Diesel Loco Shed, Tondiarpet

Diesel Loco Shed, Tondiarpet is a motive power depot performing locomotive maintenance and repair facility for diesel locomotives of the Indian Railways. It is located near Tondiarpet railway station (TNP) of the Southern Railway zone in the city of Chennai, Tamil Nadu[1][2] and is one of the four diesel loco sheds of the Southern Railway, the others being at Ernakulam (ERS) at Kochi, Erode (ED) and Golden Rock (GOC) at Trichy.

Diesel Loco Shed, Tondiarpet
Location
LocationTondiarpet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Coordinates13.1268328°N 80.2814769°E / 13.1268328; 80.2814769
Characteristics
Owner(s)Indian Railways
Operator(s)Southern Railway zone
Depot code(s)TNP
TypeEngine shed
Rolling stockWDM 2, WDM 3A, WDG 3A, WDS 6
History
Opened1972 (1972)

History and developments

On 25 December 1971, the then Railway Minister, K. Hanumanthaiya, laid the foundation stone for the loco shed. After four years of construction, it was finally opened in 1975 with a total area of 169,000 square metres (170,000 m2) and covered area of 19,600 square metres (20,000 m2). It initially homed YDM-4 class MG locomotives, and was once expanded in 1993 to hold Broad Gauge locomotives and again in 2000 to accommodate more than 100 locos.[3]

Tondiarpet diesel loco shed is located to the north of the station. The diesel shed was commissioned in October 1972. Earlier a steam shed used to exist with 14 WG locomotives, but this shed was decommissioned and subsequently demolished to make way for the diesel shed.[4] The new diesel shed got a batch of WDS-4B diesel locomotives as its first locomotives. These locomotives were used for shunting in the marshalling yard at Tondiarpet, the goods sheds at Royapuram, Salt Cotaurs, and the coaching depot at Basin Bridge in Chennai division.[5][6][7] later the number of WDS-4B locomotives was increased to 64 for meeting increasing demand in Trichi, Palakkad, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Mysore divisions and ICF, Perambur. As the WDS-4 fleet began to reach the end of their serviceable life, WDM-7 locomotives were transferred from Ernakulam and put into service on both passenger and yard shunting work. In April 2007, mainline WDM2-model from Erode locomotives were additionally inducted for hauling goods. Now the shed holds X WDM-2, Y WDG-3A, Z WDM-3A, X WDS-6 and 14 WDM-7

The shed has a total area of 75,000 sq m, including a covered area of 6,652 sq m, has a capacity of 50 locomotives. The shed employs about 378 persons.[8]

Operations

The shed, headed by Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer (Diesel), has about 750 employees in different ranks in the day-to-day operations of the shed, which include periodical overhaul, maintenance and repair works.[9] The locos of this shed were thoroughly traverses over entire South India for passenger and freight services.[10] Like all locomotive sheds, TNP does regular maintenance, overhaul and repair including painting and washing of locomotives. It not only attends to locomotives housed at TNP but to ones coming in from other sheds as well. It has four pit lines for loco repair.

Locomotives of Tondiarpet DLS along with Erode and Golden Rock DLS were the regular links for all trains running through Tamil Nadu, even though widespread electrification of railway lines started in Tamil Nadu. TNP locomotives used to be predominantly the regular links for trains traveling on the Konkan Railway as well. As more and more railway lines in Tamil Nadu were electrified, TNP started losing links to electric locomotives, mainly WAP-1, WAP-4, WAG-7 and WAP-7 locomotives from the Erode (ED), Arakkonam (AJJ) and Royapuram (RPM) electric locomotive sheds. Despite all the electrification across the country, TNP locomotives still take trains as far as Gujarat, Bikaner and in the Shornur- Nilambur line of Kerala.

Livery and markings

Indian Railways allows diesel loco sheds to paint their locomotives in their own unique liveries. Tondiarpet's locomotives have their current livery scheme painted in light blue with a wide cream band around the middle, with dark blue lines on the top and bottom, to match with the ICF livery. The dark blue bar and the light blue line taper downwards at both ends of the locomotive to create a "V" shaped design. This orange-cream-orange color scheme gives the locomotives a cheerful and pleasant look. One locomotive, WDM-7A #11008 is in an experimental light green-cream-light green scheme.

Locomotives
SN Locomotives HP Quantity Comments IMAGE
1. WDM-2 2600 3
2. WDM-3A 3100 21
3. WDG-3A 5
4. WDM-7 2000 15

5. WDS-6 1400 12
6. WDS-4 1
Total Locomotives Active as of July 2020[11][12]57

Loco holding images

References
  1. "Mechanical Engineering - Diesel Loco Sheds, Southern Railway". Indian Railways. Railway Board. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  2. "About us". Southern Railway zone. Archived from the original on 24 April 2016. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  3. "Diesel Loco Shed, Golden Rock - About" (PDF). Indian Railways. Railway Board. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  4. "[IRFCA] Indian Railways FAQ: Steam Locomotive Sheds in the 1970s". www.irfca.org. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  5. "[IRFCA] Indian Railways Locomotive Roster Tondiarpet, Chennai (TNP) WDS-4 19221 Show". www.irfca.org. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  6. "Railway (10)". www.irfca.org. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  7. "[IRFCA] Indian Railways Locomotive Roster Tondiarpet, Chennai (TNP) WDS-4 19533 Show". www.irfca.org. Retrieved 18 May 2020.
  8. "Brief history of Diesel shed Tondiarpet" (PDF). Indian Railways. 1 July 2010. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
  9. "Chapter 2 : Assessment, Procurement/ Production, Utilisation and Maintenance of Locomotives in Indian Railways". Comptroller and Auditor General of India. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  10. J Arockiaraj (6 September 2013). "Locomotive failures affecting train operations in Madurai division". The Times of India. Retrieved 19 January 2014.
  11. "Railway Website Mechanical Department". Retrieved 16 May 2020.
  12. "IRFCA".
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