Importance of maintaining trains

Discuss About The Railway Technology Management Assignment.

In the current scenario, the transportation of manufactured goods or raw materials is rising every day. The factors like time, cost and efficiency of the transportation by the railways is considered to be fuel efficient, due to its low fuel consumption rate per tonne.

Any vehicle which move on a railway is known as rolling stock. It includes both passenger and freight rolling stock. It generally encounters low friction resistance in comparison to road vehicles, so the freight and passenger can be coupled into longer trains.It includes both unpowered and powered vehicles like locomotives, coaches, wagons and railroad cars. Irish railway operates rolling stock that provides transport between freight customer services or train stations. In rolling stocks locomotives provides power which its draw from railway electrification system or generate their own power, mostly by diesel engine.

Passenger trains operating in Ireland is divided into commuter, intercity and dart. The Irish railway freight is further classified into 3 types based on its objectives. Bulk freight provides services to those customers who require transportation of bulk materials. Internodal provides services to those customers who require transportation of containers or tanks. Navigator this provides services to automotive and associated industries.

As the total rail network is spread in more than 2400 km and out of which 2050 km is single track, so it becomes more important to maintain the trains and preventing it from further wear and tear.

With increasing passenger number, there was more pressure on the network and due to which Irish rail was searching ways to improve its fleet efficiency, customer experience and reliability. The objective was to improve operational efficiency along with fleet performance. This is reason when Trimble Railway Asset Solution came into the picture. The Irish rail choose this as this company was most economical when compared against technical merit and cost. The Trimble in 3 phases within 9 months improved the performance and showed its results regarding the staff productivity, there has been constant debates between the staff and the government to increase their pay by 1.5 percent.

The Irish railway, the disable person can plan their travel and accordingly they get assistance from the staff which includes wheel chair accessible toilets, wheel chair sitting areas, means of transport to and from arrival to departure and any other types of assistance they require. For normal passenger too, they get air-conditioned compartments. They provide one restaurant car in trains. These trains have display screen from where passenger can get information about the stations and route. The passengers are even allowed to carry small pets like cats and dogs. Along this, they have automated PA system, overhead racks to place luggage, power sockets to power up electronic equipment.

Safety measures taken by the Irish railway

Due to the past accidents, the Irish railway took serious measures for passenger’s safety performance and priorities are examined on three sections which includes safety focus, safety leadership and safety landscape (Cantwell & Caulfield, 2009). To ensure this they implemented particular measures at identified risk zones and areas which include improved surfacing, stair initiatives stair case and sufficient staff deployment. The coaches and stations were equipped with CCTV cameras to monitor all the activities.

For the cost minimization and revenue maximization, the railway focused on reducing its dependence over fuel consumption. The trains were also installed with fuel consumption measuring equipment to monitor the efficiency and reduce its operational and maintenance cost. The older 2 stroke engines were replaced with smaller modern engines which had automatic shutdown. Expenditure was also made on the network to increase the operational efficiency thereby minimizing the maintenance cost.  

The freight wagons are mostly commonly used in ports and mines for loading of materials into wagons. There are several types of wagon loading system such as stationary rake and moving loader. Rapid loading system is mostly used for loading goods as they are faster, accurate and uniform.  Similarly, for unloading wagon hopper system and tippling system is used.

There are various types of passenger rolling stock like Intercity, Commuter, DART and Luas that are currently operated in Ireland. These are classified on the basis of distance, carrying capacity and functionality. The intercity is the largest and most comfortable passenger rolling stock above other passenger carriages. The seating ranges from 29 to 304. These are used for long route travelling and initiates from Dublin. Luas is a tram which operates in two different routes. The red line covers the one route while green line covers another route. Passenger carrying capacity of luas are lesser than other. DART rolling stock are electric multiple unit and have maximum seating capacity of 160 (Barrow, 2017). They generally have 4 cars set with a speed of 180km/h. Commuter are the second largest carriages on the basis of passenger carrying capacity and the facilities they provide. These are Diesel Multiple Units with a maximum seating capacity of 185 seats which runs with a speed of maximum 120km/h (Briginshaw, 2018). Passenger carriages that are used in Ireland at present are as follows:

They are passenger carriage that are operated by Irish rail in Ireland. They are intercity service that runs from Dublin to Cork. Mark 4 was built by a Spanish company called Construcciones y Auxiliary de Ferrocarriles also called as Grupo CAF in 2004-2005. Each set comprises of 8 cars that are pulled and pushed by Mark 4 201 class locomotive and Driving Van Trailer (DVT) (Boskonay, 2017).

Passenger Railway Rolling Stock Design

Each set consists of GM 201 class locomotive car, five standard class cars, one catering car, one first class car and one driving trailer generator van. It has capacity of 422 passenger seats in an eight-car set and it is fully accessible to passengers who are mobility impaired as it has wheel chair area. Standard class cars have improved seats and leg room (Anon., 2017). It also consists of CCTV, air condition, electronic and visual information systems for passengers, power sockets etc.  first class has power sockets, ear phone jacks, ergonomic, individual overhead lightening and electronic adjustable seats. It can travel by the speed up to 125 mph but is limited to 100 mph as it needs upgradation of provision of a faster locomotive cars and track and signal systems.

De Dietrich trains runs Dublin Connolly to Belfast central is an enterprise service which are operated by Northern Ireland Railways and Irish Railway. De Dietrich carriage was built by a French company called De Dietrich in 1996. They also built the passenger carriages for the Eurostar and TGF trains. De Dietrich carriage consists of 8 carriages that includes five standard class, one buffet carriage, one first class and one control vehicle. The 8-carriage trains have seats for 449 passengers and 7-carriage train has capacity of 378 passenger seats. It has tendency to speed up to 145km/h. It provides facilities like air conditioning, luggage racks, PA system, catering carriage, scrolling LED information displays. Similarly, first class carriage provides few extra facilities like wheel chair seating areas, electronic route map, wheel chair accessible toilet facilities.

The DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) is an Irish railway that runs from Greystones to Howth and Malahide. It has 2 car sets and 4 car sets train that can be maximized to 8-piece train. It has tendency to speed up to 100km/h. DART carriages are Electrical Multiple Unit(EMU) that are classified into different classes like 8100, 8300, 8500, 8510. 2 car set were built in 1983 and 8 car set were first built in 2000. They include facilities like PA system, passenger information systems, wheel chair areas, onboard CCTV, air conditioning etc. (Murray, 2018). 2 car set has passenger seat capacity of 128 whereas 4-piece train has seats for 160 passengers.

It’s an intercity railcar with a maximum speed of 160 km/h which operates from Dublin to Rosslare Europort. Its basically of 3 types: 3 car set, 4 car set and 5 car set which has a maximum seat capacity of 190, 262 and 304 respectively. This also operates its service as commuter to places like Kildare, Portlaoise, Newbridge, Athlone and Carlow. This car also has facilities like air conditioning, automatic PA & passenger information systems, bike accommodation, CCTV, wheel chair seating as well as wheel chair accessible facilities, 220-volt socket at every seat.

Mark 4 passenger carriages

It is a passenger railway transport system which is operated by Irish Rail. It provides services to large number of people who have to travel on a daily basis. Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) train sets operate Commuter service (Anon., 2018).  

29000 class DMU: 29000 class are 4 car sets with 185 passenger seats which can further maximized to 8-piece train by coupling together. It can travel by maximum speed of 120km/h. They operate in cities like Longford/ Maynooth/ M3 Parkway, Arklow/ Gorey and Dundalk/ Drogheda. It provides facilities like automatic PA system, air conditioning, automated passenger information system, overhead luggage racks, wheelchair accessible toilet facilities, wheelchair areas, onboard CCTV.

2800 Class DMU: These are 2 car sets with 85 passenger seats and was built in 2000. They operate in the Great Dublin area including places like Arklow/ Gorey, Dundalk/Drogheda and Longford/ Maynooth/M3 Parkway. These trains also operate in routes like Limerick- Limerick junction, Limerick-Ennis, Limerick-Ballybrophy, Ballina-Manulla junction and sometimes between Cork-Cobh and Midleton. This 2-set car train y can also be coupled to make 8-piece train and it travels by the speed of 120km/h. They provide facilities lie PA system, wheelchair areas, toilets, overhead luggage racks.

2600 Class DMU: They are 2 car sets with 130 passenger seats and was built in 1993. They can travel by the speed of maximum 110km/h. 2 car sets of this class can be coupled to form 8-piece trains. They also have facilities like PA system, toilets etc.

The freight railway is a train transporting goods on a railway to the desired destination. The freight railway rolling stock is also further classified into 3 types based on the needs of the customer volume and type of products. These units are supported by centrally controlled body and are responsible for their activities (Gimenez, et al., 2011).

These are as follows:

Figure 1: Bulk Freight (Anon., n.d.)                            

 These trains specialize in the transportation of goods on a fully loaded train operates with strict compliances with full safety and following the legislative standards. They mainly transport materials like mineral ores, pulpwood. These can carry a load of 600 tonnes.

Figure 2: Intermodal (Anon., n.d.)

These trains specialize in transportations of tanks or containers. The maximum permissible size on the network between Dublin and Cork is 42 TEU while 36 TEU on rest of the routes. These trains give more flexibility and viability using rails which saves nearly 9000 road journey each year (Pienaar, 2017).

De Dietrich passenger carriages

Navigation: They are an international division of Irish railway which was established in1983. It mainly provides logistics solution to the companies which are related to automotive sector.

Figure 3: Tara mines

Tara mines are the largest zinc and lead mine in whole Europe. Boliden acquired Tara mines I 2004. Since 1977, more than 85 million tonnes of minerals has been extracted from this mine.

Coillte: Coillte is a freight fleet that carry pulpwood from Westport and Ballina to Waterford. It operates thrice a week from both stations.

Figure 4: Coillte

Figure 5: ISO wagons

Intermodal trains specialize in the transportation of ISO tanks and containers in full trainload. Irish railway provides freight services for customer who needs to transport their ISO containers via train.

Locomotive is a railway transportation which provides natural agents like kerosene, diesel, petrol, electricity, gas turbines to run engines of other trains. In past locomotive were used to pull trains from the front portion. But nowadays push-pull operation is common and the trains mostly have locomotives at the front or at each end or at the rear. Locomotives uses motive power. Motive power generates power from fuel like coal, natural gas, diesel, steam, petrol or electricity.

In Ireland mainly, Diesel locomotives are used. These are internal combustion engine (ICE) consists of diesel engine. To power wheels of locomotives ICE engines need transmission. Even the locomotive is stopped, engines must continue to run. Mostly used diesel powered locomotives are diesel electric locomotive. Today in Ireland mostly used diesel locomotives are 201 class loco which is considered as most powerful diesel locomotive that run in Ireland. They are of 3200 horse power which makes them express service trains. These were nearly built in 1994. 201 class locomotives are used to provide power for MK-4 and De Dietrich intercity services. These are also used on train of freight services.

Another class of locomotive used in Ireland is 071class locomotives. They are used for freight services. This class of locomotives are used for permanent trains as ballast laying and weed spraying. While travelling light it can speed up to maximum 120km/h and when it operates for freight services it travels by the maximum speed of 80km/h.

If locomotive rolling stock carry payload then it is known as multiple units(MU). locomotives are mostly used for passenger train rather than freight. Multiple units are the train that are self-propelled and are composed of 1 or more coach joined together and when they are coupled with another multiple units then it can be easily controlled by a single drive.

DART passenger carriages

Mostly multiple units are powered by traction motors. MU has the traction components spread to the entire cars which makes up one unit. It can be a trailer car or motor car. Trailer cars contains supplementary equipment like batteries, air compressors etc. These multiple unit train are classified on the basis of their power sources. According to their power sources these are of two types:

It is a train with multiple units which are powered by diesel engines onboard. It does not require any separate locomotive as the diesel engines are integrated into one or more carriages. Diesel powered single-unit trains are classified as DMUs. In DMUs, diesel engines are situated under the floor or over the frame in an engine bay. Driving controlling car can be on one end or at both ends or it may be in a separate car (Symth, 2016).

Several classes of DMU are being used in Ireland. 29000 class DMU are used on commuter service which are 4 car set.2600 and 2800 class DMU are 2 car sets that are also used on commuter network.  22000 class DMU is an intercity railcar which may be of 3, 4 or 5 car sets.

It is a train of multiple unit that uses electricity as the motive power and consists of self-propelled carriages. They do not need any separate locomotive because electric traction motors are integrated in one or more carriages. Electrical powered single unit train are classed as EMUs. EMUs are quieter than locomotive trains and DMUs. They are usually made of 2 or more semi-permanent coupled trains.

In Ireland currently, few classes of EMUs are being used on DART services like 8520 series, 8510 series, 8500 series, 8100 and 8300 series. 8100 and 8300 class EMUs went major modification and renovation in 2007.

Conclusion

From the above paper, we discussed in brief about the rolling stocks. The different type of passenger and freight rolling stock. The passenger rolling stock is used by the people to travel from one part of the city to another. While the freight rolling is for the transportation of materials from the place of origination to its destination.

The passenger rolling stock on the basis of capacity speed and function is further classified into Intercity, commuter, DART, and Luas. Similarly, the freight rolling stock is further divided on the basis of materials it transports. The bulk freight specializes in pulpwood and mineral ore transportation while the intermodal specializes in transportation of containers and tanks. The trains in Ireland either runs both on electricity and diesel engines. The electric trains fall under electric multiple unit, while the diesel under diesel multiple unit. Although the rail network in Ireland is well spread, it’s still injecting more funds for its development. The country is focused on cost minimization & revenue maximization strategies to compete with the rest of the countries in Europe.

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