MY PROJECT 2 (RAIL TROLLEY)

Indian Railways contains a major network of railway tracks scattered all around the country. The entire length of tracks was found to be almost 67,368 kms. These railway tracks require regular maintenance and periodic overhauling for smooth and efficient transportation of freight and people all over the India.

The Gang Man also referred as ‘back bone of Indian Railways’ serves its duty for maintenance of these railway tracks. Inspite of any weather condition or prevailing circumstances, they undergo regular maintenance and inspection of these railway tracks. You must have seen them working beside the railway tracks in orange uniform with long hammer, chisel etc. on their arm and hand. On an average, a gang man inspects or walks around 30 kms of railway tracks during it duty shift. One can easily determine the efforts put by gang man during its daily shift. They face a major difficulty of walking on ballast stones of the tracks along with heavy instruments on their arms.

gang man working in railway tracks

To provide the solution and ease the working of these railway employees, a concept of rail bicycle was introduced. One can see the figure of rail bicycle below:

The invention was just a simple ‘jugaad’ where the iron frames were welded on the normal bicycle in order to maintain balance and direct the cycle on a particular direction. The side frames attached to the bicycle simply provides balance and support to the cycle and the front frames attached near front handle of tyre directs the cycle on the rails of tracks. One can easily remove the cycle on arrival of train on the same tracks. Iron wheels in profile of curvature of tracks were attached at the end of frames for the easy movement of cycle.

This simple invention provides a great relief to our gang man as they can easily inspect the tracks on the cycle with less effort and more safety. However, there are some defaults and mistakes arriving in this invention.

1. The bicycle is not completely in balanced position as there were no support on the other side of the cycle. As a result, the person has to inclined in a particular direction to keep its center of mass on the balanced position.

2. There was no arrangement for the instruments of the gang man. The person has to hang the instrument on its back during the movement of cycle.

3. The person has to keep an initial balance during the start of riding of bicycle or during standing and sitting on cycle.

4. It requires more force than riding the bicycle on the road.

In order to solve the above problems, the concept of rail trolley can be used in replacement of rail bicycle. The concept is very much simple as the rear two tyres of the trolley can be made 1676 mm apart to fit on the two parallel rails of track. The front part of the trolley or the handle part can be modified as follows:

for the back part of rail trolley

for the front part of rail trolley

A small trolley can also be attached in the arrangement so that the gang man can put its essential equipment over the trolley. The front handle can be fixed by the help of two guide wheels shown in the above figure so that the handle does not move during the movement of trolley to prevent the derailment of the trolley. As the handle remains in the middle of the tracks, a front headlight can also be used operated by battery to make inspection easier during the night duty.

The following arrangement has the major advantages as:

1. The trolley will always be remained in the equilibrium position as the centre of mass gets shifted on the middle part of the tracks.

2. The arrangement has back trolley to keep the essential equipment over the trolley.

3. The person can be remained sitting on the trolley even though the trolley not remain in moving situation.

4.  Easier movements of the trolley by less effort on the pedal.

A piece of metal can be attached to the rear wheel of trolley which can be used as a hinge for the movement of trolley out of the tracks when the train is coming on same tracks.

Thus, being the above-mentioned advantages, a cycle trolley can be used by the gang man for the inspection of tracks. The product is little more costly but more effective than the rail bicycle.

sources

images: google images