Innovations Done on Zonal Railways February, 2015

Innovations Done on Zonal Railways February, 2015

INNOVATIONS DONE ON ZONAL RAILWAYS – FEBRUARY, 2015

Central Railway

  • Launching of web portal and SMS facility on 58888- Mumbai division has developed a website and SMS facility on 58888 which is the first of its kind for receiving and attending cleaning demand on real time basis in trains having ‘On board housekeeping services’ (OBHS) facility. Passengers will have to enter their PNR no. at cleanmycoach.com or SMS on 58888 to call the cleaner at their seat. Passenger availing SMS option will have to send SMS “Clean<space<10-digit PNR number>”to 58888 (for example: Clean 8421708090). The SMS facility will obviate the need of internet connectivity on mobile or laptop which is not always available with ordinary passenger.

East Coast Railway

  • Development of Nozzle Sleeve Puller- Diesel Loco Shed, Visakhapatnam has developed a Nozzle sleeve puller for removing the nozzle sleeve from the cylinder heads. It has been built up with released materials from locos. The nozzle sleeve can be easily removed by using this puller without pushing it out by hammering as per the existing practice. The use of this puller avoids the possible damage on face of cylinder heads and stuck-up of sleeve inside the cylinder heads which could occur in the existing practice of removal of nozzles. It has also minimized the manpower requirement for this work from two staff to one staff only.
  • Gadget for removing bearings from crank shaft of Air Compressor- Diesel Loco Shed, Visakhapatnam shed had developed a gadget for removing the bearings from crank shaft of air compressor. It has also minimized the manpower requirement for this work from two staff to one staff only.

Northern Railway

  • Infotainment through LED TV’s in Shatabdi Coaches- To enhance passenger satisfaction, 8”×8” LED TV screen have been installed at the seat backs in the LHB Shatabdi coaches of New Delhi Depot, Northern Railway (Executive Chair Car & Chair Car). On-board infotainment service are available to passengers through speed media content as well as like streaming of commercial channels, besides a revenue generation model for railway through commercial publicity rights.
  • Modification in brake system of Hybrid coaches- Auxiliary reservoir (150 Lt.) of hybrid coaches was mounted on end of the coach under lavatory, which causes corrosion and chance of hitting of foreign items. Its layout has been redesigned and shifted to centre of coach at Jagadhari workshop. Relocation will help to prevent corrosion and chance of hitting.
  • Development of specialized fixture to remove groove pin of ‘Automatic Twist lock’ of BLC Wagon- Wagon Care Centre, Tughlakabad has taken an initiative by mobilizing in-house resources and developed a specialized fixture to remove the groove pin of ATL head. Removal of groove pin is necessitated to reclaim the old serviceable ATLs with a provision of steel coil torsion spring, replacing the rubber bonded springs. The application of this device is trouble-free & faster and only one person can remove the groove pin within few minutes. Considerable savings are expected with this arrangement as the fixture is costing only Rs. 2000/-.
  • Simple Tools for OHE Devices- TRD organization of Moradabad division has developed simple tools for inspection of OHE, ATD lubrication and cleaning of insulators under live OHE conditions. This will substantially reduce requirement of traffic and power block and thereby improve effective utilization of manpower.

North Central Railway

  • ROH Depot, Kanpur Goods Marshalling Yard (GMC)- In-situ heating arrangement has been developed by GMC ROH depot to heat up rivets before riveting. Earlier rivets were heated in smithy shop and they were becoming cold during movement up to the workplace. With help of this air blower type heating arrangement, rivets are heated near wagon just before fitment. This will help in increase in strength of rivet and joint as well as in providing leak proof joints.
  • Jhansi Division was facing difficulty in maintenance and operation of ball valve of bio-digester because of jamming/rusting of paddle operated opening arrangement. To overcome the problem of jamming, clutch wire arrangement has been developed by C&W Depot, Gwalior and used in coach no. NC 12477 GS. So far, its performance is satisfactory.
  • Diesel Shed, Jhansi- Breakage of foundation of holder in new type of traction motor type 7362A Crompton make were experienced leading to failure of locos. In one case breakage of this holder also resulted in damaging of commutator. To overcome this problem, 2 mm rectangular piece of iron is welded on both sides of foundation.

Western Railway

  • De-stressing of Long welded Rail (LWR) without traffic block with the use of special rail free fastenings: More than 80% of Railway track is laid with Long Welded Rail (LWR)/Continuous Welded Rail (CWR). De-stressing of LWR is an essential maintenance activity which is being done in traffic blocks, but due to increased traffic density and shrunk traffic block margin it has become very difficult and cumbersome to carry out this activity timely and at proper temperature.

A new design of rail free fastening has been conceptualized and developed on Western Railway in consultation with RDSO, which will help in de-stressing of track under normal train operation without any block. Also, this can be used on bridges etc. where for continuation of LWR, the use of rail free fastening is required. These fastenings can be used on the existing concrete sleepers.

For ascertaining the efficiency of fittings & de-stressing carried out using the above fittings, field trial has been conducted in Ahemadbad-Sabarmati section in presence of ED Track-II RDSO.

From the trials the function of rail free fastening system was found satisfactory for de-stressing of LWR.

  • Augmentation of the management information system for effective management of Diesel Loco maintenance and repair by Diesel Shed, Vatva- Maintenance of locomotive is a set of organized activities that are carried out in order to keep the item/equipment/ machine in its best operational condition with minimum cost required. To achieve this system was needed for round the clock monitoring of key maintenance parameters viz. past history, future schedules, failures, out of course repairs etc.

Keeping this in view, the requirements and the resources at the disposal of the shed, the LAN in the management information cell was extended by connecting it to the entire officer’s room through CAT 5 cabling. This LAN was then connected to the Rail Net through Virtual Private Network (VPN). The cost incurred in connecting the LAN to the VPN was Rs. 2000/- (Software cost). This ensured the accessibility of the key information on the central server connected in LAN through Rail Net also.

Vatva Diesel Shed has indigenously designed and developed an “Automated SMS Response System” for getting information about Locomotives on CUG cell phone. Anyone who desires to get information about Vatva shed based locomotive(s), can send SMS from his/her mobile. The SMS responses are designed to give details of loco schedules and failures instantly. This system has been indigenously developed in Vatva shed with a cost of Rs.1100 (Dongle price) only. All officers and employees are benefitted by this system. The system is being refined further to make it more informative, to help improve shed management by providing meaningful information on the go.

  • Single brush movable type coach washing system- Coaching Depot, Kankariya (KKF) has developed a Single Brush movable type Coach Washing System, during the month. This Machine is very useful for External washing of coaches. At KKF depot, the contract work for mechanized cleaning of BG ICF & LHB coaches has been awarded but the cleaning of MG trains is being done departmentally. In order to improve the condition of MG & DEMU coaches, this machine has been developed at KKF depot. It is very useful and takes less time as compared to manual cleaning.
  • Frame mounted stand for vertical stacking of bogies at Diesel Shed, Ratlam- The yard stick for motorized bogie frame at Diesel shed, Ratlam as unit exchange spares is 06 nos. Out of these 03-04 nos. motorized bogie frame are always available in bogie section & on an average 03 locos of heavy schedule are always on shed floor. Since these bogies occupy floor spare there is shortage of area available for maintenance work safely and comfortably. In order to maximize the use of available area, a frame mounted bogie stand has been developed by Ratlam diesel shed with in-house resources available at Ratlam shed only. In this system, one bogie can be vertically stacked over another bogie. By vertically stacking one bogie over another, maximum area will be available for maintenance work and loco maintenance work can be carried out more safely and comfortably.
  • Planning and progress section of Parel workshop has carried out time study of load testing of springs revising the time to one hour 48 minutes from existing time of 2 hours 07 minutes, achieving a reduction of almost 15%. This will result in net saving of Rs. 34.69 lakhs per year.
  • Parel workshop has also carried out the time study of POH of shock absorbers during the month. The allowed time for POH of Gabriel make shock absorbers has been reduced to 5 hrs reducing it by almost 20.2% from the existing 6 hrs, 16 minutes. The allowed time of POH of M/s Escorb make shock absorbers is reduced by about 17% to 8 hrs, 40 minutes from the existing 10 hrs, 27 minutes. The above reduction will result in annual saving of Rs. 24.46 lakhs.

West Central Railway

  • Touch screen kiosk of Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM)–Electric Loco Shed, Tughlakabad: Touch screen kiosk of Software for locomotive asset Management (SLAM) has been made operational outside Progress Planning and Investigation Organization (PPIO). Maintenance staff can get the job card status, like work going on, work completed & pending work, of the specific locos, available in the shed.
  • Use of electric oven in place of kerosene- Electric Loco Shed, Tughlakabad: In conventional locos, CCF is required in gear case for lubrication of bull gear and Traction Motor pinion which remains in solid form on lower temperature. It has to be melted to liquid form for topping up in gear case. Previously, about 20-30 litres of kerosene were needed to heat up CCF. Kerosene as a fuel was causing pollution as well as there was always the danger of fire hazard. To get rid of this problem, the shed has developed an electric oven with its own resources, by use of which, the shed has been able to save about Rs. 36,000/- per month.
  • Modified RSI- Electric Loco Shed, New Katni junction: Two compact type RSI of 3 parallel bridge of M/s High Volts has been modified by four parallel bridge at shop floor by the shed staff and supervisor. This modified RSI is planned to commission in loco no. 28030, which is having three parallel bridge compact type RSI.
  • Modification in electric circuit of all 9 TAP changers at Kota Division: TAP changer is the integrated part of Traction Transformer which is used to control output voltage when input voltage goes up or down (113 kV to 138 kV). It has the feature of remote operation through a D.C. shunt motor whose field coil gets energized on un-charged condition of transformer when HV & LV CBs of transformer opened for changing the TAP. But to conserve the energy, transformers at every Traction sub-station (TSS) are kept un-charged one by one, so field coil of D.C. shunt motor has burnt at SVA/TSS due to continuous over-heating. OEM was approached, but they didn’t solve the problem. Traction Department team analyzed the problem and in-house modification in electric circuit of all 9 TAP changers of 21.6 MVA transformers has been done to keep system in healthy condition.
  • Solid earthing of Switching Mechanism Graduator (SMGR) connection plates- Electric Loco Shed, New Katni junction: To avoid the burning of SMGR auxiliary switches in loco, solid earthing of SMGR connection plates has been started during the month and 74 locos has been completed, so far. One cycle of all locos is expected to be completed by June’15.
  • Modified traction link–ELS, Tughlakabad: Loco No. 30340, WAP7 failed on line on 14.02.15 due to breakage of traction link. During investigation, it was noticed that the welding failed near flange. In order to avoid this problem, shed has provided modified traction link, pulled from WAG-9 locos, in 2 WAP-7 locos, so far. In which tube dia is 135 mm whereas in failed traction link this dia was 133 mm.
  • HHP locomotive traction motor speed sensor test unit by Diesel Loco Shed, Itarsi: Diesel Loco Shed Itarsi is homing 26 numbers HHP locomotive. These locos are equipped with 3 phase induction motor. Each 3 phase AC traction motor is equipped with one (dual) speed sensor to measure the speed and direction of locomotive. To check functionality of sensors, Diesel Loco Shed Itarsi has developed a Test Bench with the help of Oscilloscope. This oscilloscope is used to display and analyze the wave form of electronic signals. During testing Oscilloscope displays frequency, maximum voltage and time period in wave form so that the parameter of sensor can be checked properly. By this development Itarsi shed has become capable to check, calibrate and monitor the health of Traction Motor Speed Sensor. Hitherto, the sensors had to be sent to M/s Medha for their testing and calibration.
  • Development a test bench for testing common pipe bracket with control chamber at Carriage Repair Work Shop, Bhopal: Common pipe bracket with control chamber is a part of air brake system fitted in under frame of coach. After fitment, air brake testing is done with the help of single car testing. But in case of any leakage from common pipe bracket the whole assembly is required to be removed, another one fitted again then tested with single car test rig again. This whole process takes time and repeating of fitment and testing activities.

To overcome, detention of coach on this account a test bench has been developed in air brake section along with auxiliary reservoir, distributor valve, and brake cylinder. Common pipe brackets can be pre-tested with supply of 10 kg/cm2 pressure, observing movement of piston of air brake cylinder, the common pipe bracket is passed for the fitment of coach.

  • Test bench for Load Sensing Device(LSD), Automatic Brake Cylinder Pressure Monitoring Device (APM), Quick coupling and Isolating cock of Distributor Valve(DV) by Wagon Repair Shop, Khutbav: LSD and APM are modern equipments fitted on wagon. These devices replace the age old manual empty load device system. A need was felt to test these equipments after these are disassembled from wagon during POH and before refitting them to wagon.

A test bench was prepared in-house utilising released air brake system components and measuring gauges at the cost of Rs. 9500/-. The test bench is capable to test the working of LSD and APM. In addition, quick coupling and isolating cock of sandwich plate of DV are also being tested in the same test bench.

Construction details: The following items were used:-

1) Angles (50 x 50) mm

2) Base plate (5 mm)- 01 no.

3) MDF sheet- 01 no.

4) ½” Pipes and pipe fitting accessories.

5) Flexible rubber pipes with connecting sockets- 12 nos.

6) Isolating cocks- 08 nos.

7) Air pressure gauges- 06 nos.

8) Pressure regulators

Benefits:

  1. Defective component can be find out in lab and avoided from fitting on wagon so in this way we can avoid unwanted labour.
  2. This process is easier and safe for testing these components.
  3. It is a RDSO requirement as per para 4.2 of Annexure-IX of G-97 manual of Air Brake System for freight stock.

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