Bengaluru-Mangalore Rail: Original 'Flying Queen'

The Konkan Railway, which ran for the first time on the 21 km long track between Mumbai and Mangalore on November 9 and 12, is a marvel of engineering. During the journey, the train passes over 4,000 bridges and 4 tunnels. One of these tunnels is six and a half kilometers long. The train sailing along the Konkan-Malabar coast offers a beautiful view of the roaring Arabian Sea, the high mountains of the Western Ghats and the surrounding forests that make the journey memorable forever. During his tour of South India in October 2000, he got the benefit of traveling on the Konkan Railway. In this too, the journey of about 21 km from Bhatkal to Udupi was done with the permission of the train driver. I got the benefit of having a long and in-depth discussion about railway engineering with the drivers known as pilots of Konkan Railway and dressed in brown uniforms. One of the number of questions asked to the chief pilot was, 'Why does the engine shake so much after reaching a speed of one hundred and ten kilometers? What is the reason for feeling like sitting in a boat, not in a train? '

The South Indian pilot replied, "The problem is not the engine or the speed, but the speed at which the engine is running." After a certain speed limit, the tracks cannot hit the train. The strong vibrations caused by the tremors of the band are thunderous. '

The pilot's point was that if the deck was stronger and more efficient, not only would the magnitude of the shock to the train (for its passengers) be reduced, but the speed of the train itself could be increased. The one and a half hour journey by holding a metal handle musket in the small cabin of the Konkan Railway's diesel engine proved for the first time that our electric as well as diesel engines are very strong, but their full force cannot be used because the speed of the iron Proves to be a stop for the train you want to get. Even today, most of the railway tracks laid in our country cannot be derailed by a train traveling at a speed of more than 110-150 kmph. Train travel makes it hilly.

Of course, there is good news. Out of the 215 km stretch between Bengaluru and Mangalore in the state of Karnataka, the 120 km long rail route has now got a new incarnation at a cost of Rs 30 crore. On October 30, 2020, a train ran at a speed of 115 kmph on the Lodha Super Highway after the Railway Department installed some versions of modern technology on the tracks. A glass cup filled with boiling water was placed on a table to show how smooth the journey was. Not a single drop was spilled during the trip, even though the cup was full of water. The table remained corrugated.

Believe it or not, a video of the incident was streamed on social media by the Railway Minister on Twitter, leaving thousands of Indians stunned. (Here is the link to the video: Rajath // Auhani.rbus / Ateugak2).

Under normal circumstances, even a tsunami occurs in a cutting cup of tea held in the hand during a train journey, when even a drop of water does not drip from a glass filled to the surface.

The 130-km-long Bengaluru-Mangalore route has been under repair for the past six months. The track prepared after spending time and money on improving the quality of the ballast, black stones called ballast, sleepers holding the rails, etc., will provide stability to the train passing through it with speed. As a result, passengers will feel as if they are riding on Aladdin's magical chessboard, even as the train slides on the tracks.

On April 13, 14 we drove the first train there from Mumbai's Bori port to Thane (at an average speed of 3 kilometers per hour). Considering that 17 years have passed since this landmark event, our country has the oldest railway system in all of Asia. With a length of about 5,000 km, Indian Railways is the fourth largest spider web in the world and the second largest in Asia after China. But when it comes to train speeds, the Indian Railways lags far behind Asian countries like Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan and others. In European countries like France, Germany and Italy, most of our passenger trains are traveling at a speed of about one third of what they are today, at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

A comparison: The first train arrived in Japan in the period of 18-2. Japan received a gift from the American government of a locomotive, a coach and a circular railway with a circumference of barely half a kilometer. The top-speed of this chariot was not more than 3 kmph. Exactly 100 years later, in the 19th century, Japan surprised the world by running the world's first high-speed bullet train at a speed of 210 kilometers per hour. The assumption was made that a train sliding on the tracks could not gain more speed than this. But seven years later, France ran the train at a speed of 215 kilometers per hour. Today in France trains run at a maximum speed of 50 kilometers per hour - and yet there are no shocks when traveling in them. As you know, when the German InterCity Express is running at a speed of 250 kilometers per hour, the thought comes to mind that this is a train or a water train?

The reason why countries like France, Germany, Italy, Japan, China were able to water their railways is because of the special design of the tracks. We connect the two strips there with a strong metal strip called a fish plate

Is done. When the wheel of a train passes through such an attachment, the bandage, which is pressed downwards (actually aflato) due to the tonnage weight, feels strongly shaking. The shock waves and the resulting sound waves do not go unnoticed in the passenger compartment, so passengers have to constantly experience both.

Countries like France, Germany and Japan have not hit the fish plate thing between the strips. Rather, the line between the two tracks is killed by the conjugation method. In this method of welding, two pieces of metal are heated with high-voltage electric current and joined together after a certain temperature is obtained. The alliance formed in this way is for the future. There is no question of breaking or leaving. The intersection of the two plates, called the fish plate, eliminates vibration and noise. In addition, there is an overall atmosphere of peace in the passenger cabin as the train absorbs the rubber packing placed under the pressure shock tracks as it passes.

This is a recipe that has been tried by other countries years ago and has been adopted by Indian Railways while laying new tracks. Instead of attaching a fish plate to an average 12 meter long strip of broad gauge, several kilometers long one-piece strip is made by the conch shell method. The railways of European countries have another very heavy weight. Countries like France, Germany, Italy have laid heavy tracks weighing 50 kilograms per meter, so the rumbling tracks of a train running at incredible speeds are well bent. Most of the tracks we have there weigh 5 kilograms per meter. This limit has limited the speed of passenger trains to 100-150 kms. Now, in some places, the old tracks have been removed and replaced with new tracks weighing 52 kilograms per meter, on which the running train can maintain a speed of 150-150 kmph.

Despite being the oldest rail network in Asia, we are getting the benefits of railway technology too late. As the 150-kilometer stretch of Bengaluru-Mangalore route, which is about 400 km long, has been modernized, a total of 5,000 km of tracks across the country will be covered by technology in the near future. India's trains will then become faster and quieter. As for the noise in the passenger cabin, the technology has no silencer.