The Hindu Business Line : Final design report on crashworthy coaches soon

All SLR coaches and general second-class (GS) coaches that would be rolled out after a few months are likely to cause relatively less damage to passengers in the event of a crash. This is because they would conform to new design standards being finalised by Indian Railways' consulting firm, RITES.

SLR coaches are usually the last coaches in trains that have the guard, luggage van and unreserved passengers. "GS and SLR coaches are present at the fag end of trains and are critical points in case of collisions," explained senior officials.

Report by month-end

RITES is expected to submit the final design report on crashworthy SLR and GS coaches by the end of April, said Ministry officials. RITES is the main Indian consultant and has taken inputs from several other companies.

Following this, the Railway Design and Standardisation Organisation (RDSO) would submit final design drawing to coach manufacturing units.

RITES and RDSO are working towards ensuring crashworthy capabilities in air-conditioned and sleeper coaches.

No more crash tests

Developing designs for these coaches may not require conducting physical crash tests again.

Basically, the effort is to ensure that when a coach is hit during a train crash, maximum energy is absorbed in the ends of the coaches instead of the middle portion — which is where the most of the passengers are present.

Moreover, one also has to ensure that after the energy absorption at the ends in one coach, the residual energy gets absorbed and affects the subsequent coaches only at their ends — instead of the middle portion.

Last fiscal, the focus was on developing technology and arriving at exact specifications for crashworthy designs for general and SLR type of coaches. Now, within 2006-07, the aim is to develop such capabilities for AC and sleeper compartments, said the official.

RCF Kapurthala has manufactured about 29 coaches (GS and SLR), which are being used in a train between Barauni, Saharsa and Amritsar.

Cost higher

The cost of crashworthy coaches is marginally higher - in the range of five-ten per cent more than the usual GS and SLR coaches.

"For the initial test an imported energy absorber was used. Subsequently, it was indigenously manufactured at RCF and the costs were brought down," explained the official.

Collision tests

Last year, Railways conducted three collision tests on the ground — once each with SLR coach; a GS coach and an SLR and GS coach coupled together.

Two types of coaches, GS (General Second Class) and SLR (brake vans) were used for testing.

"A GS coach equipped with a CBC (centre buffer couplers), set to run at 55 kph with the help of an engine, was made to collide with a heavy wagon. The results showed that this coach was crashworthy," the official said.

The SLR coaches presented a greater challenge as they are usually the first to bear the impact of a collision.