Glimpses of Jagadhri Workshop, Yamunanagar, Northern Railway

Recently a joint team of BCT divsion and Parel workshop supervisors visited Jagadhri to do comparative study of the two workshop. The visit was an eye opener for the team. It appears that Parel needs a complete revamp to come upto the level of Jagadhri.
Slideshow is on the right.

Endless inventry in electrical coaching , whats the remedy?

Inventry management is becoming more and more difficult in electrical coaching with time. Just have a look:-

• Fans:- 6 types.
• Lights:- 13 types.
• Alternator:- 3 Types.
• AC plants:- 4 Types , with different non-interchangeable parts inside each of these.
• Batteries:- 7 Types.
• Battery Chargers:- 4 Types
• Rectifier/Regulator Unit:- 2 Types.

Among all these types, different makes have different designs. Result- difficulty in inventry management.
BCT division is tackling this issue two ways:-
1.Suggesting RCF to stick to same generic design for all makes.
2.Stocking of the equipments. ( In last 3 years more than 50 equipments have been stocked).

Era of open type compressors coming back?

After horrible experience with sealed type compressors ( FRPCPY >15) in AC systems, we now see latest coaches being rolled out by RCF with open type compressors.
These new coaches are having RMPUs fitted with HOB make open cimpressors which are basically inspired by DMRC experience.

Mumbai Division's first WIND TURBINE inaugurated

"वायु -शक्ति ", the first wind turbine of BCT was inaugurated by Sh. Girish Pillai, DRM -BCT on 30th July 2010.

Installed on the rooftop of power-car building, this wind turbine is of 650 W and charges the coach batteries besides supplying the shop floor lighting load.

Supplied by M/S ARCO, this wind turbine could not have been successfully installed without efforts of Sh.Anand, Section Engineer.

Blunder in circuit of AC fans in T.L. coaches

Today a coach(GS 09448) arrived in Bandra in 2472 Jammutawi Express with no fans working. The battery had got drained somewhere before Ratlam, then TC was provided but that helped only lights. And the caoch came all the way from Boaroda to Bandra without a single fan working.Why?

Because of this circuit:-

Here you see that in case a TC is provided , no supply will be available to the negative of fan inverters.

BCT division has identified this problem in the begining itself and has modified many coaches of ADI division and NWR and NR by this simple modification:-

But the surprise here is how come the same error in circuit occurred in the coaches manufactured by both RCF and ICF?

Cheif Electrical Engineer-W.R., Sh. A K Malhotra releases first issue of coaching monthly newsletter

First issue of कोच खबर , the monthly newsletter of Mumbai Division's coaching branch was inaugurated on 29th June 2010 at Churchgate by Cheif Electrical Engineer -Western Railway Sh.A.K. Malhora and CESE-Western Railway Sh.Ashok Kumar.
The monthly newsletter is focussed mainly upon escorting ACCIs and ACCAs who spend ost of their duty time on line. The contents are:-
.Cases of good and bad troubleshooting.
.One RDSO SMI.
.Do's and Dont's while troubleshooting.
.Message for staff getting retired this month.
.Information of general use for escorting staff.
.Highlihting technical probelm of the month.
This newsletter could come out only because of immense efforts done by Dy.CMM-MS Sh Sudhir Sharma, and Astt. Printing Manager-MX, Sh Sanjay Patil.

Printed in Rajbhasha, this newsletter will be improved further in content and quality.

Electrical Safety Week-2010

Electrical Safety Week was observed in the coaching branch of Mumbai division from 21st June to 27th June. Following activities were oganised during the week:-
Electrical safety seminar among the staff.
Technical discussion were held emphasising upon importance of correct fuse ratings and MCBs.
Electrical safety slogans were pasted at all places on shop floor and powercars.
Competetion held to detect potential safety hazard in coaches.
Sh.Ramakrishna,ELF-II of Garibrath/Bandra was awarded with cash prize and certificate.

First 100 days failure meeting of Western Railway

Western Railway's first ever 110 days failure meeting was held in Parel workshop on 12.04.2010 chaired by CESE Sh. Ashok Kumar.
It was attended by representatives of all divisions.

Solenoid Valves In Underslung AC Coaches

Recently there was a minor fire case in power car in N.Rly:-

shown above is the overheated solenoid valve coil.

Shown above are the heated up wirings in the vicinity of that solenoid.

Solenoid valve is an electromechanical device which is used to pass/block flow of oil/refrigerant in AC plants of underslung coaches. The coil of solenoid valve can be opearted at 110V Dc or 110 V AC or 230 V AC.
Solenoid in Power Car
Underslung AC power car has only one AC plant comprising one compressor, one condensor and two evaporators( one each for guard and power car staff). Each evaporator are fitted with one solenoid valve.Function of solenoid valve is to bypass refigerant from evaporator so that only non-cooled air is blown in. Location of this solenoid is at chest height in guard compartment.

coil 44 and 44a ( in right most line) is the solenoid in above drawing.

the blue device shown above is the 230V ac solenod coil, plunger of which is showm in the picture below:-


Solenoid in Coaches
Coaches have two AC plants ( one compressor , one condensor and one evaporator in each). Each of the compressor have one solenoid as shown in the bottom left corner in the picture below:-

Its function is to allow passage of oil in through the red pipelines so that compressor's duty can be halved ( allowing refigerant in only 2 out of 4 cylinders) in order to avoid inrush during starting.
Location of this vlave is under the coach body on each side.


this valve can be made off from inside the coach by the switch called "capacity control" as shown above.

During the course of time these solenoids have been bypassed electrically and mechanically from the coaches.

Launch of New Log Books

Shri Rambabu Singh , Electric Fitter Grade- (retired on 31-01-2010)inaugurating the new log book.

New log books were launched in the diviosion recently for Power Cars, LHB coaches, and SGAC coaches. Some new features added are:-
1.Troubleshooting page alongwith a circuit diagram included in each log book.
2.Column for recording health of mobile charging points introduced.
3.Column for emergency light checking introducd.
4.Column for recodring health of Thermostat introduced.
5.Some irrelevent columns removed and some modified.
6.Better quality and more pages.