RAILWAY
ENGINEERING
Historical Development of Railways in India
• 1844 – First proposal for construction of railways in India were
submitted to East India Company by Mr. R.M. Stephenson
• 1849 – Contract to construct an experimental line of 160 kms
between Calcutta to Mirzapur
• 1850 – Contract by Indian Peninsula Railways to construct line
between Bombay to Kalyan
• 1853 – First Railway line between Bombay and Thana (32 kms
stretch)
• 1854 – Train between Howrah and Hoogly was run over a stretch
of 39 kms
1855-1860 – Eight railway companies were established in India like
The Madras Railway, The Scindia Railway etc.
1862 – Assistance was given to railway companies to construct
feeder lines in Northern India
1869-1881 – Government itself undertook the responsibility of
railway construction
1879 – India had a total of 14,920 kms of railway line
1881 – Lord Hartington, then the secretary of State for India,
formulated rules for railway construction
1881-1897 – New contracts were given to new companies
1901 – Mr. Thomson Robertson was appointed to investigate into
railway administration
1914 – Railway kilometrage rose from 39,603 in 1900 to 56,456 in
1914
1920 – Indian Railway Inquiry Committee was appointed
1937 – Burma was separated from India due to which kms were
curtailed by 3200 kms
1939 – Total route kilometrage was 65,850 kms
1950 – Regrouping of railways was done and 6 zones were formed
2017 – Total Indian Railway network – 1,21,407 kms
Five Year Plans-
• 1951-56
• 1956-61
• 1961-66
• 1969-74
• 1974-78
• 1980-85
• 1985-90
• 1992-97
• 1997-2002
Permanent Way and Gauge
Permanent Way
The rails fitted on sleepers and resting on ballast and subgrade is
called the railway track or permanent way. The name of permanent
way is given to distinguish the final layout from the temporary
tracks laid for transporting construction materials.
In a permanent way, the rails are duly joined in series (using
fishplates and bolts or welded) and then they are fixed to sleeper by
appropriate fastening. The sleepers are duly spaced, rest on ballast
which is suitably packed. The ballast rests on proposed subgrade
called formation.
The rails act as girders to transmit the wheel load to the sleepers.
The sleepers hold the rails in proper position maintaining proper
tilt, gauge and level and transmit the loads from rails to ballast.
The ballast rests on prepared formation & distributes the loads over
the formation and holds the sleeper in position.
Gauges
Rail Gauge is the horizontal perpendicular distance between the
inner sides of the heads of the two load bearing parallel rails of the
track.
Larger the gauge, larger will be the size of rolling stock and more
will be speed, more economical will be operation charges.
Selection of gauge is therefore largely dependent on the volume,
speed and demand of passengers, traffic and
There are four types of gauges:-
Standard (1.435m)
Broad (1.676m)
Meter (1.000m)
Narrow gauge (0.610-0.762m)
In the world of rail, 56% of railways has standard gauge while
broad gauge covers 1/13th and the narrow gauge covers 1/8th
kilometerage of world rail.
In India however there are three principal gauges, namely
B.G 53%
M.G 40%
N.G 7%
Selection of Gauges-
• Cost of construction
• Volume and Nature of Traffic
• Development of the areas
• Physical features of the country
• Speed of movement
Brake Van
Open Wagons
Closed Wagons
Passenger Van
Rails
Rails are continuous girders placed over the sleepers to receive axle
loads of rolling stocks and distribute the same to the formation
through sleepers and ballasts.
Function of Rails
i) to provide smooth and uniform surface to bear heavy loads from
rolling stocks offering very low frictional resistance.
ii) to bear lateral and thermal stresses due to braking and centrifugal
force at horizontal curves
iii) to resist wear and tear of rails, good quality steel should be used,
so that wear is low, making replacement cost low and arresting
failure due to wear
Requirements for Rails for proper functioning-
i) Rails should be of adequate height to resist vertical shear
ii) It should have sufficient surface of contact with wheels and
sleeper surface
iii) High carbon steel shall be used . Composition should be as
below:-
Carbon – 0.55 - 0.68%
Manganese – 0.65 – 0.9%
Silicon – 0.05 – 0.3%
Sulphur – below 0.05%
Phosphorus - below 0.05%
Rail Section
An ideal rail section should be such that every part of material is
subjected to maximum allowable stress and resulting most
economical cross-sectional area.
Three types of rail sections-
Self Study Topics-
• Development of Railway in India (including five year plans)
• Advantages of Indian Railways
• Requirements of an ideal permanent way
• Requirement of Rails
• Types of rails sections (merits and demerits)
