Metrometrics With Measuring Wheel Set

BENGALURU:   To clearly check all the forces that act on the wheels of a train when it is chugging at full speed, Namma Metro deployed a measuring wheel set, readied in Sweden, over the last fortnight.

The wheel set was attached to the trains that ran along the East-West corridor at a speed of 90 km/hour. The 18.10-km East-West corridor (Purple Line) connects Byappanahalli with Mysuru Road.

Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation MD Pradeep Singh Kharola told Express, “This is a very sophisticated experiment. We volunteered to be the first Metro in the country to try it out.”

Officials from Delhi Metro came down to the City to understand the process, he said.  The measuring wheel set was used by Namma Metro during the oscillatory trials conducted along the corridor. Lucknow-based Research Designs and Standard Organisation (RDSO) facilitated these trials. “Specialists from Europe, who have conducted many such trials, came to the city to record it. They have collected volumes of data to assess the performance of the trains. A report on the findings will be out by early January,” Kharola said.

Kharola said a pair of wheels of a Metro train was sent to Sweden and a huge number of measuring instruments were attached to it to convert it into a measuring wheel set. On its significance, he said, “All along, we have been running trains on theoretical calculations. This is a practical calculation of the interaction between the wheel and the rail.” On the progress made towards opening the entire East-West corridor, Kharola said signaling work is now under way. “Signaling work in underground stations is coming to a close. It will take us one-and-a-half months to complete the work,” he said.

NAMMA METRO TAKES THE LEAD

• This is the first time any Metro in India has used a measuring wheel set
• A measuring wheel set does a practical calculation of the interaction between the wheel and the rail
• Instruments like electrical sensors were fitted to a Namma Metro wheel set in Sweden
• The measuring wheel set was fitted in the place of one regular wheel set during Metro trials in East-West corridor
• It was a way to double-check the parameters already checked by the Research Design and Standards Organisation
• He said by the beginning of February, testing and trials would be completed, and the corridor would be open after the Commissioner for Rail Safety gives his approval.

Meanwhile, the deadline for the North-South corridor between Puttenahalli and Nagasandra has now been extended to June 2016.