Introduction

Indian Railways (Hindi: Bhratya Rail), abbreviated

as IR (Hindi: . .), is a departmental undertaking of Government of
India, which owns and operates most of India's rail transport. It is
overseen by the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India.
Indian Railways has 113,617 kilometres (70,598 mi). of total track
over a route of 63,974 kilometres (39,752 mi) and 7,083 stations. It
has the world's fourth largest railway network after those of the USA ,
Russia and China. The railways traverse the length and breadth of the
country and carry over 30 million passengers and 2.8 million tons
of freight daily . It is the world's second largest commercial or utility
employer, with more than 1.36 million employees As for rolling
stock, IR owns over 219,931 (freight) wagons, 51,030 coaches and
8,889 locomotives.

Railway zones
Indian Railways is divided into zones, which are further sub-divided
into divisions. The number of zones in Indian Railways increased from
six to eight in 1951, nine in 1952, sixteen in 2003 and finally 17 in 2010.
Each zonal railway is made up of a certain number of divisions, each
having a divisional headquarters. There are a total of sixty-eight
divisions.
Each of the seventeen zones, including Kolkata Metro, is headed by a
General Manager (GM) who reports directly to the Railway Board. The
zones are further divided into divisions under the control of Divisional
Railway Managers (DRM). The divisional officers of engineering,
mechanical, electrical, signal and telecommunication, accounts,
personnel, operating, commercial and safety branches report to the
respective Divisional Manager and are in charge of operation and
maintenance of assets. Further down the hierarchy tree are the Station
Masters who control individual stations and the train movement through
the track territory under their stations' administration.

Types of Trains

Accommodation Class

Production units

Indian Railways manufactures much of its rolling stock and heavy

engineering components at its six manufacturing plants, called
Production Units, which are managed directly by the Ministry.
Popular rolling stock builders such as CLW and DLW for electric and
diesel locomotives; ICF and RCF for passenger coaches are
Production Units of Indian Railways. Over the years, Indian Railways
has not only achieved self-sufficiency in production of rolling stock
in the country but also exported rolling stock to other countries. Each
of these six production units is headed by a General Manager, who
also reports directly to the Railway Board. The six Production Units
are:Sl.
No

Name

Abbr.

Year
Established

Location

Main products

1.

Chittaranjan
Locomotive
Works

CLW

1947

Chittaranjan

Electric
Locomotives

2.

Diesel
Locomotive
Works

DLW

1961

Varanasi

Diesel-electric
Locomotives

3.

Diesel-Loco
Modernisation
Works

DLW

1981

Patiala

Diesel-electric
Locomotives

4.

Integral Coach
Factory

ICF

1952

Chennai

Passenger
coaches

5.

Integral Coach
Factory

RCF

1986

Kapurthala

Passenger
coaches

6.

Rail Wheel
Factory

RWF

1984

Bangalore

Railway wheels
and axles

Diesel locomotive works, Varanasi

Organizational strength

 A flagship production unit of Indian Railways offering complete

range of products in its area of operation with annual turnover of
over 2124 Crore.
State of the art Design and Manufacturing facility to manufacture
200 locomotives per annum with wide range of related products
viz. DG Sets, Loco components and sub-assemblies.
Supply of spares required to maintain Diesel Locomotives and DG
sets.
Unbeatable trail-blazing track record in providing cost-effective,
eco-friendly and reliable solutions to ever increasing transportation
needs for over four decades.
Fully geared to meet specific transportation needs by putting Price
- Value - Technology equation perfectly right.
A large base of dedicated customers among many countries viz.
Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Tanzania,
Angola, to name a few, bearing testimony to product leadership in
its category.

Diesel traction assembly at dlw

 Following types of diesel loco are being produced in the DLW:

1. WDM - Wide Diesel Mixed
2. WDP - Wide Diesel Passenger
3. WDG - Wide Diesel Goods
4. WDS - Wide Diesel Shunter
Types of locomotives produced at dlw:
The first letter (gauge)
1. W-Indian broad gauge (The "W" Stands for Wide Gauge - 5 Feet)
2. Y-metre gauge (The "Y" stands for Yard Gauge - 3 Feet)
3. Z-narrow gauge(2 ft 6 in)
4. N-narrow gauge (2 ft)
The second letter (motive power)
1. D-Diesel
2. C-DC electric (can run under DC traction only)
3. A-AC electric (can run under AC traction only)
4. CA-Both DC and AC (can run under both AC and DC tractions),
'CA' is considered a single letter
5. B-Battery electric locomotive (rare)

The third letter (job type)

1. G-goods
2. P-passenger
3. M-mixed; both goods and passenger
4. S-Used for shunting (Also known as switching engines or
switchers in United states and some other countries)
5. U-Electric multiple units (used as commuters in city suburbs)
6. R-Railcars
For example, in "WDM 3A":
1. "W" means broad gauge
2. "D" means diesel motive power
3. "M" means suitable for mixed(for both goods
and passenger)service
4. "3A" means the locomotive's power is 3,100 hp ('3' stands for
3000 hp, 'A' denotes 100 hp more)
Or, in "WAP 5":
1. "W" means broad gauge
2. "A" mean AC electric traction motive power
3. "P" means suitable for Passenger service
4. "5" denotes that this locomotive is chronologically the fifth
electric locomotive model used for passenger service.

WDM Class

Specification of wdm class

Performance of WDM class

The class WDM-2 is Indian Railways' workhorse diesel
locomotive. The first units were imported fully built from
the American Locomotive Company (Alco) in 1962. Since 1964, it
has been manufactured in India by the Diesel Locomotive
Works (DLW), Varanasi. The model name stands for broad
gauge (W), diesel (D), mixed traffic (M) engine. The WDM-2 is
the most common diesel locomotive of Indian Railways.
The WDM-2A is a variant of the original WDM-2. These units
have been retro-fitted with air brakes, in addition to the
original vacuum brakes. TheWDM-2B is a more recent
locomotive, built with air brakes as original equipment. The
WDM-2 locos have a maximum speed of 120 km/h (75 mph) ,
restricted to 100 km/h (62 mph) when run long hood forward - the
gear ratio is 65:18.

WDG CLASS

Specification of wdg class

Performance of WDG Class

The WDP-4 is capable of hauling 24 coach trains at 110-120
km/hour. It has also been used for speed trials where it has hauled
8 coach trains at 160 km/hour.
The locomotives can be used in either direction, and frequently
haul trains long hood forward, as in the picture. Newer editions
with 4500hp have been produced which have been named with the
sub class WDP-4B /WDP-4D which have different traction control
with six traction motors and are Co-Co bogie equipped, unlike the
original which has a Bo-1-1-Bo arrangement with four traction
motors.
The loco is very fuel efficient and has minimal exhaust emissions
due to its 2 stroke diesel engine. It is characterized by its loud

horn, which can be heard for large distances around, and aircraftlike sound of its running engine.

Training period
Following four workshop were assigned to me during my training
period of four weeks:
1. Heavy Welding Shop
2. Heavy Machine Shop
3. Truck Machine Shop
4. Heat Treatment Shop

Heavy welding shop

In heavy welding shop steel sheets of about 75mm are welded
together. To form engine block for both ALCO and GM engines.
The conventional form of manufacturing engine blocks of such
enormous size would have been very uneconomical.
The three main type of welding are:
1. Submerged Arc Welding (SAW)
2. Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW)
3. Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW)

 After welding the engine blocks are thoroughly inspected for

under welding and over welding. Internal cracks are detected
using NDT.
The blocks are then passed to HMS for further machining and
boring of holes for cylinders or Power Pack Assembly. Generally
12 to 16 holes are bored.

Heavy machine shop

As the name suggests in the heavy machine shop the finished
engine blocks are then machined upon to produce holes for power
pack assembly.
The main machines in HMS are:
1. Angular boring machine (TAL / HMT)
2. CNC Portal milling ( Waldrich coburg)
3. Radial Drill (max. 25 ton)
4. Hydraulic press

Heat treatment shop

All the components used in an engine are heat treated before they
are assembled. The main objective behind heat treatment is to
improve the machinability and wear resistance of the components.
Some of the heat treatment used are :
1. Normalizing
2. Quenching
3. Carburizing
4. Induction hardening
Normalizing

In this heat treatment process the material is kept 40 to 50 C above

critical temperature. This is done due to following reasons:
1. To remove coarse grain structure
2. To remove internal stresses
3. To improve mechanical properties
Quenching
In quenching the material is heated to a temperature of about 815 to
900C and then it is rapidly cooled by a mixture of water and
polystyrene glycol.
The main advantage of quenching is to improve machinability,
hardness and development of martensite structure. Generally all the
components used in the locomotive are quenched before any other
heat treatment process.
Carburizing or case hardening
In this process a hard surface is produced on a low carbon steel of
0.15 percent carbon. In course of process the outer layer is converted
into a high carbon steel with a carbon content ranging from 0.9 to 1.2
per cent of a carbon.
The components in the carburizing process are kept in contact with
carbonaceous compounds and energizer (BaCO3). Then they are kept
together in a furnace for a given period of time.
The hardness depends upon the penetration of carbon, temperature
and time up to which its is kept in furnace. An hour of heating
produces 4000 to 5000 hardness.

The main components which are carburized in the HTS are main
piston pin, rocker arm assembly, crab bolts etc.
Induction hardening
Induction hardening process is the heat treatment process in which
components of high carbon percentage are hardened using high
frequency ac current. Generally a p.d. of 200kv to 130kv is used.
In induction hardening process there is no change in chemical
composition. The work piece is kept at a distance of 3-4 mm from the
coils. The current produces a magnetic flux which produces eddy
current resulting in heating.
I.H. is generally done on crankshafts who have a high percentage of
carbon say about .45 to .48 percent.

Bibliography
Important instruction and images are taken from:
1. ^ "Organisation Structure". Official webpage of Indian Railways.
Retrieved 26 August 2011.
2. ^ "Historical Background of Railway electrification". Central
Organisation for Railway Electrification. Ministry of Railways,
Government of India. Retrieved 18 July 2009.[dead link]
3. Research, Reference and Training Division. (2011). India
Yearbook 2011. Publications Division, Ministry of Information &
Broadcasting, Govt. of India.