Evolution of Railway Coaches worldwide and in India

By
T.S.Ravichandran- SSE/AWTI & D.Selvakumaran-SSE/AWTI

Introduction: ICF is manufacturing coaches for the past six decades.

This

article

is

aimed

at

giving

an

introduction

how

the

coach

manufacturing has evolved over the years worldwide and in India. As ICF
is having a long history in coach manufacturing, a brief information
regarding evolution of coaches at India is presented in the latter part of
this article. The discussion is restricted to the materials used for shell
construction and the welding processes used.

Evolution of Railway coaches-worldwide

Early carriages were simple constructions made predominantly of wood on
which simple axle system was mounted. By 1900 the bogie coach was
introduced, a concept still in use today. The carriage body was still made
of wood but with steel underframe. In 1970 coaches in which Body
integrated with Underframe called "monocoque" steel coaches were
made.

For many years steel has been the preferred material for rail vehicle
construction. Good ductility and weld strength makes steel a good choice
for crashworthy designs. Steel rail vehicle bodies tend to buckle before
failure.

Aluminium Coaches
Experience with aluminum over the past several decades has resulted in
numerous applications for the metal not only in freight cars, but also in
light rail and inner city commuter trains, metros, and underground trains
as well as in the express, intercity passenger trains. There is also
considerable use of aluminum in the advanced high speed trains such as
the Acela (US), TGV (France), Transrapid (Australia), Shinkansen (Japan),
Pendolinotype trains (UK) and the futuristic magnetic levitation (Maglev)
trains.

In recent years a drive for energy efficient, lightweight rail vehicles has
seen the introduction of aluminium in rail vehicle construction. Though
Aluminium has been in use in the rail industry for many years since 1931.
Mechanical properties:
Material

Density

Yield strength(YS)

Ultimate tensile

(kg/m3)

(N/mm2)

strength.(UTS)

Steel
Aluminium

7800

275

(N/mm2)
430

(e.g.6005, 6063,

2700

225

270

6061 etc)

In the 50s and 60s some aluminium skinned rail coaches were built by
(British Railways) BR in the UK. The first aluminium monocoque body
shells were designed in the 70s for the APT (Advanced Passenger Train) in
the UK and the TGV (French: Train Grande Vitesse, High speed Train) in
France.
The successful use of aluminium in rail body construction has been made
possible by the emergence over the past 15-20 years of extrusion
technologies for large profiles.
Availability of closed cell extrusions provided designers with lightweight
and stiff sections that could easily be welded together to construct strong
double skinned body shells. Heat treatable Aluminium alloy 6005T6 (AlMg-Si) is used predominantly in rail vehicle construction in Europe.

Extruded sections are particularly suited for automated welding allowing

the manufacture of structures with exceptional dimensional accuracy (far

better than with steel fabrications) at relatively low cost. Hollow

aluminium extruded profiles are rigid and stronger structurally than steel
single-skin bodies, and thus exhibit superior collapse strength absorb
more energy during collision. Since Aluminium is much lighter than steel
the weight of the coach would reduce considerably. This would benefit in
reduce fuel cost for traction, reduced wear and tear of tracks, reduced life
cycle cost. All put together improves overall efficiency and profitability.

Aluminium welding
However, there is a challenge in welding of aluminium. During collision
Aluminium structures tend at tear or break at weld joints whichis known
as weld-unzipping.
Material factors which causes Weld unzipping are
-Composition
-Impurities
-Microstructure (fine grained better than large grained)
-Defects
Since welding changes microstructure and mechanical properties and can
introduce defects, the process can be critical in localising failure.
Aluminium alloys are therefore sensitive to heat input introduced by the
fusion welding processes. Hence automated MIG welding is the preferred
method for joining of extruded sections in the rail industry. Al-Mg filler
wire produces welds with improved mechanical properties over Al-Si filler
wire.

Evolution of coach building-at ICF

ICF was started with an objective of introducing

all steel

all welded

coaches. The underframe, sidewall, endwall and roof are integrated as a

tubular construction. Thus the name integral coach was born.
Materials and welding process used for shell construction at ICF
Initially the coaches were made of mild steel welded by manual metal arc
welding process. Faced with problem of corrosion , During 1970s, Corten
steel was introduced . The steel was imported from Japan. Corten steel
has

higher corrosion resistance, due to their chemical compositions,

when utilized unprotected, exhibits increased resistance to atmospheric

corrosion compared to unalloyed steels. This is because it forms a
protective layer on its surface under the influence of the weather. There
are two grades of Corten steel are available, viz. Corten-A and Corten
B.Steel plates up to 12.5 mm are classified as Corten-A and up to 50mm
are classified as Corten B. In shell construction materials up to 10 mm
thickness are Corten steel and above 10 mm mild steel to specification
IS-2062 are used. In tune with the changes for improving quality and
productivity Submerged Arc Welding (SAW) and Gas Metal Arc Welding
(GMAW) were introduced during the year 1988 to 1992.

Introduction of stainless steel in ICF coaches over the years.

During 1992 stainless steel trough floor was introduced in WCB under
frames and gradually extended to vendor area of EMU trailer coaches. The
material used was AISI 301. Manual metal arc welding process was used.
Further during 1999 -2000 two full stainless steel AC coaches were
manufactured.

All

Underframe

members

except

body

bolster

and

headstock were made of austenitic stainless steel to grade AISI 301. Self
-shielded flux core welding process was used using AISI 309L grade for
the first time at ICF. Sidewall, end wall and roof were also made up of
stainless steel. The experience gained during the manufacture has given a
roadmap for future stainless steel shells at ICF. During the same time a

design evolved for Air conditioned executive chair car with fluted sidewall
with austenitic stainless steel to grade AISI 301. A mock-up of this shell
was done to prove out the capability of ICF to manufacture fluted sidewall
design. The advantage of fluted sidewall is elimination of lot of stiffeners,
reduced welding and elimination of skin tensioning process.
During 2000 to 2002 trough floor for all coaches were fitted with
austenitic stainless steel using flux core welding process with CO

as

shielding gas.
ICF also exported shells to Malaysia by winning a contract against stiff
global competition. These shells were made of 100% stainless steel
except under frame body bolster and headstock. This project was a huge
success.
With the emergence of LHB shells and FIAT bogies new welding processes
like laser welding and twin wire robotic welding process were introduced.
In near future ICF will be completely switching over to full stainless steel
coach as per LHB design. The success of ICF in switching over to various
technological improvements over a period of six decades shows its ability
to absorb, adapt to changes as per market requirements. The team work
in carrying out new projects was a key for success.
Looking at the future, Indian Railways is planning for aluminium coaches
for increased speed potential, reduced track maintenance and ICF, as
always been, will be happier to take up the challenges as a torch bearer of
coach manufacturing in India.
Conclusion: The article throws light the on coach manufacturing sector in
India lagging behind the international practice by at least 30 years. It is to
be noted no passenger air craft was even planned for manufacture at
India. Therefore it is imperative that Indian companies whether public or
private should rise to the needs of global requirements to make our

nation a world leader in manufacturing sector. After all we have shown it

is possible to be world leader in information technology sector.

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