Double stacked India container train.

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caravanman

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This video is said to show the worlds first electric hauled double stacked container train in India.
There is a second loco in the middle of the train, so almost like two seperate trains in consist, but coupled together.
I assume the second loco also has a driver, can't see how it could be controlled from the first loco, although the brake pipes could be controlled from the first engine.

 
Distributed power is typically controlled from the lead engine through encoded commands via wireless communication.
Yup. They use GE Transportation's Locotrol.

The Blue WAG-12 is an Alstom product manufactured under license in India. It is an articulated Bo-Bo-Bo-Bo 12,000HP unit. The Green WAG-9 is a derivative from a ABB/Bombardier (Alstom) design manufactured in India. It is a Co-Co, originally 6,200HP, but this particular one is a derivative Class WAG-9HH I think, and it would then be 9,000HP.

Notice the high pantographs for the high catenary (some 24' feet or so AFAIR). Only specific freight routes are equipped with these. Standard IR catenary height is much lower.
 
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In Switzerland on the old Gotthard route , before the new tunnel was completed , it was quite common to have engines cut into the middle of the train . Sometimes there was a human on the middle engine but more often it was controlled by radio . I guess this is similar to what is done in the US . There was a plan at one time in Switzerland in about the 1990s to acquire freight cars with cables to transmit the signals. but nothing came of this .
 
I never cease to be amazed by the way India decorates stuff like this for special occasions with no end to flowers .

i wonder if this is ordered and organized from above or whether it reflects the initiative of individual railroad workers who thus express their dedication to their work .
 
Most passenger operations in the US use train lines to convey control signals to the locomotive from remote cabs. In principle I suppose they could use Locotrol, but they generally don't in push-pull or loco at each end operations.

In India some of the faster and long Express trains now operate with dual locos one at each end that are controlled using Locotrol. There are at least three Rajdhani Expresses that use this setup now, doubling the power and distributed to boot. They also claim better braking handling.

I never cease to be amazed by the way India decorates stuff like this for special occasions with no end to flowers .

i wonder if this is ordered and organized from above or whether it reflects the initiative of individual railroad workers who thus express their dedication to their work .
Usually it is the initiative of the Division Manager or even the specific Loco or Carshed Manager.

I was involved in organizing the 50th Anniversary run of the Kolkata Rajdhani Express in 2019. It basically took the active participation of the Chief Commercial Officer and the blessing of the DRM (Divisional Railway Manager) to pull it off since multiple departments had to be converged onto the same page to make it work. It went off very nicely. The fact that the Chief Commercial Officer was the son of the Train Superintendent on the first run in 1969 greased the skids a bit more too. It became a matter of family pride for him 🤷‍♂️ The current Train Superintendent of the run that day was an enthusiastic participant. I got roped into the planning by my cousin who is a retired member of the Railway Board on the commercial side.

Yes, Train Superintendent is the equivalent of what Amtrak used to have in the way of the OBS Manager which they dispensed with many years ago.
 
Talk about job expansion. Counted at least 3 crossing gate keepers. How many for 24/7 coverage. Wonder with this 24 foot CAT clearance IR unhappy that it reduced some CAT heights ? Can you imagine the Indian citizens riding on top of those double stacks ?
 
Talk about job expansion. Counted at least 3 crossing gate keepers. How many for 24/7 coverage. Wonder with this 24 foot CAT clearance IR unhappy that it reduced some CAT heights ? Can you imagine the Indian citizens riding on top of those double stacks ?
They are not unhappy about their standard cat clearance which is perfect for high speed operations and fits through tens of thousands of km worth of existing routes. High clearance cats are mostly on the so called Dedicated Freight Corridors and absolutely nowhere else. General new routes are not being built for high clearance either.
 
Talk about job expansion. Counted at least 3 crossing gate keepers. How many for 24/7 coverage. Wonder with this 24 foot CAT clearance IR unhappy that it reduced some CAT heights ? Can you imagine the Indian citizens riding on top of those double stacks ?
India has a large population, so it makes sense to gainfully employ human beings, rather than upgrading to more modern solutions, at least in some jobs.
Although the image of folk riding on the roof of trains in India persists, I have never seen this in many thousands of Indian train ride miles. Trains can get very crowded in the unreserved sections, but otherwise everyone gets a reserved seat, nobody on the roof of 99.99999999% of trains. :)
 
India has a large population, so it makes sense to gainfully employ human beings, rather than upgrading to more modern solutions, at least in some jobs.
Although the image of folk riding on the roof of trains in India persists, I have never seen this in many thousands of Indian train ride miles. Trains can get very crowded in the unreserved sections, but otherwise everyone gets a reserved seat, nobody on the roof of 99.99999999% of trains. :)

I guess it also has to do with the relationship between cost of automation and cost of manual labor. I guess a crossing warden in India doesn't earn a luxurious salary so its probably cheaper to do things that way, and of course at the same time create some jobs in rural communities which helps build goodwill for IR.

Even it is a bit strange to think of India on the one hand as an IT superpower, who should thus have no problem automating this sort of stuff and maybe even be keen to showcase their capabilities to encourage export, yet on the other hand being a country that doesn't really want or need much automation.
 
24 foot catenary? Hmmm...doing the math.... Hey!, they could fit 3 deck high, passenger cars! No need for riding the roof's...😁
 
24 foot catenary? Hmmm...doing the math.... Hey!, they could fit 3 deck high, passenger cars! No need for riding the roof's...😁
Except that it is not to be found on much of passenger tracks, only relatively short shared segments here and there, and none of the large terminal stations.

On the Rewari - Delhi section passenger trains get a locomotive with one high rise and one regular pantograph since there is a short shared segment between those two.
 
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