What are the small vertical sections of rail that can be seen embedded in the trackworks or a little distance away from the tracks every so often?

19-07-2019

These small vertical pieces of rail (or other structures such as a small cement post), usually painted yellow or white, are monuments or vertical datum indicators. They have marks on them that indicate the correct intended height of the rail head at that location on the track. When track maintenance crews adjust track for its level, they use these indicators as the reference to which to adjust the rails. (Of course, other considerations apply in special cases such as at curves, where the track's cant has to be taken into consideration.) These indicators are also used to measure the longitudinal movement of long welded rails. The indicators are usually buried quite deep into the earth so

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What’s the history of electric traction in India?
July 16, 2019

The first electric train ran between Bombay's Victoria Terminus and Kurla along the Harbour Line of CR, on February 3, 1925, a distance of 9.5 miles. In 1926, Thana and Mahim were connected. In 1927, electrification was complete up to Kalyan. In 1928, Borivili in the north was connected (Colaba-Borivili of WR being inaugurated on May 1). In 1929,

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Freight stock often has the words “Not to be loose shunted” –– what does this mean?
July 16, 2019

In marshalling yards and elsewhere, a common technique of moving a wagon around is "loose shunting", where the wagon to be moved is not coupled to the shunting loco, and simply pushed to the correct location. Usually, a rake that is being built up is on one of several sidings branching off from a section of track where the shunting loco is

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What kinds of couplers are used on IR’s trains?
July 16, 2019

IR passenger stock is mostly built with side buffers and screw couplers that have to be manually connected. The side buffers have single helical spring elements. The notable exceptions are the new Alsthom LHB design coaches that have CBC (centre-buffer-coupler). IR is now introducing tightlock CBC on passenger stock. This started as an

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What are ‘auto-emergency’ brakes?
July 16, 2019

Many locos used in steep ghat sections also have an 'auto-emergency' ('AE' or 'AEB') brake system, which consists of an additional safety circuit which monitors the speed and applies the brakes to slow down or halt the locomotive if the speed rises above a certain threshold (sometimes 25km/h or so, but this varies with the route and the working

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What kinds of brake do IR’s locomotives have?
July 16, 2019

Locos in India typically have air brake systems these days. As there is still a lot of freight stock, and some passenger stock that is not air-braked, many locos do have dual braking capability where they can deal with both vacuum braked and air-braked stock. For instance, the original WDM-2 locos were vacuum-braked. As air braked stock came into

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What kinds of brake systems do IR coaches and freight cars have?
July 16, 2019

In older stock, both passenger coaches and freight wagons, the continuous braking system consists of vacuum brakes. Newer stock is almost always air-braked. The guard often has mechanical brakes acting on his van. In addition, each piece of stock has mechanical parking brakes. Continuous brakes were tried out by the various railway companies in

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