East Coast Railway becomes first zone to adopt EOTT system in Indian Railways

BHUBANESWAR: The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has commissioned End of Train Telemetry (EOTT) system to run trains without guards. It is the first railway zone in the country to use the cutting edge technology for operation of trains without brake van and guards.

The field trial for Indian Railways was conducted between Talcher and Paradip section recently when a freight train successfully reached destination with EOTT system in place. Electric Loco Shed, Angul has commissioned and tested the technology.

EOTT system mainly consists of Head of Train (HOT) fitted in locomotive and End of Train (EOT) fitted on last vehicle of the train. EOTT has Global Positioning System (GPS) module to indicate location of the train and Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication module to transfer data to server besides the radio device for communication and control between HOT and EOT.

High visibility marker light flasher device in EOT has been provided with automatic switching on and off based on the ambient light condition. Break power pressure of the last vehicle of the train is displayed to train driver in the HOT display in cab of the locomotive. The driver can confirm break power pressure drop in the train up to last vehicle during application of air brake by observing break power pressure of last vehicle remotely in the HOT display.

The system allows to apply emergency brake from last vehicle of the train by opening a valve in EOT remotely from the cab of locomotive. It has the provision for automatic application of train emergency air brakes also from rear when emergency train air brake is applied by loco pilot in the cab and the simultaneous application of brake from front and rear will reduce the braking distance and time for controlling the train.

In case of train parting confirmed by loco pilot, emergency brake from EOT, if required by train driver can be applied in order to bring the rear portion to an early halt. The available provisions will boost the confidence of loco pilots during running of trains with EOTT.

Chief PRO of ECoR Kausalendra Kishore Khadanga said operation of trains with EOTT is an ambitious project of Railways for implementation in fast track mode.

“A few more trial runs will be conducted in the State before completely adopting the system. The technology will eliminate the requirement of brake van and practice of employing guard in the train,” he added.