VARANASI: The Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW), a production unit of Indian Railways in Varanasi , has made a history by converting the diesel loco into electric loco with indigenous technology under ‘Make In India’ initiative.

The DLW authorities claimed that first time in the world any loco has been converted from diesel traction to electric traction.

“It was a great challenge accomplished in a short span of time. The work on this project was started on December 22, 2017 and the locomotive was successfully rolled out on February 28, 2018,” said the chief public relation officer of DLW Nitin Mehrotra adding that the works are on for testing of unit’s safety and further improvement.

According to him, DLW has turned out WAGC3 class of locomotive (Number 001). This 5,000 hp unit is one half of a 10,000 hp locomotive. What is remarkable about this new series is the concept on which it is based, wherein two diesel locomotives of WDG3A class are converted to one permanently coupled 12-axle, electric locomotive of 10,000 hp.

A team consisting of engineers from Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO), Chiitaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW), DLW and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) worked under the leadership of DLW general manager Rashmi Goel and guidance of Railway Board member (traction) Ghansyam Singh.

“For this audacious attempt the team set very hard targets for itself,” he said adding that it was decided that only those locomotives will be considered for conversion which are due for mid life rehabilitation (where the diesel locomotives are practically given new heart), retaining their chassis, bogies and traction motors.The team adventurously attempted to use the sidewalls and roof of decommissioned WAM4 class electric locomotive. The work needed detailed system engineering as there were no precedent designs and experience available anywhere in the world. RDSO prepared equipment layout and DLW prepared the drawings for modification of the WDG3A chassis. The modifications were vetted by RDSO after detailed finite element analysis on standard load scenarios.

