What is EoTT in Indian Railway

Member, Rolling Stock, Railway Board announced through a press release on 09.08.2016 about Six new initiatives of Indian Railway including the new Communication Technology called Eott or End of Train Telemetry. Following are the brief on Communication Equipment or EoTT in Indian Railway and other initiatives.

The EoTT equipment is used to establish communication between Locomotive driver and the last vehicle of the train to see that the train is running with all coaches/wagons as a “complete” train.

There is a transmitter fitted on a locomotive and a receiver that is fitted on the end of the last vehicle.

The transmitter and the last vehicle receiver exchange signals periodically at regular intervals to ensure that the complete train is running as “Intact train”.

If there is a break in the communication between the two units, the driver gets a signal that the train has parted.

The transmitter unit which is fitted at the end of the train’s last wagon is connected to the brakes and it bleeds the Brake Pipe air and applies brakes to the broken away portion of wagons of the train so that they do not collide with the front portion.

A project has been sanctioned for purchase of 1000 systems at an estimated cost of Rs. 100 Crores.

In the press release, Member of Rolling Stock also gave all the details of other five more new initiatives by Indian Railway. Following are the details of that.

Ministry of Railways have already provided 43,000 bio-toilets in its coaches till 31st July, 2016 and in the current financial year, it is planned to fit additional 27,500 bio-toilets.

Indian Railways in its commitment to provide hygienic environment to passengers and to keep station premises/tracks clean, have developed environment-friendly Bio-toilets for its passenger coaches. The technology has been developed jointly by Indian Railways (IR) and Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) for railway passenger coaches through an MoU. This environment friendly, low cost and robust technology, is the first of its kind in Railway Systems in the world. In the bio-toilet fitted coaches, human waste is collected in tanks below the toilets and the same is decomposed by a consortium of bacteria.

In order to have visible benefits in terms of cleaner environment owing to provision of bio-toilets in coaches, Rameswarm-Manamadurai (114 Kms) was identified to make it Green Train Corridors– free from human waste discharge from trains.

For General Second Class passengers, potable water through Water filtration system, cushioned luggage racks, additional hand holds in doorway area, J hooks near longitudinal luggage racks for hanging carry bags, bio-toilets, water level indicator, Toilet occupation indication display board, Enhanced mobile charging facility, Fire extinguishers etc. are some of the amenities added in Deen Dayalu and Antyodaya train coaches.

Besides, for the first time, Indian Railways would try out operation of Antyodaya trains with Locos at both ends for faster acceleration and deceleration and for expeditious turnaround at terminals. 5 Antyodaya rakes have been planned for introduction in the current year and the first rake is expected by October 2016. Around 700 Deen Dayalu coaches are planned for introduction in various trains in the current year. First Deen Dayalu coach has already been launched by Railway Minster on 19.07.16.

Humsafar trains consisting of AC 3-Tier coaches only would have additional facilities such as GPS based Passenger information display system to inform passengers about arriving station, Passenger announcement system, Fire and Smoke detection system for enhanced fire safety, Mobile/ laptop charging points, Integrated Braille displays for the aid of visually impaired passengers, Improved aesthetics with new interior and exterior colour scheme etc. While 10 Humsafar rakes are planned for introduction in the current year, first such rake is expected by September 2016.

Tejas coaches would have ergonomic seating with improved cushioning and upholstery, Automatic doors, Infotainment system, GPS based Passenger information display system, Dust sealed gangways,  Fire and Smoke detection system , CCTV system, concealed LED lighting, adjustable reading lights, Passenger announcement system,. Vending machine, Mobile laptop charging points, enabling provision for on-board Wi-Fi facility, Integrated Braille displays, individual Magazine bags, bottle holders, snack table, Bio-Vacuum toilets, Sensorised taps, flushing system, hand driers, tissue paper dispenser and soap dispenser for touch less experience of toilet use, water level indicators, Accessible dustbins with higher capacity, Digital Destination Boards outside the coach for train and coach information to the boarding passengers etc. 3 Tejas AC Chair Car rakes have been planned for introduction and the first rake is expected by February 2017.

One Uday train service is planned for introduction in the current year with LHB AC Double Decker coaches.

Talgo is a Spanish firm manufacturing Semi high speed (160-250 kmph) and high speed (350 kmph) passengers trains. Talgo trains have been successfully running in many countries with high safety records.

With an objective to increase the speed of Mail/Express trains on its networks, IR decided to conduct trials of Talgo coaches to validate their speed potential and access saving in time between New Delhi and Mumbai without any investment on the fixed infrastructure. M/s. Talgo has brought 9 coaches for free of cost trials with no commitment from Indian Railways. Speed trials were conducted between Barailey and Moradabad section of Northern Railway upto speed of 115 kmph.

After successful completion of these trials high speed trials upto a test speed of 180 kmph were conducted between Mathura and Palwal section of NCR. The trials were found successful.

After the speed trials time saving trials have been started to validate the simulation done by M/s. Talgo. Total four runs were planned at a speed of 130, 130, 140 and 150 kmph. Two runs have already been conducted on 1.8.2016 and 5.8.2016.

Ministry of Railways, Railway Board has initiated a proposal to install TRI-NETRA systems on locomotives for enhancing the vision of Locomotive Pilots in inclement weather. TRI-NETRA stands for – Terrain imaging for diesel dRivers INfra-red, Enhanced opTical and Radar Assisted system.

TRI-NETRA system shall be made up of high-resolution optical video camera, high sensitivity infra-red video camera and additionally a radar-based terrain mapping system. These three components of the system shall act as three eyes (Tri-Netra) of the Locomotive Pilot.

“MAGLEV “stands for  MAGnetic LEVitation. The MAGLEV floats above the track on a “Cushion” of magnetic field. Magnets on the track push and lift the MAGLEV up in air by about 1 inch to 6 inches. These “track” magnets are controlled by a computers which keep shifting  forward the magnetic force of the “track” magnets so that the MAGLEV is pulled forward. Maximum speed achieved is 500 km/h.