Aluminium Trains or iPhone for the Masses
Shubhranshu _
Railroad Professional with expertise in Design, Manufacture, Complex Contracts, Technology Transfer and Train Operations.
If one goes by the technology buzz in the Rolling Stock circles, there can’t be deliverance on this front unless India goes for aluminium as the material of choice in its trains. Indeed, the argument is presented as if by not going aluminium the country will be held back and the masses deprived of train travel. Well, wouldn’t they be similarly deprived, if they all didn’t get an iPhone each at multiple times the price of an equally competent Android phone?
The most innovative thing to happen of late on the railway tracks is the Train-18, which was lovingly rechristened the Vande Bharat Express by the PM himself. The value that the PM places on this low-cost, semi-high speed, indigenous design is evident from the efforts he takes to personally flag off many of these trains.
As the head of the Design and Manufacturing team at ICF that delivered the Vande Bharat prototypes as envisioned by Mr. Sudhanshu Mani, I have access to some design data that places the call for aluminium in perspective. All the high-speed trains (250-350kmph) in the world, whether in Japan, China, Europe, or South Korea have an axle load of 17 tonnes. Seventeen tonnes seems to be an unstated upper limit for high-speed. Even in Indian Railways, the RDSO caps the axle load at this figure for speeds above 160kmph, right where the Vande Bharat trains are placed.
The axle load of the Vande Bharat Express is well within 17 tonnes, some unmotored coaches even log 16.5 tonnes. That this has been achieved with stainless steel on a Broad-Gauge design is an engineering marvel of sorts. We delightfully realised, mid-way during the project, that we had successfully managed the cap of 17 tonnes even though that was what we had aimed for.
Don’t get me wrong. We did attempt an aluminium design, which we called the Train-20. The project was killed by conservatism in the bureaucracy. More recently the tender for 200 aluminium trains got cancelled due to high price. It was vindication of my thought that came from the wisdom gained later during the project. Indian Railways have had 160/180 kmph rolling stock in numbers, both passenger coaches and locomotives for over two decades now. That we have not been able to exploit this speed due to poor tracks and inadequate signalling is well known. Yet in departmental disconnects there has been a race to promote modernity in silos without a comprehensive technology plan. And we are not even talking of 300kmph on our mainlines; the 250kmph Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed line is an isolated island just like the metro networks.
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Why have we adopted aluminium on our metro systems of late, one may ask. Primarily because all the technology for metro trains is imported and the technology owners have switched to aluminium. Metro trains are low-speed, high-acceleration, stop-and-go designs, where shaving weights off the axle load matters for energy consumption. Mainline trains are high-speed and have infrequent stops. They also have 3-5 minutes to accelerate to their cruising speeds, a duration during which a metro train must start, pick up speed and stop again. Energy efficiency matters for metro systems a lot more.
Mainline trains necessarily have to be made with much higher structural strength. This necessitates the underframes to be built of steel. The undergear – bogies, wheels, traction equipment, springs, bearings etc. will always be made of steel (and copper). Aluminium in the superstructure can at best save a couple of tonnes (aluminium sections have to be thicker than steel), or 0.5 tonnes per axle. The additional cost is anything but incremental - 155 crores vs. 120 crores as per latest tender bids. An additional 35 crore for no gain whatsoever. That amount could get Indian Railways 100 wagons to carry freight, or a rake of 18 LHB coaches, almost a full additional train.
Considering that designers of Indian Railways have achieved the holy grail of 17 tonnes with stainless steel on Broad-Gauge and also that even 200kmph looks like a distant dream, the market forces have spoken well. We don’t need aluminium coaches for mainline no matter how much some of us, me included, love modern technology.
Meanwhile, not to be left behind in the race to beat competition the iPhone 15 now comes in a Titanium Shell!
Director at Hegenscheidt MFD India (P) Ltd.
10 个月Very well written - isolated verticals is so true !! Without better tracks and signalling, the system as a whole cannot progress to higher speeds. Example, when the Shatabdi from Chandigarh to Delhi started in 1989 the time taken was 2 hours 50 minutes with one stop in Ambala. Today the Vande Bharat does the same time !!
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10 个月Amazing ??
Retired AGM,SC RAILWAY HQ,SECUNDERABAD(AP)
10 个月A great learning experience ,Shubhranshu.IR need to concentrate on bringing the Pway upto par for speeds our steel bodied rolling stock are capable for. Aluminum in IR mainline rolling stock would be a colossal waste of fiscal resources. Thanks a lot.
Principal Chief Mechanical Engineer, Indian Railways| Authored articles on Coach & Wagon Design for IR Tech Bulletin. Awarded by head of zonal Railways thrice for exemplary work.
10 个月Sir, Adhesion coeff is variable n improves with axle load. So motor coaches deliver more traction for same horse power of motors. And HP per ton of trailing load would be better under compulsion of IR's unique long train/ trailing load requirement. So does SS become USP for IR ? To carry more tons per unit of energy, Kwh consumption.
Rolling Stock Consulting
11 个月On the onset , Kudos to the team which developed train 18 design and manufactured Vande Bharat train which has broken the barrier of speed and technology on IR which was stuck for over a decade. It may be appreciated that It took years of hard work by the team to develop the prototype and then to prove it, followed up by setting up for regular production of Vande Bharat train which the country now proliferates to meet the operational requirements. Well, similar efforts and lot more time will be required to develop Al body train 20 with higher speed potential. It is right time now to invest in this project as we have the train 18 team is still around, which has the experience and knowledge of the task involved to develop the train 20. The leaders of country have sight of future needs would surely appreciate that it is best move to empower the team still working or retired from IR to work on the development and building train 20. They are the best bet to realize the country‘s dream of high speed trains in India.