This document provides an overview of railway engineering in India. It discusses the history and development of railways in India, the roles and organization of Indian Railways, key terms related to railway infrastructure, the advantages and disadvantages of railways compared to other modes of transport, and some of the strengths and weaknesses of Indian Railways. The document is divided into multiple sections covering topics like permanent way, types of rails and sleepers, organization of Indian Railways, research and standards organization, and the roles and impacts of railways in India.

1. CE311T Transportation
Engineering-II
Mr MANIVEL M
FACULTY,CIVIL ENGINEERING
SCHOOL OF TECHNOLOGY
PANDIT DEENDAYAL PETROLEUM UNIVERSITY
GANDHINAGAR

2. UNIT I
RAILWAY ENGINEERING
• INTRODUCTION: Role of railways in
transportation, Indian Railways, Selection of Routes.
• Permanent way and its requirements, Gauges and
types, Typical cross sections-single and double line B
G track in cutting, embankment and electrified tracks,
Coning of wheels and tilting of rails.
• Rails-Functions-requirements—types and sections
length- defects-wear-creep-welding-joints,creep of
rails

3. • SLEEPERS AND BALLAST: Functions,
requirements, Types, Track fitting and
fasteners-Dog spike,screw spike and Pandrol
clip,-Fish plates-bearing plates, Calculation
of quantity of materials required for laying a
track-Examples, Tractate resistances and
hauling capacity
UNIT I
RAILWAY ENGINEERING

4. Introduction
The history of railways is closely linked with
civilization. As the necessity arose, human
beings developed various methods of
transporting goods from one place to another.
In the primitive days goods were carried as
head loads or in carts drawn by men or
animals. Then efforts were made to replace
animal power with mechanical power.

5. • In 1769, Nicholes Carnot, a Frenchman,
carried out the pioneering work of developing
steam energy.
• The first public railway in the world was
opened to traffic on 27 September 1825
between Stockton and Darlington in the UK.
Introduction

7. Introduction
• The first railway line in India was opened in
1853.
• The first train, consisting of one steam engine
and four coaches, made its maiden trip on 16
April 1853, when it traversed a 21-mile stretch
between Bombay (now Mumbai) and Thane in
1.25 hours.

8. Different Modes of Transport
Rail transport Owing to the heavy expenditure
on the basic infrastructure required,rail
transport is best suited for carrying bulk
commodities and a large number of
passengers over long distances.
Road transport Owing to flexibility of operation
and the ability to provide door to- door
service, road transport is ideally suited for
carrying light commodities and a small
number of passengers over short distances.

9. • Air transport Owing to the heavy expenditure
on the sophisticated equipment required and
the high fuel costs, air transport is better
suited for carrying passengers or goods that
have to reach their destinations in a very short
period of time.
• Water transport Owing to low cost of
infrastructure and relatively slow speeds,
water transport is best suited for carrying
heavy and bulky goods over long distances,
provided there is no consideration of the time
factor.

10. Railway as a Mode of Land Transport
• There are two modes of land transport,
railways and roads, and each has its relative
advantages and disadvantages.

11. Features Rail Transport Road Transport
Tractive resistance The movement of steel wheels on
steel rails has basic advantage of low
rolling resistance. This reduces haulage
costs because of low tractive
resistance.
The tractive resistance of a
pneumatic tyre on metalled roads
is almost five times compared to
that of wheel on rails.
Right of entry A railway track is defined on two rails
and is within protected limits. Trains
work as per a prescribed schedule and
no other vehicle has the right of entry
except at specified level crossings.
Roads, though having well-defined
limits, can be used by any
vehicular traffic and even by
pedestrians they are open to all.
Cost analysis Owing to the heavy infrastructure, the
initial as well as maintenance cost of a
railway line is high.
The cost of construction and
maintenance of roads is
comparatively cheaper.
Gradients and
curves
The gradients of railway tracks are
flatter (normally not more than 1 in
100) and curves are limited up to only
100 on broad gauge.
Roads are constructed normally
with steeper gradients of up to 1
in 30 and relatively much sharper
curves.

12. Flexibility of
movement
Due to the defined routes and
facilities required for the reception
and dispatch of trains, railway can
be used only between fixed points.
Roads transports have much
more flexibility in movement
and can provide door to door
sevices.
Environmental
pollution
Railway has minimum adverse
effects on the environment.
Road transport creates
comparatively greater
pollution than the railways.
Organization and
control
Railways are government
undertakings, with their own
organization.
Barring member state
government transport, road
transport is managed by
private sector.
Suitability Railways are best suited for
carrying heavy goods and large
number of passengers over long
distances.
Road transport is best suited
for carrying lighter goods and
smaller number of passengers
over short distances.

13. Role of Indian Railways
Indian Railways has successfully played the role of
the prime carrier of goods and passengers in the
Indian subcontinent. As the principal constituent
of the nation’s transport infrastructure, the
Railways has an important role to play.
(a) It helps integrate fragmented markets and
thereby stimulate the emergence of a modern
market economy.
(b) It connects industrial production centres with
markets as well as sources of raw material and
thereby facilitates industrial development.

14. (c) It links agricultural production centres with distant
markets as well as sources of essential inputs, thereby
promoting rapid agricultural growth.
(d) It provides rapid, reliable, and cost-effective bulk
transportation to the energy sector; for example, to
move coal from the coalfield to power plants and
petroleum products from refineries to consumption
centres.
(e) It links people with places, enabling large-scale,
rapid, and low-cost movement of people across the
length and breadth of the country.
(f) In the process, Indian Railways has become a symbol
of national integration and a strategic instrument for
enhancing our defence preparedness.

15. Organization of Indian Railways
Indian Railways (IR) is at present the biggest public
undertaking of the Government of India, having a
capital-at-charge of about Rs 560,000 million. The
enactments regulating the construction and
operation of railways in India are the ‘Indian
Tramway Act of 1816’ and the ‘Indian Railway Act
of 1890’ as amended from time to time. The
executive authority in connection with the
administration of the railways vests with the
Central Government and the same has been
delegated to the Railway Board as per the Indian
Railway Act referred to above.

16. Research Design and Standards
Organisation
The Research Designs and Standards Organisation
(RDSO) is headquartered at Lucknow. It is headed
by a director general who has a team of
specialists from different fields of railways. RDSO
functions as a technical adviser and consultant to
the Railway Board, the zonal railways, and
production units as well as to public and private
sector undertakings with respect to the designs
and standardization of railway equipment.
RDSO has also been approved for its quality
management system ISO 9001:2000.

17. Zonal Railways

19. • Route kilometre -indicates the length of a route
from one point to another point.
• Running track kilometre is the length of
running track on that route; on a double-line
section, the running track kilometre is about
twice the route kilometre.
• Total track kilometre indicates the running
track kilometre including turnouts, etc., after
taking their due weightage into account.

20. Strengths of Indian Railways
(a) For a vast country with great distances and a large
population, the railway serve an inherent advantage over
other modes of transport in their suitability for movement of
large volumes of passenger and goods traffic over long
distances.
(b) The movement of steel wheels on steel rails in the railway
system has the basic advantage of low rolling resistance,
which reduces energy requirements and haulage costs.
(c) Railways are more efficient than roadways in terms of land
use.
(d) Railways are an energy-efficient mode of transport,
particularly for freight traffic, and can use different forms of
energy. Railways also cause relatively less environmental
pollution than roadways.

21. (e) In densely populated urban centres, a rapid
transit rail-based system is the most appropriate
mode of transport for suburban intra-urban
travel, as part of a city’s integrated transport
system.
(f) Indian Railways is a well-established
organization with a large pool of skilled and
trained personnel.
(g) Being part of the Central Government, Indian
Railways has the Government’s financial backing.
At the same time, they have considerable
financial autonomy.
(h) Indian Railways is a self-reliant system with
respect to its major equipment needs.

22. Weaknesses of Indian Railways
(a) A large portion of the railway’s infrastructure is over aged,
and in urgent need of replacement or rehabilitation. This
includes track, motive power and rolling stock, signalling,
operational, and maintenance equipment.
(b) In certain parts of the infrastructure, the technology is 20–
25 years behind some of the developed railway systems.
Consequently the productivity levels are comparatively low.
(c) Indian Railways has a large force of unskilled manpower.
The training facilities need augmentation and
modernization.
(d) Resource constraint in the past has adversely affected the
Railways development.

23. (e) Indian Railways carries a substantial ‘social burden’
in the form of continued operation of un-
remunerative branch lines, subsidies on passenger
and suburban travel, and even freight subsidy on
certain commodities.
(f) Railways are not suited for carriage of small
quantities of freight particularly over short distances.
(g) Heavy investments are needed to build up railway
transport capacity and the gestation periods are
long.
(h) Transport capacity is volatile and cannot be
recouped (regain) if not utilized continuously.

24. COFMOW
The Central Organisation for Modernization of
Workshops (COFMOW) was set up in 1979 as
a specialized agency to implement the various
workshop modernization programs of Indian
Railways. Most of the workshops of IR are
over 100 years old and COFMOW is
modernizing these workshops in a planned
way with the assistance of the World Bank

25. COFMOW also provides consultancy and
engineering inputs for technology up
gradation, productivity improvement,
machinery selection, and procurement
besides training of personnel in operation
and maintenance of manufacturing
infrastructure.

26. • Thanks