Green locos on railway radar

[Indian Railway News]

indiatimes.com/Kolkata_/Green_locos_on_railway_ra
dar/articleshow/3876790.cms

23 Dec 2008, 0103 hrs IST

KOLKATA: In a marked departure from railway tradition, Locomotive
36226 is painted bright green and not without reason. Emblazoned on
its sides are the words Bio-Diesel'. This is the only locomotive in
the Eastern Railway stable that uses a mix of bio-diesel and high-
speed diesel (HSD).

"Till now, we are using it only for shunting empty rakes between
Howrah station and the yard. We have placed an order for another
such locomotive. Our engineers are working on models that can be
used to haul long-distance trains. These locomotives will also use a
more environmentally-friendly' mix of bio-diesel and HSD," said a
senior ER officer.

Of the total fuel that the green' locomotive consumes, 10% is bio-
diesel. Though this may seem a miniscule portion, officers say that
it is not too bad for a start, given the quantum of diesel the
railways consume annually. At a later stage, the composition of bio-
diesel in the fuel mix may be brought up to 20%.

"A diesel loco consumes about 100 litres of diesel for a trip from
Howrah to Burdwan while hauling a normal-sized passenger train. Once
we start using bio-diesel, not only will we cut costs, but also
reduce pollution by 20% (when the experiment is successful). At the
end of the year, this may result in saving hundreds of kilolitres of
HSD. We are actually planning to instal a bio-diesel plant at the
loco shed in Howrah," said another officer.

South Eastern Railway (SER) has been running three bio-diesel
locomotives in the Kharagpur division since 2006. SER also has a
2000-litre per day capacity bio-diesel plant at Kharagpur to "feed"
the green locos. "These locos are used extensively. They use a 5%-
10% mixture of bio-diesel," a senior officer said.

Engineers at Howrah are also working on a project to generate power
from garbage collected from Howrah station. Once this experiment is
completed, enough power may be generated to keep the station
premises lit.

SER has also utilised huge tracts of land on either side of the
tracks for planting jatropha trees. These trees are hardy and
require little or no attention. The bio-diesel generated from these
trees will be used for modified locomotives.

Both ER and SER have also taken a number of steps to lower the
consumption of diesel. For one, it was common practice to keep the
engines running while rakes were being hitched or unhitched. This
may have saved time in re-starting the engines and building up
sufficient power, but led to wastage of diesel.

The railways have also managed to bring down consumption of
electricity through the use of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and
solar power. According to officers, LEDs are proving very effective
as signal lamps. At many places, signals are also being kept lit
through solar panels. SER has also started electrifying its quarters
through solar panels. Level crossing gates and stations have also
been electrified using solar power.