Introduction to Railway Engineering, History of Railway Engineering, Advantages & Disadvantages of Railways, Facts about Indian Railways

1. RAILWAY: A MODE OF
TRANSPORTATION
Kiranmoy Samanta

2. Contents
 Introduction
 History of Railways
 Railway: A Mode ofTransportation
 Advantages of Railways
 Disadvantages of Railways

3. Introduction
 Amongst the different modes of transport, Railways
have their greatest utilization in the transport of large
volumes of heavy and bulk commodities and passengers
over long distances with safety, comfort and
convenience.

4. Indian Railways
 Indian Railways is the largest railways network to be
operated by a single government and is the world’s third
largest network with a total length of 127,760 kms.
 Indian Railways owned the longest railway platform in
the world at Kharagpur with a length of 2,733 feet. Now,
breaking the record, Gorakhpur station has recently
taken its place with a span of 4,430 feet.

6. Cont...
 Mathura junction has the maximum number of routes
emerging from it.
 Srirampur and Belapur are two different stations in
Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra.They are both
situated at the same point on the railway route, but are
located on opposite sides of the track.

8. History
 Railways were first introduced to India in 1853 from
Bombay toThane
 The first passenger train ran between the two stations,
covering a distance of 34km onApril 16 1853.
 A British engineer, Robert Maitland Brereton, was
responsible for the expansion of the railways from 1857
onwards.

9. Cont...
 The Allahabad-Jabalpur branch line of the East Indian
Railway had been opened in June 1867 .
 In 1951 the systems were nationalised as one unit, the
Indian Railways, becoming one of the largest networks in
the world.

10. Cont...
 Indian Railways is the world's ninth largest commercial or
utility employer, by number of employees, with over
1.4million employees.
 As of 31 March 2013, 23,541km (14,628mi) (36%) of the
total 65,000km (40,000mi) km route length was
electrified.
 Since 1960, almost all electrified sections on IR use
25,000Volt AC traction through overhead catenary
delivery.

11. Advantages
 It facilitate long distance travel and transport of bulky
goods which are not easily transported through motor
vehicles.
 It is a quick and more regular form of transport because it
helps in the transportation of goods with speed and
certainty.

12. Cont...
 It helps in the industrialization process of a country by
easy transportation of coal and raw-materials at a
cheaper rate.
 The carrying capacity of the railways is extremely large.
Moreover, its capacity is elastic which can easily be
increased by adding more wagons.

13. Disadvantages
 The railway requires a large investment of capital.
 The cost of construction and maintenance are very high.
 It routes and timings cannot be adjusted to individual
requirements.
 Railway transport is unsuitable and uneconomical for
short distances and small traffic of goods.
 It involves much time and labour in booking and taking
delivery of goods through railways as compared to motor
transport.