| The Mechanical DepartmentThe Mechanical Department is responsible for maintenance of ‘assets on wheels’ – Diesel locomotives, Coaches and Wagons. This task is carried out through a network of diesel loco sheds, coaching depots, wagon depots and workshops with the goal of ensuring -Adequate availability-Reliability-Passenger comfort and perhaps the most important goal being Safety in train operation. In addition, the Department maintains and operates Disaster Management Equipments (Accident Relief Trains in Railway parlance) which include 140-tonne diesel Hydraulic cranes and hydraulic re-railing equipments, Self-propelled Relief trains). Specially trained ‘Quick-response-teams’ man these equipments on 24-hour alert located at strategic points The starting years of Workshops, Loco Sheds & Divisions of SCRly are furnished in the tabular form given below. Workshop | Year Started | Lalaguda Workshop | 1893 | Rayanpadu Workshop | 1976 | Tirupati Workshop | 1985 |
Shed | Year Started | Diesel Loco shed/ Gooty | 1963 | Diesel Loco shed/ Guntkal | 1964 | Diesel Loco shed/Kazipet | 1973 | Diesel Loco shed/Vijayawada | 1983 | Diesel Loco shed/ Moula-Ali | 1984 |
Division | Year Started | Vijayawada Division | 1956 | Guntakal Division | 1956 | Secunderabad Division | 1966 | Hyderabad Division | 1977 | Nanded Division | 2003 | Guntur Division | 2003 |
| South Central Railway has three Workshops to carry out POH (Periodic Over hauling) of Coaching and Freight stock. |
Details of the activities, monthly and annual production output of the Workshops: S.No | Name Of workshop | Location | Activity | Monthly target | Annual target | 1 | Carriage Repair Shop | Lallaguda | Periodic Overhauling(POH) of coaches | 122 Vehicle Units (VUs) | 1464 VUs | 2 | Carriage Repair Shop | Tirupathi | POH of coaches | 85 VUs | 1020 VUs | 3 | Wagon Repair shop | Guntupalli | POH of Wagons | 380 VUs | 4560 VUs |
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Wagon Depots: Holding: 18794 BG Wagons, 301 MG Wagons There are three major and one minor ROH Depots for freight stock. They are situated at Ramagundam, Gooty, Vijayawada and Bellampally. These depots carry out overhauling of BOXN and BCN stock at fixed intervals of 18 months (for BCN stock after 24 months) after POH is completed in workshops. Major ROH depots are under the supervision of Assistant Mechanical Engineers. These ROH depots ensure better quality repairs so that the rolling stocks can run up to 7500 Kms or 35 days whichever is earlier. Go Top
 
| Coach Holding: 3320 (BG), 108 (MG) South Central Railway has one mega, 4 major, 4 medium and 4 minor coaching depots, where 74 passenger and express trains are maintained. These depots carry out primary and secondary maintenance of these Express trains. Prime importance is given for passenger amenities, safety, disinfection and cleanliness of passenger trains. In addition to maintenance, these depots carry out A, B, C Schedules and intermediate overhaul of coaching stock of express and super fast trains, which are earning more than 2 lakh Kms / year. |
Coaching Depots Locations with their holdings:
S. No. | Depot | Coach holding | Classification | 1 | Hyderabad | 543 | Mega | 2 | Secunderabad | 481 | Major | 3 | Tirupathi | 410 | Major | 4 | Kacheguda | 408 | Major | 5 | Vijayawada | 335 | Major | 6 | Narasapur | 224 | Medium | 7 | Nanded | 217 | Medium | 8 | Kakinada | 190 | Medium | 9 | Guntur | 154 | Medium | 10 | Purna | 119 | Minor | 11 | Kazipet | 92 | Minor | 12 | Guntakal | 67 | Minor | 13 | Machilipatnam | 25 | Minor |
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| Diesel Loco Sheds are the front-line Strategic Business Units. They are well-equipped and self-contained to undertake preventive and corrective maintenance of diesel locomotives. South Central Railway has diesel loco sheds at Guntakal, Gooty (both in Anantapur Dist), Kazipet(Warrangal Dist), Moula Ali (Hyderabad, Rangareddy Dist) and Vijayawada (Krishna Dist) of Andhra Pradesh. These sheds have a holding of 451 locomotives to cater both passenger and freight traffic. In addition to 31 DEMUs and 9 DHMUs maintaining at Vijayawada & Moula Ali respectively to cater passenger and suburban services. 2 Rail buses are also maintaining at Vijayawada to cater the passenger services between Kakinada- Kotipalli section of Vijayawada division. These sheds also have captive fuelling facilities. |
Location of locomotive sheds & thier holdings:
S No. | Location | Loco holding | Types locos | Population Type Wise | 1 | Kazipet | 138 | WDM2
WDG3A WDG3A | 45
23 70 | 2 | Gooty | 122 | WDM3A WDG3A WDM3D | 23
95 4 | 3 | Guntakal | 108 | WDM2
YDM4 WDM3A WDM3D | 64 14 18 12 | 4 | Moula Ali | 72 | WDM2
WDS4
DHMU | 51 12 9 | 5 | Vijayawada | 51 | WDP1 WDS4
DEMU | 15 5
31 |
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| Human resources are probably the most important asset of India. Effective utilisation of this asset is the responsibility of any organisation, especially for an organization like Indian Railways, which employs 16 Lakh persons to run their services. Training is an important tool to develop efficiency of human resources. The Mechanical Department of the South Central Railway has developed modern methods and facilities of training to train its supervisors & artisan staff. |
Training to all cadres of railway staff is ensured not only at the time of entry in to service, but periodical refresher courses are given to update the knowledge and to keep abreast with the latest developments in technology. Supervisor Training Centre/ Lallaguda This institute gives training to the supervisors of all units of Mechanical in particular in the functions of Technical, Managerial and Safety aspects of Maintenance and running of trains. This institute is conducting different course in the modules prescribed by the Railway Board annually and about 1000 staff are trained from April’2007 to February’2008. With the newly upgraded 4 new Labs facilities, the institute has introduced new courses such as Advanced Mechatronics, Air Brake System, Accident Management, Pneumatics & Hydraulics, Advanced Welding Technology, Induction course in Welding, Welding Refresher course, Data Base Management.
SCR has three major training establishments viz., STC (Supervisors’ Training Centre at Lallaguda) and DTTC (Diesel Traction Training Centre at Guntakal and Kazipet) besides 7 training centers are located at various field units and workshops viz. at KCG, RDM, BZA,GY,LGDS,TPTYS,RYPS. Go Top
 At the Mechanical Department, great emphasis is laid on innovation and improvement, as the means to improve the quality of service. The thrust areas in this direction are: - Accreditation of ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management and ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems for workshops, diesel sheds and coaching depots.
- Cleanliness - Due attention is given for cleanliness of coaches. Vijayawada and Guntakal stations on South Central Railway are nominated as Clean Train Stations. High pressure water jet cleaning plants have been introduced for effective cleaning of coaches.
- Power points for Lap-top and Cell phone - To provide additional amenity to passengers for the first time, air-conditioned coaches are being provided with Electrical points for charging Lap-tops/ Mobile phones.
- Rake-out – A system of turning out the coaches in the form of rakes has been introduced since August’05 in LGD & TPTY workshops.
- Cutting gas (Mixture of catalyst & LPG) supplied by Bharat Petroleum has been inducted as a substitute for DA gas in the stripping shop of RYPS which is very economical as compared to DA.
- Fuel pad at Gooty - Fuel pad, first of its kind in Indian Railways, provided at Gooty will facilitate attending WDG4 locomotives without having to touch home shed at Hubli for consumables like crank case oil, gear case oil, sand etc. It improves the availability of these loco for traffic.
Future plans: - Coaches upgraded with modern upgraded material, which will improve the coach aesthetics as well as 18 months POH instead of annually.
- Increasing the carrying capacity of passengers in ACCN and GSCN coaches by retro fitment of longitudinal middle berths. This work is going to be taken up at all the C&W depots and Tirupathi & Lallaguda workshops.
- OBHS: On Board Hygiene Services are going to be introduced in some long distance trains on this railway in which the interior of coaches including toilets will be cleaned through trained manpower using modern machines and material while train on run.
- To improve the cleanliness standards, mechanized cleaning of coaches will be done at major coaching depots on this railway
- All the trains passing through day light hours from Vijayawada railway station are being cleaned under the scheme of Clean Train Station. Similar facility will be introduced al Guntakal railway station.
- LED based destination boards on trains for passenger’s convenience are going to be provided for all the integrated rake links.
- It is planned to rehabilitate BOXN wagons into BOXNR (Stainless steel body) wagons at Rayanapadu workshop in order to upgrade carrying capacity.
- It is planned to undertake the retro fitment of cushioned seats in all unreserved passenger coaches for the better comfortability.
- The pantry cars are being upgraded with stainless steel paneling in the kitchen room to combat corrosion. In addition, these kitchens will be equipped with gas pipelines and 230V AC power supply.
- Passenger carrying coaches are being provided with an emergency light as a safety measure in emergency.
- Introduction of Microprocessor base excitation and propulsion control system in Diesel electric locomotives for superior operational efficiency, safety and reduced maintenance.
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