[BoneCollector]

Originally Posted by alter.e.go

Also does anyone have an info or can point to how the whole signalling system works/ is controlled?

Nice snaps. For all trains related queries, you must visit the encyclopedia of Indian Railway, IRFCA. Details about signalling system is here. http://www.irfca.org/faq/faq-signal.html

[Swapnil4585]

A piece of information that I would like to share.

The Nagpur loco shed has come out with a technique to produce electricity out of energy produced when brakes are applied by the pilot. The said technique is being deployed on all the WAG - 9 class of electric locomotives belonging to the Nagpur shed.

The Nagpur - Itarsi section have a large number of inclines. Therefore, the pilots need to use the brakes, the 'Dynamic Brake' in particular, frequently (a loco has 5 different types of brakes). The friction between the brakes and wheels shall cause to produce electricity. How and where this electricity is stored, is not explained in the article that I read in our local newspaper.

The Nagpur shed has been doing this since April, and it has managed to save 1.06 crore units of electricity so far. Indian Railways have 272 WAG - 9 in its arsenal, out of which 140 belong to Nagpur.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by Swapnil4585

A piece of information that I would like to share.

A locomotive like the WAG9 has the ability to send power back to the grid via regeneration. This is how power is saved. Its not via traditional braking though. This will cook the brakes. The traction motors basically work in reverse, sending power back to the grid. This is also known as regenerative braking.

Indian Railways has become more and more critical about power saving. Power consumed and returned from and to the grid is calculated at the end of every trip. The locomotive pilot logs this information by the end of his/her shift.

[A350XWB]

Originally Posted by Swapnil4585

The Nagpur - Itarsi section have a large number of inclines. Therefore, the pilots need to use the brakes, the 'Dynamic Brake' in particular, frequently (a loco has 5 different types of brakes). The friction between the brakes and wheels shall cause to produce electricity.

I'm curious to know how the normal wheel brakes are used to generate electricity (if true). Also, I would like to know what are these 5 different types of brakes that is mentioned in the post.

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

A locomotive like the WAG9 has the ability to send power back to the grid via regeneration. This is how power is saved. Its not via traditional braking though. This will cook the brakes. The traction motors basically work in reverse, sending power back to the grid. This is also known as regenerative braking.

Diesel-electric locomotives also utilize dynamic braking, but they cannot send the power back to the grid. The power generated as a result of dynamic braking is dissipated through a resistance grid placed on the top part of the loco. That is some serious wastage of power

[AkMar]

A fellow railway enthusiast is making a film based on Konkan Railways in Monsoon. He has uploaded the trailer of film on Youtube. I liked it very much!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNQYXakx_mU

[LordSharan]

Originally Posted by Swapnil4585

A piece of information that I would like to share.

The Nagpur loco shed has come out with a technique to produce electricity out of energy produced when brakes are applied by the pilot. The said technique is being deployed on all the WAG - 9 class of electric locomotives belonging to the Nagpur shed.

The Nagpur - Itarsi section have a large number of inclines. Therefore, the pilots need to use the brakes, the 'Dynamic Brake' in particular, frequently (a loco has 5 different types of brakes). The friction between the brakes and wheels shall cause to produce electricity. How and where this electricity is stored, is not explained in the article that I read in our local newspaper.

The Nagpur shed has been doing this since April, and it has managed to save 1.06 crore units of electricity so far. Indian Railways have 272 WAG - 9 in its arsenal, out of which 140 belong to Nagpur.

This is called dynamic braking. This can be retrofitted to all types of locos, but the regeneration capacity is limited only to 3 Phase locos- WAP5, WAP7 and WAG9.

How it works:
1. Each loco has traction motors attached to its wheel axles. They are fed electricity from OHE, and provide traction to the Locomotive in normal usage.
2. When the loco needs to brake, the traction motors act as generator and generate electricity which is fed back to OHE (in case of 3 Phase Locos) or dissipated through heat by DBRs (Dynamic Brake Resistors) in case of other locos.
3. This provides additional braking capacity to the locos, and hence reduces the fatigue on the loco's braking system.
4. Contrary to the post- A loco has only its own brakes, and regenerative braking (if traction motors are enabled to work this way). Each coach/wagon has its own brakes which are operated using the air pressure generated from loco. These are called air brakes, and can pressurized air travels across the hose pipes across the train. These hose pipes can be seen at the coach ends where coaches are coupled.



5. The regenerative braking works not only in sections with inclines, but on flat sections too. However it is preferred on the inclines as it reduces the fatigue on engine brakes and hence reduces chances of brake failures. For a loaded freight/Passenger train, a brake failure can be catastrophic on gradients.
6. Regenerative braking is used across IR and not limited to Nagpur shed. (By the way, shed's name is Ajni, where the 3 Phase locos are based out of)

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

A locomotive like the WAG9 has the ability to send power back to the grid via regeneration. This is how power is saved. Its not via traditional braking though. This will cook the brakes. The traction motors basically work in reverse, sending power back to the grid. This is also known as regenerative braking.

Indian Railways has become more and more critical about power saving. Power consumed and returned from and to the grid is calculated at the end of every trip. The locomotive pilot logs this information by the end of his/her shift.

Relatively better description of how the system works. The regenerative braking is not only used in regular trains, but the metro trains as well. It results in power saving and reduces the carbon footprint.

Here's the link for the statistics on the power consumed- relatively old, but would give a fair idea of the energy bills of IR.

Originally Posted by A350XWB

I'm curious to know how the normal wheel brakes are used to generate electricity (if true). Also, I would like to know what are these 5 different types of brakes that is mentioned in the post.


Diesel-electric locomotives also utilize dynamic braking, but they cannot send the power back to the grid. The power generated as a result of dynamic braking is dissipated through a resistance grid placed on the top part of the loco. That is some serious wastage of power

Here are some examples of the DBRs



WDM3A's DBR- can be seen between the driver's window and the headlight, on the top side



WAP4's DBR- circled- the pic is from Daulatram's website, who are the leading manufacturer of DBRs for Indian Railways



WAM4's DBRs- this one has massive ones on its roof.

Note all these 3 loco types use dynamic braking but not regenerative braking. The difference is that regenerative braking sends power back to the grid.

Hope this clarifies.

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by A350XWB

Diesel-electric locomotives also utilize dynamic braking, but they cannot send the power back to the grid.

I am well aware of this. I was responding to the lines of the FM suggesting that Nagpur shed was working on a way to do this with a WAG9 locomotive. The ability to send power back to the grid already exists via regenerative braking.

[A350XWB]

Originally Posted by sandeepmohan

I am well aware of this. I was responding to the lines of the FM suggesting that Nagpur shed was working on a way to do this with a WAG9 locomotive. The ability to send power back to the grid already exists via regenerative braking.

Any serious rail fan will know this, and I know that you are no different . I added this info for the benefit of people who may not know this. It's just that the quoted text was yours.
Coming back to the power dissipated on the resistance grid, once during a diesel-electric loco test in Germany, they were able to melt the catenary when doing a dynamic brake test. (This was conducted inside a standard test shed).

[tharian]

An original make EMD loco taking a break at Mysore Junction.

[SmartCat]

Very creative 'maintain cleanliness' campaign by Howrah division at a railway platform:

[KPS]

I was amazed to find, that there are still functioning narrow gauge commercial lines running in central India. These are to be differentiated from the Toy or the famous Mountain Trains

More details of surviving Narrow Gauge Lines (2 ft 6 in) is given here

Some pictures sourced from the Net





Source

What type of engines are these? How old could these engines be? Guess they all should have been built in India

Cheers

KPS

[tharian]

Originally Posted by KPS

I was amazed to find, that there are still functioning narrow gauge commercial lines running in central India. These are to be differentiated from the Toy or the famous Mountain Trains



What type of engines are these? How old could these engines be? Guess they all should have been built in India

Cheers

KPS

Not much information on these small fellows.
There are two classes namely NDM and ZDM. Both are Narrow gauge and the NDM gauge is narrower which is I guess are the ones used at few hill stations.
The old ones were made at Chittaranjan Loco Works(CLW) who currently manufacturers electric locos for IR. They used to manufacture steam and few classes of diesels earlier (WDS6 which is a shunting loco).

From Google, it seems Parel Workshop still makes few Narrow gauge loco's.

http://www.irfca.org/gallery/Locos/D..._diesel_locos/

[PVS]

Originally Posted by KPS

What type of engines are these? How old could these engines be? Guess they all should have been built in India
Cheers
KPS

In India, there are two dimensions for Narrow Guage - 762 mm and 610 mm. The diesel loco shown in the picture is of the ZDM series (762 mm). As on date, these locos ply on the following routes:(762 mm NG)
1) Jogindernagar - Pathankot
2) Shimla - Kalka
3) Dholpur - Bari - Srimuttra
4) Mohari - Tantpur
5) Telibhanda - Abhanpur - Rajim
6) Abhanpur - Dhamtari
7) Itwari - Nagbhir
8) Achalpur - Murtizapur
9) Yavatmal - Murtizapur
10) Jamner - Pachora
11) Waghai - Bilimora
12) Umarpada - Kosamba
13) Chandod - Dabhoi - Miyagam Karjan - Choranda - Moti Koral/ Malsar
14) Pratapnagar - Jambusar
15) Bhadran - Nadiad
--------------------------------------------------------------
The [diesel] locos operating on the 610 mm track are classified as the 'NDM' series. These locos operate on the
Darjeeling - New Jalpaiguri route and Neral Matheran route.
-------------------------------------
ZDM series locos were manufactured by the Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) . NDM series locomotives have been manufactured by CLW and private locomotive manufactures such as SAN engineering and Jung. More information on these locomotives in the IRFCA FAQ here: http://irfca.org/faq/faq-loco-diesel-mg.html#ngloco

[MadiMaama]

Some Pics from Bayyapanahalli{BYPL}
1. KJM WDG 3A 13028 coming from KJM after shunting the KJM BBS (Krishnarajapuram Bhubaneshwar) Suvidha
2.The new and the old. RPM WAP 7 with Bangalore Jolarpettai Express salutes AJJ WAM 4 led Vijayawada Bangalore Cant Passenger. Waited for 4 hours to capture this loco
3. Erode ED WAP 4 led Bangalore Kochuveli Express speeds past BYPL
4.RPM Royapuram WAP 7 30391 with Jolapettai bound Express

[tharian]

Originally Posted by MadiMaama

Some Pics from Bayyapanahalli{BYPL}

Looks like we trainspot at the same spot


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some pictures I took over the weekend at Makalidurga and Bypl.

Makalidurga station which is around 50 kms from Bangalore on the Gooty line has changed totally from when I first visited that place around 12-13 years ago. Doubling is in progress and the bottom sides of most of the hills have been flattened. Line had been electrified too recently with just few trains running with a electric loco.
Surprise for the day was a banker doing duty on a freight which happened to be a newly painted in KJM colors WDM3d.
As well as a WDG4d hauling CBE-Ltt express at Bypl.

Last picture is a panoramic view of Mys-Jaipur express which has a 8 AC coaches in its consist which is one of the highest for a express.

Video of the banking loco

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRQcbza00P8