HYDERABAD: A 10-year-old South Central Railway (SCR)’s Electric Loco shed, Lallaguda, was jointly awarded the first position in the Loco Cab Competition held at Patiala Locomotive Works along with Western Railway’s Diesel Loco Shed in Vatava in Ahmedabad.
Earlier, the Railway Board had suggested all the zonal railways upgrade the cabs of electric locos to provide comfort to the crew and reduce their fatigue.
On the technical front, it asked the authorities to improve overall ambience, noise isolation, AC cum thermal insulation improvement, waterless urinal, seats and floors, and ease signal exchange.
Named WAG9HC, a locomotive from the Lallaguda shed was earlier chosen for the upgradation and after improvements with latest material and state-of-art-technologies were brought in, it was presented the award. The technical modification included various aids to the drivers and other facilities for the crew.
The Board also advised to introduce the provision for keeping baggage, caution alert system, look out glass cleaning mechanism, and single key operation.
Some other suggestions included desk modification to facilitate reach of all switches while being on seat, sun visor improvement, crew voice and video recording system, and driver advisory.
Several other features such as relocation of emergency brake valves to ease the job of Loco Pilots pantograph and formation surveillance system, innovative accessories like auto headlight dimmer, illumination fine control for Cab and Spot lights to reduce glare, power windows, electric wiper, foot step lighting, noise less cab fans, upgraded fire extinguisher were also included.