Abstract
In this article, we would like to trace the history of the growth of diesel traction of Indian railways without completely sacrificing technical details. It starts from the very early times and discusses at length the coming of the ALCO locomotives on the Indian Railways (IR) and the reappearance of EMD locos on IR. We have tried to mix the historical facts with technical facts therefore calling the study presented in this paper as technical history.
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References
Martin Terry (2000) Halfway to heaven. Rail Romances Speciality Publishers, UK
Sharma SM, Dutta J (2009) The story of Indian ALCOs: legend of the WDM2. Published by the National Rail Museum, New Delhi, India
Gautam A, Chandra P, Kumar K, Sharma MR, Kumar S, Agarwal AK (2012) Development of an electronic fuel injection system for a 4-stroke locomotive diesel engine. Proceedings of the ASME 2012 Internal Combustion Engine Division, Spring Technical Conference, ICES 2012, May 6–9, Torino, Pieomonte, Italy
Acknowledgements
We are greatly indebted to Mr. J. L. Singh for discussing the early history of the Indian diesel locomotives specially the WDS2, YDM1 and YDM3. Mr J. L. Singh was an officer in the Indian Railways. He left the railways in 1993, where his last posting was at the Indian Railway Institute for Mechanical and Electrical Engineers (IRIMEE) at Jamalpur. He taught the students about diesel locomotives. He retired finally from RITES (Rail Indian Technical and Economical services Limited) in 2005 as an Executive Director. All photos in this article except the two photographs of the EFI locomotive are taken by Aprurva Bahadur of Pune, who is an engineer by profession but is a leading expert on diesel locomotives and also one of India’s foremost photographers of diesel locomotives. Information about ALCO locomotives has been sourced from the reference [2], which we gratefully acknowledge.
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Appendix: Locomotive Codes
Appendix: Locomotive Codes
- W::
-
Broad Gauge
- Y::
-
Meter Gauge
- Z::
-
Narrow Gauge, 2 ft 6 in.
- N::
-
Narrow Gauge, 2 ft
- D::
-
Diesel
- M::
-
Mixed Traffic (Both freight and passenger)
- G::
-
Goods Locomotive
- P::
-
Passenger
- S::
-
Shunter
- WDM2::
-
Broad gauge diesel mixed traffic locomotive, model number 2
- WDM3A::
-
Broad gauge diesel of mixed traffic design. 3A represents 3100 hp similarly in WDM3D, 3D represents 3400 hp so it’s a slightly strange nomenclature. Here 3 means the 3000 hp class locomotives with A, B, C, D meaning 3100 hp, 3200 hp and so on. WDG4 actually means the goods locomotive and model number 4 by linking it with WDM4, the first broad gauge model from GM but one can also interpret it as 4000 hp
- Co-Co::
-
Two wheel-sets each of three axles, hence six axles in total. Each of the axles has one traction motor
- Bo-Bo::
-
Two wheel set with two axles each and each axle has one traction motor
- DC/DC::
-
DC Generator feeding DC traction motors
- AC/DC::
-
AC Alternator feeding DC traction motors
- First BG Diesel shed::
-
Gaya, homing WDM1
- First WDM2 Shed::
-
Katni, developed with help from ALCO
- First EMD Shed::
-
Hubli
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Dutta, J., Agarwal, A.K. (2017). Diesel Locomotives of Indian Railways: A Technical History. In: Agarwal, A., Dhar, A., Gautam, A., Pandey, A. (eds) Locomotives and Rail Road Transportation. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3788-7_2
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