First dynamic trial of AC train carried out

Mumbai: In what will bring cheer to commuters, dynamic trials of the air-conditioned train finally started on Thursday with a second such trial scheduled on Friday night with the Research Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO) in charge of inspection. The train has been gathering dust at the Kurla carshed for more than a year now. Static trials were successfully concluded where mechanics of the train were inspected while it was parked in the car shed itself. By contrast, dynamic trials involve monitoring performance of a running train.

Western Railway (WR) in an official letter has requested Central Railway (CR) to hand over the train to them after technical glitches kept delaying its actual running. Final running has not yet been decided however the first dynamic trial was held between Vidyavihar and Kalyan. An official said, “The trials are basically called oscillation trials and as the name suggests, we measure the train’s sideways movement while it is running. This sideways movement cannot go beyond certain measurements as the train has to be at a certain distance from the stairs of the foot-over-bridge and so on and so forth.”

Officials hope that the train will be available in over four months as dynamic trials are usually conducted for 18 weeks. The official said, “After four months, if all goes well, we will be sending the paperwork to the Railway Board in Delhi.” CR divisional railway manager Ravindra Goyal said, “As of now, we can only say that we are trying our best to get the train operational and running on the line as soon as possible.”

Flash back
The train arrived in Mumbai in May 2015. However, CR said it won’t be able to run the train before six months. In the meantime, the train was plagued by innumerable technical glitches including faulty air-conditioning, greater height than warranted etc.