locomotive WDM2C (Broad Guage, Diesel Powered, Mixed duty loco, making 3100hp) was renamed as WDM3A. (old time staff still prefer calling this locomotive as "2C" and not as "WDM3A")

However, in case of Electric Locomotives, the Number still denotes the version of the locomotive, and not the power rating. This rule applies for AC, DC and AC/DC locomotives. The system also applies for Diesel powered locomotives used for shunting duties (like WDS4 or a WDS6) and for working trains on branch lines (like WDP1 - a failed model working on Bo-Bo Truck, which has the same powerpack as a WDM7).

Quote:

Originally Posted by DWind (Post 2524894)

High speed here means high balancing speeds, which could be around 80 KMPH for 40 loaded Wagons train. At that speed Aerodynamic fronts would not make much difference, the same way a spoiler does not make any difference for less than 3 digit speeds.

I'm not an expert on this subject matter, but one fact that I am aware of, is that for a vehicle like, say a Maruti 800, the Aerodynamic effects became apparent, at around a speed of 80 KMPH.

For a Locomotive, that presents a much larger Front, would it not be more of a concern at lower speeds than that?

Ahhh!!! at last a thread very close to heart, not sure about test driving a WDG, but been in the cabin of a WDM 2, been in a WAP 5 & WAG 7 in a test run:Cheering:. Dad was posted in CLW and my life till college was in Chittaranjan, so during Vishwakarma Puja I had chances to get into a ride. In my childhood days WDM2 which was made in DLW, Varanasi was our favourite engine, then came the ABB WAP 5 and then 3 Phase WAP/WAG7. The kind of engineering and eletronics present in these engines will surprise all of us.

Quote:

Originally Posted by roy_libran (Post 2524740)

Awesome.
But can someone explain why we end up designing our locomotive fronts, to be so anti-aerodynamic?
If this is supposed to be capable of operation at high speeds, would not have some degree of Aero-Dynamics helped the cause?

I think, it is reverse.

Try throwing down a piece of paper from first floor. Try throwing down a book of same dimension.

Aerodynamic losses are not a big deal for a locomotive of this size designed to pull loads. Air resistance is negligible for the loads it pulls at the speeds specified. If only speeds are way above 100 KMPH air resistance starts effecting the dynamics.

To the best of my knowledge:

1) The maximum effort beyond 60 kmph is spent in clearing the air. Aerodynamics mean a lot, there was some article either here on TBHP or in ACI mentioning the same. Some cube proportional to something, but overall, maximum energy is spent in clearing air, that is what I had read.

2) The current engines in India lack A/C and even lavatory facilities, both of them are a must IMO. Wonder why they are still not included, they must be. I hope with this new WDG5, things are much better.

3) Power, really we need more than 5500 bhp. There might not be any significant reason, but overall in a country where a goods train has to stop many times for allowing passenger trains to pass first and add to that massive tonnage to haul, more power is always welcome. A single engine developing 7000-8000 bhp means in some cases two engines need not be attached to a train.

Aerodynamics is one area in any case we need to invest into.

I can see the driver's cab, as usual, is at the very extreme of the loco. How does it satisfy the crashworthiness standards? I am not talking about the loco hitting people/cattle (Shashi Tharoor: please note these two are different!) crossing tracks, but another locomotive or a stationery train, the kind of accidents most likely to kill the motorman.

Probably silly, but is this engine bi-directional or uni-directional? In the model photo I can't see a cab on the other end of the engine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MileCruncher (Post 2525478)

Been a Railway's fan for a long time. Been observing the technology upgrade.
BTW one interesting video of EMD locomotives about wheel slip

Are the tubes supplying sawdust into the wheels to increase friction?

For all those who need some dose of power, here you go:

The World's Strongest Electric Train, With 10,500HP of RAWR

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The World’s Strongest Electric Train, With 10,500HP of RAWR

Quote:

5.8 seconds. That's how fast an Re 620 electric locomotive can top 60 mph (100 km/h) from a standing start. Which is handy when one needs to pull 800 tons of freight through some of Europe's highest peaks.
Re 620 series of locomotives were built between 1975 and 1980 but are still a workhorse along the Gotthardbahn, a Swiss rail line that runs over the Alps from Luzern, Switzerland to Chiasso, Italy, where the fleet of 88 engines are used to haul freight. The Re 620 is the single most powerful individual electric locomotive in the world—producing 10,500 horsepower and providing up to 398 kN of effort through its six drive axles.
A single Re 620 can pull up to 800 tons on a 2.6 percent gradient at 80 km/h. For heavier loads up to 1300 tons, the Re 620 will be assisted by a smaller engine—the 6,320 hp four-axle Re 420/430 which is coupled in-line behind the main engine to provide additional power.

And regarding aerodynamics, it is ineffective for any speed below 200kmph! As long as you can have enough thrust(speed), you even make a rhino fly(aerodynamic lift)!! And in this case it is better to have more downforce and aerodynamic braking in terms of heavy haulage rather than high aerodynamics. This makes sense only for high speed light weight passenger trains not for cargo movers. By what name that is holy, is aerodynamics here below in this 10500 power monster?