Why are there sometimes empty (or water-filled) tankers or other wagons at the end and beginning of rakes carrying petroleum products or other inflammable substances?

18-07-2019

These empty or water-filled tankers or other wagons are known as 'guard wagons' and are intended to provide a safety buffer for the tankers carrying inflammable cargo. They are intended to take the brunt of any minor collision so that the tankers carrying the inflammable substances are not themselves damaged leading to possible explosions or major fires. At the head of the rake, next to the loco, another reason for providing guard wagons is to prevent inflammable vapours from the tankers from catching fire either from the hot diesel exhaust from the loco, or sparks at the pantograph from electric locos. Source -

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Serial numbers: How are/were locomotives numbered in India?
June 20, 2019

Prior to 1940 or so, each railway company had its own system of numbering different classes of locomotives. Beginning in the early 1940s, the state began taking over several of the railway companies, and newer locomotives acquired thereafter were allotted numbers based on the ‘IRS’ (and later ‘IGR’) classes; but numbers were duplicated

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Were/are battery-powered electric locos used in India?
June 20, 2019

Yes. Western Railway inherited from the BB&CI Railway two broad-gauge battery-powered shunters that were used in a yard that was not electrified (and where the use of steam or diesel locos was thought to be too noisy). There is a picture of one of these in Jal Daboo's book. These were locomotives built in England in 1927, and for their time

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What kinds of bogies (trucks) are used by IR’s locomotives?
June 20, 2019

For mainline BG locomotives, there were, until the 1980s, two main alternatives. The venerable WDM-2 which existed (exists) in vast numbers, along with the WDS-6, WAM-4, WAG-5, and some of the WCAM-1/2 locos used an Alco design asymmetric trimount (Co-Co) cast bogie design. Most other mainline BG locos used some variant of the GM-EMD 'Flexicoil'

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What does ‘Static Converter Fitted’ or similar annotation mean on a locomotive?
June 20, 2019

Locos traditionally had a rotary converter (of Arno make) to generate 3-phase AC on board to power auxiliary equipment such as traction motor blowers, compressors, exhausters, etc. Starting in the 1980s static converters using solid-state circuitry to generate 3-phase AC on board have been used instead of the Arno converter, driving up efficiency

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What does ‘microprocessor control’ for a locomotive mean?
June 20, 2019

'Microprocessor control' can mean a few different things. A few of the newer electric locomotive models such as the WAP-5 or WAG-9 with complex 3-phase AC drives have circuitry and equipment controlled by microprocessors. In these, the microprocessor or computerized control is an integral part of the locomotives' design. Some of the newer diesel

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How are locomotives ‘run in’ to prepare them for service?
June 20, 2019

New locomotives are run in for a period of time after being commissioned from the factory in order to shake out any possible initial manufacturing defects and for all the components to settle into normal wear and usage patterns. In order to give the loco a reasonable load and much starting and stopping opportunities, usually the new loco is run in

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