RAIPUR: The South-East Central Railways (SECR) zone in Chhattisgarh breaks its own previous record by successfully operating the longest ever freight train by amalgamating five rakes of goods trains as one unit of around 3.5 km.
Named as 'Vasuki', it covered the distance of 224 km between the railway stations of Bhilai and Korba and took about seven hours.
The 'Vasuki', comprising of 300 wagons of long haul rake of five goods trains, ran with the help of one pilot, one assistant loco pilot and a guard.
The nation’s most profitable railways zone SECR had earlier operated 177 loaded wagons "Super Anaconda" of 2 km long freight train on 29 June 2020, then connecting three goods trains using the latest technology of Distributed Power Control System (DPCS).
SECR also successfully operated another trial 'Shesh-Naag' of 251 empty wagons with four electric locomotives that traveled a distance of 260 km from Nagpur to Bilaspur.
Under the given application of technology, the leading (front) diesel loco (engine) controlled the entire train along with the simultaneous functioning of the rear loco through electronic transmission while running on the rail network.
“It was a great achievement of the Raipur Railway division of SECR. The concerned officials kept a close watch on any possibility of technical issue that might crop up as the long train passed through various stations”, said Shyam Sunder Gupta, Raipur Divisional Railway Manager (DRM).