Historically, many sections have seen railcar or railbus service in India. There have been several imported models used, and also homegrown versions which are often literally buses or truck bodies placed on rails. In recent years, many sections have seen the introduction of railbus or railcar services. This recent program of adding railbus or railcar services probably began with the Merta City – Merta Road service in the 1980’s. This section still runs BG railbuses.

BG railbus service is also found on the Bangarpet-Kolar, Mathura-Vrindavan, Goindwal-Beas, and Bobilli-? (on Vizianagaram-Bilaspur line) routes. The Kanpur-Brahmawart railbus service (early 1990s) appears to have been withdrawn. Tumsar Road – Tirodi service introduced in 1998 has been withdrawn, and the two railbuses are reported [5/05] to be stabled at Tumsar yard.

MG railbuses are found in several places (Silchar-Jiribam, Junagadh-Dhari, Tiruturaipundi-Agastiampalli, Banmankhi-Bihariganj, Shimoga-Talaguppa, Ambliyasan-Vijapur-Adraj Moti of WR, etc., and especially on NER). Sometimes two railbus units are operated together, making them technically a railcar formation. The well-known railcar service for Bangalore/Yeshwanthpur stopped a few years ago. Some MG railcars were built by converting ICF MG coaches.

Yelahanka- Kolar Gold Fields – Bangarpet had an NG railcar service in the past, but the section is being converted to BG. The NG railcars (4 in number, class ZRD) were converted to MG for use on the Shimoga-Talaguppa section. A view of one of these appears in Bill Aitken’s ‘Exploring Indian Railways’. Bankura-Damodar, Bankura-Rainagar, Bodeli – Chota Udepur are other NG sections with railbus service.

ये भी पढ़े – योगासन का इतिहास तथा योग से होने वाले फायदे

[7/00] Ankleshwar – Raj Pipla is also supposed to get NG railcar service soon. In these NG railcars, the power car has a 22-passenger capacity and the trailer cars have a 31-passenger capacity. There was also an NG railbus service between Kalka and Shimla but now single-unit railcars are said to work the line. Shantipur-Nabadwipdham is another section with railcars. Barddham-Katwa and Ahmadpur-Katwa have railbus service. The Shimoga-Talaguppa section now [2004] has railbuses (class YRD-2) that are based on the road buses used by the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation.

Some railbuses and railcars were made by the Izzatnagar works by placing road vehicle bodies on wheels modified for the rails. Recently BEML has been making many BG railbuses (class WRB) – see below. These are more purpose-built as rail vehicles and not just crudely retrofitted road vehicles. The older railbuses often have an Ashok Leyland bus engine with a Hindustan Motors hydraulic transmission (under licence from Allison). RDSO developed a BG railbus design with 60 seats, powered by a normal bus engine and suitable for bidirectional running, in 1993.

Other self-propelled vehicles
There are some OHE inspection/maintenance vehicles that use the same prime mover (Cummins 705hp engine) as the DEMU’s; these are called diesel electric tower cars (DETC) as they have a diesel-electric transmission. (The term ‘tower wagon’ is also used instead of ‘tower car’.) These can often be seen used for light shunting duties since the 700/750hp engine is powerful enough for that. Most DETC vehicles are built by ICF. A DETC generally has a top speed of about 100km/h. It is equipped with dual brakes. It has a compact workshop for routine maintenance and repairs of the OHE structure, and a telecommunications unit for communicating with the traction power controllers. Most DETC units also have small rest and toilet areas for the crew. (Also see the item on BEML OHE inspection cars below.)

Some OHE maintenance vehicles have a different, smaller engine from Ashok Leyland with hydraulic transmission. The newer ones (class RU) have 8-wheeled bogie stock in contrast to the older 4-wheeler OHE inspection cars (class ERU). They have an all-weather cockpit at roof level for OHE inspection, and a hydraulically operated tower which can be swung up close to the catenary (also sideways to the catenary of the adjacent track). Pantographs with measuring devices allow recording contact wire pressure and stagger, as well as dynamic characteristics of the catenary on the run.

They also house a workshop inside, with machine tools, welding equipment, portable generator, etc., in addition to sleeping/resting quarters for the crew, including toilets and a kitchenette, a rare level of crew comfort on IR.

The BEML OHE inspection cars can run at 110km/h (the older ones could only manage 40km/h and besides, were often in trouble because they had a flaw where they failed to trip the block circuit in many cases). The new ones can also work as wiring trains in case the catenary needs to be rewired (for short lengths of catenary). These cars have driving cabs at both ends.

The older ones (class ERU) exhibit a wide variety in their designs. Most were 4-wheeled, although a few 8-wheeled ones exist(ed). Many were put together by the various loco sheds and workshops. Some old ones even had mechanical transmissions with a manual gearbox in the cabs at either end, often rigged from road truck powertrain components.

DETCs and other OHE inspection vehicles are found all over the IR network now that electrification has spread wide. E.g.: Bilaspur, Asansol, Vijayawada, Satna, Mumbai Central, Kalyan, Bhusawal, Itarsi, Baroda and many others. Having ample power (700hp) they are often also seen performing shunting duties.

Accident Relief Medical Vans (classification ARMV) are diesel-powered. In some cases they are actually converted EMU units (e.g., old DC EMU’s from the Bombay area are used as ARMV’s on KR), with a diesel-generator set added. Usually two such EMU units are coupled together, one supplying the power and the other converted to house an emergency medical treatment facility, where the diesel-generator supplies power for air-conditiioning, etc. The hospital units have emergency medical equipment and surgical facilities. Usually, they also have accommodation (hospital beds) for up to 12 patients on board. ICF usually refers to these coupled units as ARTV (below). Max. speed 95km/h.

Accident Relief Tool Vans (classification ARTV) are usually coupled in pairs, one as a hospital coach (see above, ARMV), and another coach with re-railing and metal working equipment and other tools. (The combination is therefore usually denoted ‘ARMV/ART’.) They usually have two underslung diesel engines of about 350hp (total 700hp) with a hydraulic transmission (Kirloskar Pneumatics, under licence from Voith). Some ARTVs belonging to Chennai Central seem to operate [10/03] with three cars, the third one being similar to an OHE wiring car, but its purpose is not clear. Max. speed 95km/h.

SPART RDSO has developed [2004] a design for a three-coach self-propelled ARMV/ART (SPART) train that can be driven from either end and which has a top speed of 140km/h. Classification code not known — this is identified in RDSO literature as the ‘high speed SPART’. In addition to the air-conditioned medical van (‘PC’) and the tool van (‘DPC-II’) as with the current two-coach ARMV/ART trains, this one would have an additional supervisory/kitchen van (‘DPC-I’). Additionally, compared to the older ARTV, there are some improvements such as a wider sliding door with a ladder arrangement for easy unloading and loading of tools and materials.

Note that accident relief vehicles of different kinds are sometimes generically referred to as Accident Relief Van or ARVs.

NETRA (which stands for Network of Electrification — Testing and Recording Apparatus) is a special coach designed for inspection of the catenary in electrified sections. It has an IRY shell mounted on IR-20 bogies, with a rated top speed of 160km/h. (It is an unpowered vehicle and must be hauled by a loco.) It has a pantograph (a dummy — does not draw current) which is used to test and record various mechanical characteristics of the pantograph-catenary interaction while the coach is in motion.

ARTs and Breakdown Cranes Breakdown cranes have always been essential equipment for emergency operations at accident sites. Steam cranes were part of IR’s inventory for a long time, even after steam-hauled trains had essentially disappeared from the network. However, steam cranes have been decommissioned now and diesel cranes are used instead. Breakdown cranes form a part of Accident Relief Trains (ART) which are like the ARTV rakes discussed above but carrying additional heavier tools, hydraulic rerailing equipment, and with a breakdown crane usually forming part of the rake. Often they also include a medical van, thus combining the features of both the ARTV and the ARMV. In the past, there were many different formations of ARTs and their composition was not entirely standardized. Two classes, known simply as ‘A’ type and ‘B’ type ARTs, were usually recognized. The ‘A’ type ARTs were the ones equipped with heavier-duty equipment, although there was no firm line dividing the two. In the late 1970s, there were 141 ‘A’ class ARTs and 60 ‘B’ class ARTs on IR’s network. The introduction of heavier rolling stock (such as the BOX and other wagons that were replacing the earlier 4-wheeler stock) made it imperative that breakdown equipment be capable of dealing with heavier loads during operations of clearing accident sites, rerailing vehicles, etc. The older steam cranes were often not up to the task. Accordingly, in 1981 the Railway Board decided that all new breakdown cranes had to be diesel-powered and rated for 140t on BG and 75t on MG. Hydraulic rerailing equipment and medical vans were made standard for ARTs as well. The classification of ARTs was then rationalized so that ‘A’ class ARTs always included a heavy-duty breakdown crane, and were to distributed so that no accident site would be more than 250km from one. The ‘B’ class ARTs would no longer have a breakdown crane but would be distribed more closely so that no accident site was more than 150km away from one. With this, the required number of ARTs under the new scheme was intended to be 151.

The 1981 requirements for breakdown cranes included the following: 140t rated lifting capacity, max. speed of 75km/h, provision of safe load moment indicator and safety cut-offs, and all-hydraulic motion actuation and control. Twelve cranes were obtained from NEI Cowans Boyd and twelve from Gottwald. In each case, 6 cranes were imported assembled, 3 in knocked-down condition, and 3 in component form. Jessops in Calcutta were entrusted with the production of Cowans design cranes, and Jamalpur workshops with the production of Gottwald cranes. Jamalpur workshops began indigenous production of Gottwald cranes by 1986.

Smaller breakdown cranes (80t, 120t, etc.) are also used by IR. In IR documents, ‘small’ cranes are those that have load moments up to 700 tonne-meters; ‘medium’ cranes those which have load moments from 700 to 1,000 tonne-meters, and ‘large’ cranes those which have load moments above 1,000 tonne-meters. The 140t cranes (Cowans / Gottwald) can lift the 140t load at a radius of 9m, so that their load moments are 1,260 tonne-meters and are therefore considered ‘large’ cranes.

There are many other self-propelled vehicles such as inspection trolleys (well, the simplest of these are human-powered!), track-laying equipment, oscillograph cars, with various kinds of low-power diesel engines. Road vehicles such as trucks, buses, vans, and even small scooters (Vespa, Lambretta, etc.) are sometimes seen modified for use on the tracks.

Source – IFRCA.org

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