Railways' relief van off track
The rlys built a special vehicle that could run on road as well as rail to reach a crisis spot quickly, but it just slips off when put on track
Yogesh Avasthi
Modernisation Workshop, Patiala, touted as the mother of all innovations, was meant to take advantage of roads that run parallel to railway tracks to avoid clogged railway tracks during accidents. However, while the van runs smoothly on roads but goes off track when it catches speed.
Officials have organised eight trial runs so far, but each time the vehicle has slipped off track. Sources in the railways say there is some problem in the alignment of the metallic wheels and the technical team is struggling to fix it.
The vehicle is a product of a very useful innovation that saw the designers incorporate on a chassis both metallic wheels that can roll over rails and fortified rubber tyres and tubes a la trucks and buses that enable the vehicle to be run on roads.
The idea is to roll out the vehicle from a station with rescue and relief personnel and equipment as soon as officials get information of an accident or any other emergency.
without success.
“This is a white elephant and it serves the purpose of only a truck. In fact, the railway had problems in getting the vehicle registered with the RTO. Thanks to the intervention of senior officials the RTO agreed to register it after six or seven months. We had to give the officials concerned the proof of similar vehicles being registered with RTOs in other states”, source said.
Yogesh Avasthi
Posted On Saturday, December 04, 2010 (http://www.ahmedabadmirror.com/index.aspx?Page=article§name=News%20-%20Latest§id=2&contentid=2010120420101204034509106ca0feb02)
The much hyped road-cum-rail emergency van commissioned by the Indian Railways for emergency relief and rescue just refuses to get going despite several trial runs over more than a year and a half. As many as eight trial runs by the railways have failed with the van shooting off the track just metres from the start line. The road-cum-rail emergency van, designed and produced by the Diesel Loco
Modernisation Workshop, Patiala, touted as the mother of all innovations, was meant to take advantage of roads that run parallel to railway tracks to avoid clogged railway tracks during accidents. However, while the van runs smoothly on roads but goes off track when it catches speed. The van cost the railways around Rs 25 lakh. The Indian Railways had allocated a van or two to each of its divisions depending on their expanse.
The Ahmedabad Division got the special vehicle in February 2009. Officials have organised eight trial runs so far, but each time the vehicle has slipped off track. Sources in the railways say there is some problem in the alignment of the metallic wheels and the technical team is struggling to fix it.
The vehicle is a product of a very useful innovation that saw the designers incorporate on a chassis both metallic wheels that can roll over rails and fortified rubber tyres and tubes a la trucks and buses that enable the vehicle to be run on roads.
The idea is to roll out the vehicle from a station with rescue and relief personnel and equipment as soon as officials get information of an accident or any other emergency.
The vehicle would first run on road and reach the nearest railway level crossing where it can get on to the rails to reach the spot of accident. The road route will help it avoid the railway tracks, if they are clogged.
The innovation gives the officials the option of reversing the order if they feel that the vehicle will take longer to reach near the spot if it takes the road route.
A top railway official admitted that the vehicle gets derailed on railway tracks if it crosses a certain speed. “The springs (sic, shock-absorbers) are unable to sustain the surface uneveness. This is primarily a road vehicle and it is difficult to design a vehicle with a spring (sic) that runs both on rail and road. All road vehicles have this problem and they can run at a limited speed on tracks.”
The official accepted that the problem has been communicated to the manufacturing company in writing.
The official further added that the train can run at a good speed until the level crossing and then run at a limited speed on the railway track during emergencies.
Sources, however, claimed that the vehicle gets derailed even at slow speeds on railway track.
At least, this has been the case in each of the trial run so far. Sources further said the vehicle has an alignment problem and there have been several attempts to set it right through trial runs by Ahmedabad railway division but
“This is a white elephant and it serves the purpose of only a truck. In fact, the railway had problems in getting the vehicle registered with the RTO. Thanks to the intervention of senior officials the RTO agreed to register it after six or seven months. We had to give the officials concerned the proof of similar vehicles being registered with RTOs in other states”, source said.
