stainless steel coaches
Reporter: Dharmendra Joshi
Source: Tribune News Service
Kapurthala, June 9
In what may be termed as another feather in its cap, the Rail Coach Factory (RCF) rolled out its first rake of low-cost stainless steel coaches for the Shaheed Express train yesterday.
The Railways Department has planned to switch over the entire production of coaches to stainless steel coaches in future.
The rake, comprising 28 coaches, has six variants. Besides the general class, sleeper class and AC-3 tier coaches, it has also been provided with AC-2 tier-cum-AC-3 tier coaches for optimal utilisation of passenger-carrying capacity.
RCF General Manager Pradeep Kumar flagged off the rake at a simple function. Pradeep Kumar said this would start an era of stainless steel coaches for all mail and express trains, which were limited to only Rajdhani and Shatabadi trains till now. The RCF would manufacture 369 such coaches during this financial year.
The RCF started manufacturing stainless steel coaches from 2001-02 with transfer of technology from M/s LHB of Germany. These coaches have inherent design features like superior aesthetics, much better ride quality and low-maintenance cost.
These coaches were so far introduced only in high-end trains like Shatabdi and Rajdhani expresses due to cost limitations. In order to introduce these superior features in other mail and express trains also, the RCF has developed an innovative low-cost variant of stainless steel LHB coaches, cutting the cost further by about 40 per cent of the stainless steel coach.
These coaches have exterior similar to Rajdhani trains and they have been provided with air-spring suspension for better ride quality. These coaches also have 12 per cent enhanced sitting capacity and require lesser maintenance.
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Attached pics:
LWFCZAC i.e Air-conditioned executive chair car (56 seats) in Mysore-Chennai Shatabdi
LWFAC i.e AC first class Air-conditioned sleeping-car (24 berths) OF DBRT RAJ
Interiors of LWACCN (i.e AC3 Air-conditioned 3-tier sleeping-car containing 72 berths)
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