Modern signalling system installed at Bharatwada station

Nagpur: The Nagpur division of Central Railway has, for the first time, commissioned electronic interlocking signalling (EIS) system at Bharatwada station near Nagpur for smooth and accurate train operations.

The electronic system is a shift from conventional route relay interlocking (RRI) system. The existing signalling system at Bharatwada was 30 years old and needed to be replaced.

“We plan to install similar system in Godhni. The advantage of EIS is that operation time of trains can be regulated to seconds,” said Manoj Kumar Sinha, senior divisional signalling and telecommunication engineer (Sr.DSTE).

Of the 101 railway stations in the division, only two – Gudan Khapa and Tadali – have the age-old level pulling system, while 94 have panel interlocking (PI) systems, five stations – Nagpur, Amla, Ballarshah, Sevagram and Ajni- have RRI systems. Of late, the Railway Board has decided to gradually shift to EIS. To start with, small stations are being taken up first to gauge its success.

Sinha said EIS was a microprocessor based system occupying less space. It consumes less power and is more reliable, safer and easy to install and maintain.

“The conventional systems require large number of relays, complex wirings, thousands of soldered joints and they are susceptible to failures,” said Sinha. After its installation on October 28, no signal failure has been reported. The staff was being trained to operate the new system, he added.

Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) Brijesh Dixit was himself keen to expedite installation of the system. “The EIS was commissioned in three hours while it takes days for commissioning conventional signalling system,” Dixit said.

Sinha said the best part of EIS was that it had a standby facility and could be operated through conventional operating panel.

Source..railnews

Great rail journeys that exist only in fantasy

A rail tunnel has opened under the Bosphorus, offering tantalising possibilities for rail anoraks, writes Tom de Castella.

"Anything is possible on a train," wrote Paul Theroux in the Great Railway Bazaar, "a great meal, a binge, a visit from card players, an intrigue, a good night's sleep, and strangers' monologues framed like Russian short stories."

For fans of great train journeys the possibilities have just magnified. A rail tunnel has opened under the Bosphorus, the strait separating Europe from Asia.

Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who opened the new line, declared it would connect "London to Beijing".

The Turkish PM was perhaps getting caught up in the moment. At the moment it's a suburban railway linking both sides of Istanbul. And there's a much easier way to get to China - the Trans-Siberian Railway from Moscow to Beijing.

A rail trip across Asia via Istanbul is intriguing though, says Mark Smith, founder of website The Man in Seat 61. Once bits of engineering work in Turkey are finished, you'll be able to board a train at St Pancras and - after a few connections - alight about 10 days later in Bangladesh. That's if you're not assassinated by bandits in southern Iran or al-Qaeda in Pakistan, he adds.

The Bosphorus tunnel offers other intriguing possibilities. Since the late 19th Century there's been a plan to build a railway between Cairo and Cape Town. There are now railways between Nairobi and Cape Town. If Africa's northern section was built, one could hop on a train in London, and via Istanbul, Syria - remember this is a train lover's utopian vision - and Egypt, reach the Cape some time later.

The longest journey Smith has done is Moscow to Vladivostok, which takes seven days. "Even I was going a bit stir crazy by the end. There's an awful lot of birch trees."

Changing scenery is a must, says Matthew Engel, author of Eleven Minutes Late. So is interesting company. On that score Amtrak in the US wins, he says.

Outside the densely populated north east, few Americans use the trains. "The people who do are a little bit, sometimes very, eccentric. And enormous fun." The trains are notoriously slow - "40 plus" hours from Chicago to LA. "It's like being on a cruise ship except no-one is boring."

Source..BBC