TRAIN LIGHTING AND AIR CONDITIONING 

TRAIN LIGHTING

Train lighting by electricity was first introduced on Indian Railways in 1897. Supply of electricity in trains is required primarily for lighting – a necessity, for fans – an amenity and, for air conditioning – a functional necessity and also an amenity. Besides, the electricity is also required for meeting the hotel load viz. hot plates, bottle coolers, refrigerators etc. provided in pantry cars as well as in air conditioned coaches.

In the olden days the passenger trains used to have 7 or 8 coaches hauled by steam locomotive and those coaches were divided into first class, second class, inter class and third class. First class had a number of fans and light points. Second class had almost half of first class load, while inter class had load, much less than second class and third class had only two light points at the doors. After independence, in the first parliamentary meeting in 1952, a resolution was passed that passengers travelling in the third class of Indian Railway trains should be provided with basic passenger amenities. This covered adequate lighting and fan requirement and running water in the toilets in all class of coaches. Ministry of Railways accordingly, planned this work and in a period of about 3 years all the coaches were sent to workshops for providing generating equipment's and other fittings. 

The train lighting system at that time consisted of axle driven generator working in conjunction with 24V batteries and switch gears for controlling lights and fans. In axle generation, moving axle of the coaches work as a prime mover for generator. The axle pulley and the generator pulley are connected together by belts.  

 Present Systems of train lighting on Indian Railways. 

The following systems are presently in use for train lighting on Indian Railways.    

 Axle generation system working on D.C. 24V, supply, 

Axle generation system working on D.C. 110V, supply, 

Mid-on-generation with AC 415V, 3 phase. AC 415V utilization for air conditioning equipment's and AC 110V utilization for train lighting equipment's, 

End-on-generation with AC 415V, 3 phase. AC 415V utilization for air conditioning equipment's and AC 110V utilization for train lighting equipment's, 

End-on-generation with AC 750V, 3 phase generation and AC 415V utilization for air conditioning equipment's and AC 110V utilization for train lighting equipment's.

 AIR CONDITIONING 

Air conditioning of railway coaches on Indian Railways began in 1960s. These were equipped with under slung equipment's, interconnected with pipelines. The introduction of self contained roof mounted package units in coaches, with complete equipment's, pre-charged and tested needing only electrical and ducting connections is of recent origin. With the introduction of more and more fast trains on Indian Railways, the need for air-conditioned coaches has also increased. Not only for improving comfort, but also from operating point of view, since with higher train speeds, the need to avoid opening of windows due to wind resistance considerations also assumes importance. 

Indian Railways have several types of air conditioned coaches. These comprise of AC chair car, AC executive class chair car, AC 3-Tier, AC 2-Tier and AC first class.

 Improved Performance of Air-conditioned (AC) Coaches.

 The holding stock of air conditioned coaches has increased steeply over the last three years. It increased from 1367 air-conditioned coaches during 1994-95 to 1612 such coaches during 1996-97. The number of air-conditioned coaches on Indian Railway as up to August 1997 was 1893.