[sandeepmohan]

All this is well and good. What puzzles me the most is the contract with GE for their diesel engines. I get it, it is for the DFC but could we not have manufactured those ourselves instead of passing on the business to GE! The same money spent on that contract could have gone towards electric locomotive capacity augmentation.

The biggest benefit with this move is improved line capacity. For the length, load and frequency of our trains, you need fast acceleration which helps with section clearance. No diesel can achieve that. They can't put down the power in the same way an electric locomotive can. Sectional capacity has been improved with the transition towards 3 Phase electric locomotives. The power and acceleration on offer with our current 3 phase locomotives has to be experienced. It is superb. The VB rakes are another brilliant effort.

Its all for the better. The only thing left to do is switching towards a better, cleaner source for generating all that electricity. While nobody likes nuclear, SMR's (Small Modular Reactors) could be another clean energy ticket for us.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

The power and acceleration on offer with our current 3 phase locomotives has to be experienced. It is superb. The VB rakes are another brilliant effort.

Agree. A week ago, I was in an express hauled by an off-link ASN WAG-9HH instead of usual KJM WAP-7. This is a 9000 HP beast capable of hauling a fully loaded freight rake at 100kmph. Image, it hauling a puny 21-coach express train. The acceleration was phenomenal. It reached its top speed of 100 kmph under 120 seconds from stand still from every halt station. I was grinning ear to ear even in my sleep.