What’s the history of EMU services on IR?

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What’s the history of EMU services on IR?

July 3, 2019, 11:17 AM

Bombay area EMUs date back to the 1920’s. In 1925, EMUs from Cammell-Laird and Uerdingenwagonfabrik (Germany) were used on the line from Victoria Terminus to Kurla (what would become the core of the CR suburban service). In 1928 EMU rakes from Cammell-Laird / BTH were used on what is now WR. These were in use until 1974. The BTH rakes were even wider than the current 12′ wide EMUs. A few Hitachi and Nippon SSK EMUs were used by what is now CR (some were acquired in 1925). These early EMUs were all vacuum-braked. (CR’s EMU’s had very weak horns operated by the vacuum of the brake system; WR had louder horns run by the air pressure of the pantograph reservoir.)

Birmingham Railway Carriage and Wagon Co. supplied 24 trailer cars for WR, and 32 for CR in the early 1950s. These were air-braked. In December 1947, CR ordered 56 (?) EMUs from Metroplitan Cammell, and others from Hitachi, Breda, etc. WR acquired 12 EMUs from Metropolitan Cammell. These coaches were in use until the early 1980s. Met-Cam also supplied 18 EMU coach shells, underframes, and bogies in 1955. In the 1960s EMUs from Jessop, MAN, ICF, etc. were brought into service. Later EMUs were almost all from ICF (a few from Jessop), with traction equipment from BHEL.

CR rakes (1925 stock), especially the ones run on the Harbour Branch, were generally narrower than the WR rakes, usually at 10’8″ because of smaller clearances on the Harbour Branch and the need to use the Bombay EMUs for the Race Specials to Pune on the mainline until the 1930s. They were also somewhat heavier than WR EMUs. These were withdrawn around 1966.

Some EMUs from SIG (SIG-Fiat joint venture?) were run in the 1950s but they had rather different operational procedures for isolating defective motors, etc. and were withdrawn from service in the 1960s. Calcutta EMUs are from ICF, as are the MG Madras EMUs. Early MG EMUs running on the Madras-Tambaram line were 3-car rigid units from Metro Cammell. The ICF-built MG EMUs in the Chennai system that ran until June 2004 were notable for their brisk acceleration and crisp braking (they were equipped with vacuum brakes). They were also different from the EMUs in Mumbai and other places as they had a right-hand side seating position for the motorman. In the layout of controls, the master controller was on the left and the brake controller on the right.

Source – IFRCA.org

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