Local innovations propel SCR electrification drive

Railways allows engineers the freedom to devise their own modifications to existing systems

South Central Railway’s electrification drive has been intensified in recent times and the speed at which the work is being done is considered to be among the best in the Indian Railway network. Last year, about 450 km of electrification was done and the target for this year is about 600 km.

What has helped the zone quicken the speed of electrification is in allowing engineers the freedom to devise their own innovations and modifications of the existing systems to overcome several challenges they come across on the railway lines. The railway engineers’ ingenuity has helped in developing a mobile trolley for overhead power line maintenance. It had to be pulled manually earlier and since the ‘time block’ given to freeze trains movement for such work to get done is never sufficient, the trolley was fitted with a battery from a condemned truck and a DC motor of (1400 rpm) to help in quick clearing on the tracks.

Height for the trolley could be adjusted and there is a foldable side rack for additional space for efficient maintenance with brakes provided. While relatively heavy batteries used for train lighting is used for starting the motor, the weight of the ladder of about 350 kg can be further reduced by using lithium ion battery and light weight trolley, explained senior railway officials.

The Secunderabad division team had also developed a tower car tracking system on all the 20 tower cars and four road vehicles to monitor real-time position through GPS for easy tracking during block/breakdown periods. This system includes a web-based centralized monitoring, history tracking and also automatic report generation for each vehicle based on the requirement.

Another special feature has been developing a CCTV system for observation and recording in the tower car for live monitoring of contact wire from the car driver’s cabin itself, they explained. It also allows for recording of the live line checking done for access at a later time with the help of a camera for effective monitoring.

The camera also supports night vision and backup of recorded data which can store up to 90 days of recording, according to senior divisional engineer Anand Chekkilla. Earlier, the same division had also developed the anti-monkey climbing circuit to prevent monkeys from climbing onto the power masts giving them a mild no-fatal shock!

Another innovation is SMART (Stores Management & Assets Record Terminal), a web-based application for easy management of material and asset records at depot level. This application is being ported to a mobile app where offline recording of data for further uploading to server is possible, he added.

Source: Read Full Article