Indian Railways

Indian Railways (reporting mark IR) is an Indian state-owned enterprise, owned and operated by the Government of India through the Ministry of Railways. It is one of the world's largest railway networks comprising 115,000 km (71,000 mi) of track over a route of 65,808 km (40,891 mi) and 7,112 stations. In 2014-15, IR carried 8.397 billion passengers annually or more than 23 million passengers a day (roughly half of whom were suburban passengers) and 1058.81 million tons of freight in the year. In 2014–2015 Indian Railways had revenues of ₹1634.50 billion (US$24 billion) which consists of ₹1069.27 billion (US$16 billion) from freight and ₹402.80 billion (US$5.9 billion) from passengers tickets.

Railways were first introduced to India in the year 1853 from Mumbai to Thane. In 1951 the systems were nationalised as one unit, the Indian Railways, becoming one of the largest networks in the world. IR operates both long distance and suburban rail systems on a multi-gauge network of broad, metre and narrow gauges. It also owns locomotive and coach production facilities at several places in India and are assigned codes identifying their gauge, kind of power and type of operation. Its operations cover twenty nine states and seven union territories and also provides limited international services to Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Shatabdi Express

Shatabdi Express trains are a series of fast (called superfast in India) passenger trains operated by Indian Railways to connect Metro cities with other cities important for tourism, pilgrimage or business. Shatabdi Express are day-trains and they return to the station of origin the same day.

The Shatabdis are among the fastest trains in India and the Indian Railways consider them as prestigious. The Shatabdi Express trains run over short to medium distances while the Rajdhani Expresses and the Duronto Expresses are long-distance trains. Rajdhani Expresses connect the nation's capital New Delhi to capitals of states and other major cities while Duronto Expresses connect connect major cities to other major cities. All three series of trains have a maximum speed of about 130 km/h (81 mph). The 12001 Bhopal Shatabdi express, however, runs at a peak speed of 150 km/h (93 mph), which makes it the fastest train in India.

History

The word "Shatabdi" means centenary in Sanskrit, Hindi and several Indian languages. The first Shatabdi train was started in 1988 to commemorate the centenary of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru's Birthday (the First Prime Minister of India) by Madhav Rao Scindia, minister for railways. It operated from New Delhi Railway Station to Jhansi Junction, later extended to Bhopal. It is now known as the Bhopal Shatabdi Express.

Eastern Railway

Eastern Railway or Railroad may refer to:

EMD GT46PAC

The EMD GT46PAC is a passenger-hauling diesel-electric locomotive with AC electric transmission designed by General Motors Electro-Motive Division and built by both GM-EMD and under license by Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) of Varanasi, India for Indian Railways as their classes WDP-4, WDP-4B and WDP-4D. The GT46PAC is a passenger version of the previous Indian Railways EMD GT46MAC freight locomotive. The locomotive has a 16-cylinder 710G3B diesel engine with a maximum speed of 904 RPM.

Variants

There are three variants of this loco - the original WDP-4 which is a 4,000 hp (2,980 kW) loco, the WDP-4B which is a 4,500 hp (3,360 kW)126 t (124 long tons; 139 short tons) weighted loco with a single cab and the newest WDP-4D which is a 4,500 hp (3,360 kW) loco with dual cabs.

Numbering

The locomotives are numbered from Road No. 20000 upwards till 20103 and further numbering of the loco along with its WDP-4B/4D variants has started from the 40XXX series. This is due to the numbering of the 20XXX series almost breaching the start of numbering of another locomotive class, the WCG-2 which is a DC electric locomotive whose numbering started from 20105.

Diesel locomotive

A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotive have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving wheels (drivers).

Overview

Early internal combustion engine-powered locomotives and railmotors used gasoline as their fuel. Soon after Dr. Rudolf Diesel patented his first compression ignition engine in 1892, it was considered for railway propulsion. Progress was slow, however, as several problems had to be overcome.

Power transmission was a primary concern. As opposed to steam and electric engines, internal combustion engines work efficiently only within a limited range of turning frequencies. In light vehicles, this could be overcome by a clutch. In heavy railway vehicles, mechanical transmission never worked well or wore out too soon. Experience with early gasoline powered locomotives and railcars was valuable for the development of diesel traction. One step towards diesel-electric transmission was the petrol-electric vehicle, such as the Weitzer railmotor (1903 ff.)