[maddy42]

This is for all rail fans. Bibek Debroy the economist has written (11 parts until now) on the indian railways. Do read it when you have time as its pretty informative and balanced.

http://swarajyamag.com/author/bdebroy/

Let no political view come in between this topic.

Maddy

[DragonHawk]

Originally Posted by torquecurve

Pure wallpaper material. Excellent angle, great use of filter. Perfect exposure. Can you please PM me the original if you dont mind - for my personal use of course.

Unfortunately I don`t have the original RAW image but I will send you a converted JPEG copy of it. I have sent a PM to you.

[ampere]

In continuation of my previous post..

And there he goes !

[tharian]

Pictures I did not want to post here.

Damaged coaches of the Bangalore- Ernakulam Superfast that de-railed on the Friday the 13th Feb morning soon after Anekal Station.

Track work was completed when I got there today and a rake carry ballast was run through for testing as well as dumping fresh ballast.

There were 7 damaged coaches including the one that was damaged the most when it telescoped into the coach in front.

It was not a case of the train hitting a boulder on the track. In fact it is not a rocky area at all and there was no sign of rocks besides the track either.

The first picture shows the approach to the accident spot which is a straight stretch with a climb and then a curve . Either the train took the curve too fast and the coaches jumped tracks or the tracks gave in leading to the de-railment. The loco's were un-affected and so was the second half of the 21 coach rake.

[motorsan]

Originally Posted by tharian

There were 7 damaged coaches including the one that was damaged the most when it telescoped into the coach in front.

The wagon numbers of the most damaged coaches D8 and D9 indicate they were built in 1993 One can only hope that such wagons would have undergone regular maintenance, overhaul etc. Read some news report that the emergency brakes of the wagon behind did not function effectively, or else it wouldn't have rammed in to the wagon ahead. I can also see another wagon with year of manufacture 1991, but that looks relatively undamaged.

Hope Indian Railways find and address the root cause of such accidents rather than finding a scapegoat like the infamous "Tornado" which was declared the culprit for Island Express accident in 1988.

[silversteed]

Originally Posted by motorsan

The wagon numbers of the most damaged coaches D8 and D9 indicate they were built in 1993...

I used to wonder while alighting from the Mangalore-Chennai mail or the Aleppey-Chennai express at MAS, why the Covai Express that leaves from MAS at 6-ish will be ready in one of the well-lit and clean platforms, with rather new-looking and cleaner coaches, while the former trains would arrive at PF-9 (?) which is probably one of the most stinking areas in MAS, and the coaches are almost always old and squeaky. Thought it might've been some stray instances. But now I realize that even Bangalore-KL sector also sees such coaches. I know I might've opened a can of worms, but can't help mentioning this.

Hope Indian Railways find and address the root cause of such accidents rather than finding a scapegoat like the infamous "Tornado" which was declared the culprit for Island Express accident in 1988.

I expect the report to mention an invisible boulder (that got shattered on impact), in line with what the minister stated

Though I do have high regards to the Railways, my expectations from the bureaucracy and higher levels are close to naught.

[Wind]

Aren't these coaches 'integral' in nature with an anti-telescopic design, which prevents coaches from being crushed lengthwise in the event of a train collision. Looking at the pictures, the compartments have crushed into each other causing causalities.

-- Wind

[tharian]

Originally Posted by Wind

Aren't these coaches 'integral' in nature with an anti-telescopic design, which prevents coaches from being crushed lengthwise in the event of a train collision. Looking at the pictures, the compartments have crushed into each other causing causalities.

-- Wind

They are supposed to be, but like Silversteed and Motorsan mentioned, these coaches are more than twenty years old wagons and maybe structurally weak already.
The coaches that were up front were just few years old and hardly had any damage.

As far as I know, the area that is from the door till the end of the coach which is the toilet area is the crumple zone.
For all you know, the coach that telescoped would have been an accident wagon earlier and repaired.

[Gannu_1]

Saw these metal rolls being hauled by a WAG 9 during a recent visit to Surat station:



Have seen these rolls lugged by trucks and ships but this was a first for me so decided to click a snap.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by DragonHawk

Few pics from my side. This was taken during my walkathon to Doodhsagar.

Attachment 1338508

GTL Baldies still in action in the Braganza Ghats? I had read somewhere that section will be served solely by the WDP/G -4's

[raghu.t.k]

Originally Posted by silversteed

I used to wonder while alighting from the Mangalore-Chennai mail or the Aleppey-Chennai express at MAS, why the Covai Express that leaves from MAS at 6-ish will be ready in one of the well-lit and clean platforms, with rather new-looking and cleaner coaches, while the former trains would arrive at PF-9 (?) which is probably one of the most stinking areas in MAS, and the coaches are almost always old and squeaky.
........

Of all the trains departing from /arriving at Chennai Central, Chennai - Mangalore is in a seperate league, even the first class coupe is horredous, the closest that would compete with it would be the Coimbatore - Chennai Shatabdhi. The other trains I have noticed to be dirty/ old coaches would be Chennai - Hyderabad Express, Egmore - Kacheguda. The Chennai - Allepy seems a shade better.

On the other end as user , one of the best AC first class coaches I found was on the Chennai TVM. Neat, good decor, and very comfortable.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

GTL Baldies still in action in the Braganza Ghats? I had read somewhere that section will be served solely by the WDP/G -4's

The baldies are still there . Infact I saw one leading the Kulem-Vasco Da Gama passenger. The GTL based WDMs are also used as brakers/bankers in the ghat - as late as Sep 2014.

The MAS-VSG Express, had a WDP from YPR, but the brakers which got attached at Castle Rock was WDMs from GTL shed. From what I understand there are some "extra fittings" on these locos which makes them more secure to operate on the ghat section.

The goods trains (carrying the minerals etc.) seems to be hauled by three locos, and they were mostly the heavy duty WDGs.

[DragonHawk]

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

GTL Baldies still in action in the Braganza Ghats? I had read somewhere that section will be served solely by the WDP/G -4's

I dont know about WDM-3A baldies but freighters are now using WDG-4, earlier they were being hauled by WDG-3A`s and I have seen most of the passenger trains are still racked up with WDM-3A baldies.

[urzdeepu]

Originally Posted by motorsan

The wagon numbers of the most damaged coaches D8 and D9 indicate they were built in 1993 One can only hope that such wagons would have undergone regular maintenance, overhaul etc. Read some news report that the emergency brakes of the wagon behind did not function effectively, or else it wouldn't have rammed in to the wagon ahead. I can also see another wagon with year of manufacture 1991, but that looks relatively undamaged.

Hope Indian Railways find and address the root cause of such accidents rather than finding a scapegoat like the infamous "Tornado" which was declared the culprit for Island Express accident in 1988.

This should exactly be the reason for derailment i guess. A rake comprising of 1993 and 1991 coaches means that they are literally unfit for use even in a short distance passenger service. How ever well maintained every object do have a life span post which they are deemed unfit.

You can see some of the WDM2 being degraded as WDM2-S which says its not fit for passenger haulage and can be used only for departmental use or shunting only. This principle is applicable for everything.

Not only this train but almost all trains running in Kerala do have old coaches. Classic example is the longest running daily train of India, the Kerala Express. AFAIK it also use rakes comprising of Pre 2000 Era.

[raju2512]

Originally Posted by urzdeepu

This should exactly be the reason for derailment i guess. A rake comprising of 1993 and 1991 coaches means that they are literally unfit for use even in a short distance passenger service. How ever well maintained every object do have a life span post which they are deemed unfit.

.

Codal life is normally 25 years. So 1991 coaches are fit for service.