1.
Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works
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Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works were a railway equipment manufacturer based in Winterthur in Switzerland. Much of the mountain railway equipment was constructed by them. The company was founded in 1871 by the British engineer Charles Brown, SLM built both steams and electric locomotives, including the crocodile type. From 1992, SLM returned to producing steam locomotives designed around advanced steam technology principles and this included rebuilding DR Class 52.80 locomotive number 528055. In 1998 the Cog-Railway division was sold to Stadler Rail, the Engineering division via Adtranz to Bombardier Transportation, the remaining Business was renamed as Sulzer-Winpro AG and as part of a Management Buyout in 2001 renamed in Winpro AG. The Advanced Steam division was sold in 2000 to DLM AG, in October 2001 the Measurement Division was sold to PROSE AG. Winpro AG was sold on 7 September 2005 to Stadler Rail, SLM Factories Jakob Buchli - a railway pioneer with the SLM
2.
Golden Rock Railway Workshop
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This repair workshop is basically a Mechanical Workshop which comes under the control of the Mechanical Department of the Indian Railways. The other two mechanical workshops of Southern Railway are located in Perambur, Chennai and they are Carriage Works, Perambur and Loco Works, Perambur. This central workshop was set up in 1897 by South Indian Railways at Nagapattinam mainly to cater to the requirement of steam locomotive maintenance, South Indian Railways decided to shift the workshop to Trichinopoly, presently known as Tiruchchirappalli, owing to its locational advantage. Consequently, foundation stone was laid by Mrs. R. P. MUNRO on 20.10.1926 and it was shifted to Tiruchchirappalli in 1928 because of its strategic location. The Central Workshop, Golden Rock is functioning at Tiruchchirappalli since then, the total area of this workshop is around 200 acres, out of which 26 acres is covered under roof. At present 6,091 employees are working in this workshop and this workshop is primarily engaged in the activities of DSL Loco POH, heritage steam locomotive POH, coaching stock maintenance and wagon manufacturing and other sundry activities. This workshop does have a long way around 600 metres long and 80 feet wide. This workshop was involved in repairing of Royal Air Forces air planes during World War II and this workshop when built had state-of-the-art facilities rarely seen in those days. It had its own powerhouse which generated electricity for the workshop, in fact, Railway colony, Golden Rock was one of the first places to be lit by electrical lights in Tiruchirappalli city those days. CWM, Goldenrock Railway Workshop is headed by one Sr, Administrative Grade Officer, designated as Chief Workshop Manager. He is the overall in-charge for complete activities and he is assisted currently by three Junior Administrative Officers, four Sr. Scale Officers and four Junior Scale Officers. CME/P, Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer/P is responsible for POH / conversion of X class locomotives, the Golden rock workshops has been entrusted with the responsibility of carrying out the POH of X class locomotives and manufacturing of new locomotives. At the time of POH, the original coal-fired boiler of the loco is converted into oil fired loco without altering the external looks to preserve the heritage value, the conversion has become necessary in view of the logistics, economy and availability of coal for the loco. At present the workshop has also secured the order for manufacturing 4 X class locomotives, in view of the international importance of this railway, the senior most JAG officer of the workshop has been entrusted with the responsibility of this activity. He is also in-charge Production Shops viz Wheel Shop, Fabrication and Smithy Shop, Machine Shop, Foundry and he is also looking after Production, Planning and Control Organization. He is assisted by one Sr. Scale Officer Dy, cME/DSL, Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer/Diesel is overall in-charge for complete Periodical Overhauling activities of diesel locomotives and its allied shops viz. EBR, CLP, CMS & HERS. He is also looking after activities related to export locomotives, overhauling of Public Sector Locomotives and he is assisted by one Sr. Scale and one Junior Scale Officers. CME/Carriage & Wagon, Deputy Chief Mechanical Engineer/Carriage and Wagon is overall in-charge for periodical overhauling of Carriages and he is incharge for manufacturing various types of wagons like BOXNHL, BLC and others
3.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
4.
Track gauge
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In rail transport, track gauge is the spacing of the rails on a railway track and is measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing rails. All vehicles on a network must have running gear that is compatible with the track gauge, as the dominant parameter determining interoperability, it is still frequently used as a descriptor of a route or network. There is a distinction between the gauge and actual gauge at some locality, due to divergence of track components from the nominal. Railway engineers use a device, like a caliper, to measure the actual gauge, the nominal track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the rails. In current practice, it is specified at a distance below the rail head as the inner faces of the rail head are not necessarily vertical. In some cases in the earliest days of railways, the company saw itself as an infrastructure provider only. Colloquially the wagons might be referred to as four-foot gauge wagons, say and this nominal value does not equate to the flange spacing, as some freedom is allowed for. An infrastructure manager might specify new or replacement track components at a variation from the nominal gauge for pragmatic reasons. Track is defined in old Imperial units or in universally accepted metric units or SI units, Imperial units were established in United Kingdom by The Weights and Measures Act of 1824. In addition, there are constraints, such as the load-carrying capacity of axles. Narrow gauge railways usually cost less to build because they are lighter in construction, using smaller cars and locomotives, as well as smaller bridges, smaller tunnels. Narrow gauge is often used in mountainous terrain, where the savings in civil engineering work can be substantial. Broader gauge railways are generally expensive to build and require wider curves. There is no single perfect gauge, because different environments and economic considerations come into play, a narrow gauge is superior if ones main considerations are economy and tight curvature. For direct, unimpeded routes with high traffic, a broad gauge may be preferable, the Standard, Russian, and 46 gauges are designed to strike a reasonable balance between these factors. In addition to the general trade-off, another important factor is standardization, once a standard has been chosen, and equipment, infrastructure, and training calibrated to that standard, conversion becomes difficult and expensive. This also makes it easier to adopt an existing standard than to invent a new one and this is true of many technologies, including railroad gauges. The reduced cost, greater efficiency, and greater economic opportunity offered by the use of a common standard explains why a number of gauges predominate worldwide
5.
Driving wheel
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On a steam locomotive, a driving wheel is a powered wheel which is driven by the locomotives pistons. On diesel and electric locomotives, the wheels may be directly driven by the traction motors. Coupling rods are not usually used, and it is common for each axle to have its own motor. Jackshaft drive and coupling rods were used in the past but their use is now confined to shunting locomotives, on an articulated locomotive or a duplex locomotive, driving wheels are grouped into sets which are linked together within the set
6.
Valve gear
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It can also serve as a reversing gear. It is sometimes referred to as the motion, in the simple case, this can be a relatively simple task as in the internal combustion engine in which the valves always open and close at the same points. A further benefit may be obtained by admitting the steam to the cylinder slightly before front or back dead centre and this advanced admission assists in cushioning the inertia of the motion at high speed. Instead, a system of eccentrics, cranks and levers is used to control a D slide valve or piston valve from the motion. Generally, two simple harmonic motions with different fixed phase angles are added in varying proportions to provide a motion that is variable in phase. A variety of mechanisms have been devised over the years. Both slide and piston valves have the limitation that intake and exhaust events are fixed in relation to each other, lap is provided on steam edges of the valve, so that although the valve stroke reduces as cutoff is advanced, the valve is always fully opened to exhaust. However, as cutoff is shortened, the exhaust events also advance, the exhaust release point occurs earlier in the power stroke and compression earlier in the exhaust stroke. Early release wastes some energy in the steam, and early closure also wastes energy in compressing an otherwise unnecessarily large quantity of steam and these inefficiencies drove the widespread experimentation in poppet valve gears for locomotives. Intake and exhaust poppet valves could be moved and controlled independently of each other, a very late British design, the SR Leader class, used sleeve valves adapted from internal combustion engines, but this class was not a success. In stationary steam engines, traction engines and marine engine practice, in stationary engines trip valves were also extensively used. Valve gear was a field of invention, with probably several hundred variations devised over the years. However, only a number of these saw any widespread use. They can be divided into those that drove the standard reciprocating valves, those used with poppet valves, slip-eccentric - This gear is now confined to model steam engines, and low power hobby applications such as steam launch engines, ranging to a few horsepower. The eccentric is loose on the crankshaft but there are stops to limit its rotation relative to the crankshaft, the engine is pushed forwards to put the eccentric in the forward gear position and backwards to put it in the backward gear position. There is no control of cutoff. These included the Teutonic, Greater Britain and John Hick classes, gab or hook gear - used on earliest locomotives. Allowed reversing but no control of cutoff, one component of the motion comes from a crank or eccentric
7.
Nilgiri Mountain Railway
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The Nilgiri Mountain Railway is a railway in Tamil Nadu, India, built by the British in 1908, and was initially operated by the Madras Railway. The railway relies on its fleet of steam locomotives, NMR comes under the jurisdiction of the newly formed Salem Division. For the past several years diesel locomotives have taken over from steam on the section between Coonoor and Udhagamandalam, local people and tourists have led a demand for steam locomotives to once again haul this section. The NMR track is 1,000 mm metre gauge and the railway is isolated from other metre gauge lines, between Mettupalayam and Coonoor, the line uses the Abt rack and pinion system to climb the steep gradient. On this rack section trains are operated by X Class steam rack locomotives manufactured by the Swiss Locomotive and these steam locomotives can be used on any part of the line, but the newer diesel locomotives can operate on the entire section, between Mettupalayam and Udagamandalam. The work was entrusted to Golden Rock Workshop of Southern Railway at Tiruchirapalli, each of the new engines weighs a little over 50 tonnes and cost Rs.10 crore. The new engine has been provided with pilot and primary burners with separate tanks to hold about 850 litres of diesel and 2,250 litres of furnace oil. The hauling capacity of new engine is 97.6 tonnes and it can run at a speed of 30 kilometres per hour in plains. The arrival of the new engines has eliminated the disruption in service that occurred frequently over the last few years, for long, the X Class locomotives manufactured by Swiss Locomotive and Machine Works of Winterthur in Switzerland lent that distinct charm to NMR. These locomotives are six to eight decades old, railway officials said The steam locomotives are always marshalled at the end of the train. The average gradient in this section is 1 in 24.5. Between Coonoor and Udagamandalam the train is operated by a YDM4 diesel locomotive using conventional rail adhesion principles, as of 2007, there is one train a day over the rack section, which starts from Mettupalayam at 07,10 and reaches Ooty at noon. The return train starts from Ooty at 14,00, the train is scheduled to connect to the Nilgiri Express, which travels from Mettupalayam to Chennai via Coimbatore. A summer special service is run during the months of April and May, starting from Mettupalayam at 09,30. Between Coonoor and Udagamandalam, there are four trains each way. However, ticket booking is similar to conventional trains and can also be done via the Indian Railways website. It is advisable to book tickets for this well in advance. The majority of repairs to the locomotives are carried out at the Coonoor shed, carriages are repaired at Mettupalayam but, like the locomotives, are taken to one of the big railway workshops for major work
8.
Nilgiri mountains
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The Nilgiri, form part of the Western Ghats in western Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala states in Southern India. At least 24 of the Nilgiri mountains peaks are above 2,000 metres, spanning an area of 2,479 square kilometres, the mountains central location is 11°22′30″N 76°45′30″E. The Nilgiris District of Tamil Nadu lies within these mountains, spanning 130 km by 185 km and it is connected via Nilgiri Mountain Railway. The mountains are separated from other geographical features by the Moyar River to the north, the Nilgiri Hills are part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, and form a part of the protected bio reserves in India. The high steppes of the Nilgiri Hills have been inhabited since prehistoric times, the first recorded use of the word Nila applied to this region can be traced back to 1117 AD. A hero stone with a Kannada inscription at Vazhaithottam in the Nilgiri District, as a result of these accounts, Messrs. Whish and Kindersley, two young Madras civilians, ventured up in pursuit of some criminals taking refuge in the mountains and they soon saw and felt enough favorable climate and terrain to excite their own curiosity, and that of others. With a detachment of Europeans and Indian sepoys, they set out on this mission on January 2,1819, the journey involved crossing rough and harsh terrain, steep precipices and danger from wild animals. After an expedition that lasted for six days and the loss of some of the members lives. In May 1819, the tourists from Coimbatore, accompanied by Monsieur Leschnault de la Tour, naturalist to the King of France. They asserted the temperature in the shade to be 74 °F at a time when the temperature of the plains was up to 100 °F, such a climate within the tropics was considered so great an anomaly that at first only a few believed its existence. After the early 1820s, the hills were developed rapidly under the British Raj and it was a popular summer and weekend getaway for the British during the colonial days. In 1827, Ooty became the official sanatorium and the capital of the Madras Presidency. Many winding hill roads were built, in 1899, the Nilgiri Mountain Railway was completed by influential and enterprising British citizens, with venture capital from the Madras government. They were documented by Edgar Thurston, paraiyan is also anglicized as pariah. The highest point in the Nilgiris and the extent of the range is Doddabetta Peak,4 km east southeast of Udhagamandalam. Closely linked peaks in the west of Doddabetta range and nearby Udhagamandalam include, Kolaribetta, height,2,630 metres, Hecuba,2,375 metres, Kattadadu,2,418 metres and Kulkudi,2,439 metres. Snowdon 11°23′29″N 76°31′38″E, Pichalbetta and Nilgiri Peak 11°24′0″N 76°30′4″E are the important heights of this area and these three hills of the Wayanad district are generally low in relation to other heights of the district but are distinguished in relation to the generally uniform level of this area
9.
Rack railway
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A rack railway is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with this rack rail and this allows the trains to operate on steep grades above around 7 to 10%, which is the maximum for friction-based rail. Most rack railways are mountain railways, although a few are transit railways or tramways built to overcome a steep gradient in an urban environment. The first cog railway was the Middleton Railway between Middleton and Leeds in West Yorkshire, England, UK, where the first commercially successful steam locomotive, Salamanca and this used a rack and pinion system designed and patented in 1811 by John Blenkinsop. The first mountain cog railway was the Mount Washington Cog Railway in the US state of New Hampshire, the track was completed to reach the summit of Mount Washington in 1869. The first mountain railway in continental Europe was the Vitznau-Rigi-Bahn on Mount Rigi in Switzerland. A number of different rack systems have been developed, today, the majority of rack railways use the Abt system. Blenkinsops system remained in use for 25 years on the Middleton Railway, Rack systems place the rack rail halfway between the running rails, with the exception of some early Morgan rack installations. The first successful rack railway in the US was the Mount Washington Cog Railway, the first public trial of the Marsh rack on Mount Washington was made on August 29,1866, when only one quarter of a mile of track had been completed. The Mount Washington railway opened to the public on August 14,1868, the Riggenbach rack system was invented by Niklaus Riggenbach working at about the same time as, but independently from Marsh. Riggenbach was granted a French patent in 1863 based on a model which he used to interest potential Swiss backers. During this time, the Swiss Consul to the United States visited Marshs Mount Washington Cog Railway, eager to boost tourism in Switzerland, the government commissioned Riggenbach to build a rack railway up Rigi Mountain. Following the construction of a locomotive and test track in a quarry near Bern. The Riggenbach system is similar in design to the Marsh system and it uses a ladder rack, formed of steel plates or channels connected by round or square rods at regular intervals. The Riggenbach system suffers from the problem that its fixed ladder rack is more complex, following the success of the Vitznau-Rigi-Bahn, Riggenbach established the Maschinenfabrik der Internationalen Gesellschaft für Bergbahnen - a company that produced rack locomotives to his design. The Strub rack system was invented by Emil Strub in 1896 and it uses a rolled flat-bottom rail with rack teeth machined into the head approximately 100 mm apart. Safety jaws fitted to the locomotive engage with the underside of the head to prevent derailments, strubs US Patent, granted in 1898, also includes details of how the rack rail is integrated with the mechanism of a turnout. The best-known use of the Strub system is on the Jungfraubahn in Switzerland and it is the simplest rack system to maintain and has become increasingly popular
10.
Beyer, Peacock and Company
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Beyer, Peacock and Company was an English railway Locomotive manufacturer with a factory in Gorton, Manchester. Founded by Charles Beyer, Richard Peacock and Henry Robertson, it traded from 1854 until 1966 and it received limited liability in 1902, becoming Beyer, Peacock and Company Limited. In 1854, the German born Charles Beyer resigned as engineer at Atlas works. It was Beyer that was responsible for success of production at Atlas. He had trained under the guidance of the inventor of cotton mill machinery. Richard Peacock resigned from his position as engineer of the Manchester, Sheffield. Confident in his ability to secure orders to build locomotives, Beyer’s resignation presented Peacock with a partnership opportunity. However, this was not a company and all partners were liable for debts should the business fail, in a mid-Victorian economic climate of boom and bust. Beyer could raise £9,524 and Peacock £5,500, Beyer and Peacock were founder members of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Unfortunately, Geach died, the loan was recalled and the project nearly died. To the rescue came Thomas Brassey who persuaded Henry Robertson to provide a £4,000 loan in return for being the third partner, Beyer appointed and worked closely with Hermann Ludwig Lange, in 1861. A native of his town, Plauen, Saxony, Langer trained as an engineer in Germany, became chief draughtsman in 1865. Four New South Wales Government Railways AD60 Class Beyer-Garratt Patent locomotives are preserved being the most powerful locomotives in the southern hemisphere when introduced. Gorton Foundry was on the side of the railway line to the Manchester, Sheffield. Between 1855 and 1966, the company built nearly 8,000 railway locomotives, several of their 1874-built steam locomotives for the Isle of Man Railway remain in daily use. A Gorton-built South African Railways GL class Beyer-Garratt locomotive is on display in the Museum of Science, in addition to building steam locomotives, Beyer, Peacock & Co. The foundry was at Openshaw near Manchester, England, and was built in 1854, the site was chosen because land was cheaper than in the city and had good water supply from a local reservoir. Beyer had designed the works so it always allowed room for expansion, in its 112-year history no buildings needed to be demolished as the works developed
