Prologue

Indian Railways is the largest of its kind in India and one the few such organisations in the world. It has over 62000 route kilometers of which 13000 are electrified track . Today  over 11 million passengers and over 1 million tonnes of freight traffic are daily carried by Indian Railways. The share of Electric traction are 60% in freight and 48% in passenger traffic.

CLW is the only locomotive manufacturing workshop in the world which has gone through a total metamorphosis from Steam in 1956 to the state-of-the-art 3 phase Electric Locomotives in 1997-98. It has built the following :

Steam Locomotives : 2351 of 5 types                                          

Diesel Locomotives :  842 of 7 types.                                       

Electric locomotives :  2684 nos till 31.3.1999                                            

THE NECESSITY

With the increase of economic activities and on going electrification projects, and because the electric traction will be playing  an important pivotal role in the national economy,  it was felt necessary that a more speedy, strong and cost effective system of transportation is necessary in India. Keeping this in view, a decision was taken to acquire 3-phase drive technology for Indian Railways. A global search for the proven technology resulted in a contract with ADtranz( formerly ABB/Switzerland) .  The contract had 3 objectives. (1) To import fully assembled Locomotives and knocked down kits. (2) To ensure Local warranty service and (3) to gain transfer of technology (TOT). This TOT also granted IR the  non-exclusive rights to manufacture the 3-phase locomotive at CLW and right to develop sub-systems trough Indian Entrepreneurs.  This was done in July 1993.

What We Did                                                                          Fabricated bogie for 3-phase loco 
                                                                                                           manufactured at CLW

The fully assembled locomotives were directly pressed into service after routine tests and trials. The knocked down kits , 16 in number were assembled in CLW by the staff and engineers of CLW with the help of ADtranz. This provided assimilation of necessary skill for Staff at CLW. The series of WAG9 locos were completed successfully. Necessary infrastructure to manufacture bogie , shell, traction motors, fabricated items , machining of fabricated items, pneumatic system were installed.
                  

THE ADVANTAGES.

Why so much of money and efforts were spent ? Let us see how are these different from our previous ones.                                                                                                        

The 3-phase system provides a lot of advantages.                

1. Efficiency : Overall efficiency is increased by 5%

2. Savings in operation : IR is paying the SEBs in terms of "Maximum Demand" only , which speaks of high quantity and its reflection in bills. The new locomotives are regeneration type and and having unity power factor. Approximately 15% to 20% energy is conserved through regeneration while braking. Thus there will be a lot of savings.

3. Less maintenance of traction motors due to absence of commutator and brushgear.

4. Easy maintenance hence better availability. Normally  lifting is not required during attention to failures saving a lot of time.  

5. The traction motor is maintenance free. Therefore improved reliability.  

6. Low unsprung masses result in minimum wear on rails.  

                                                                                                         Traction Motor for WAG9       
                                                                                                            manufactured at CLW

Special diagnostics

7. Automated fault isolation.

8. Display terminal in Driver's Cab. Drivers get assistance during faults and rectification.

9. Diagnostic Computer to log faults and this can be uploaded to a PC in the shed/workshops for 

     better fault  identification

AC Traction Motor

     STEAM       DIESEL        ELECTRIC      MILESTONES       Strategy        INNOVATION    3 Phase Technology         

  WAG-5    WAG-7    WAG9h     WAP4        WAP5       WAP7