Electric Loco Shed, Arakkonam

Electric Loco Shed, Arakkonam is a motive power depot performing locomotive maintenance and repair facility for electric locomotives of the Indian Railways, located at Arrakkonam on the Guntakal–Chennai Egmore section of the Southern Railway zone in Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the three electric locomotive sheds of the Southern Railway, the others being at Erode (ED) and Royapuram (RPM) and is the oldest in south India.

Route haul map of Arakkonam Electric Loco shed

Electric Loco Shed, Arakkonam
Location
LocationArakkonam, Tamil Nadu
Coordinates13.08191°N 79.66845°E / 13.08191; 79.66845
Characteristics
OwnerIndian Railways
OperatorSouthern Railway zone
Depot codeAJJ
TypeEngine shed
Roads6
Rolling stockWAP-4
WAG-5
WAG-9
History
Opened1980 (1980)
Former rolling stockWAP-1
WAG-7
WAM-4

History

Steam locomotive sheds used to exist at Arrokonam (AJJ) until the late 1970s.[1][2] After Southern Railway set a deadline to eliminate all steam locomotive operations by 1990, a push was given towards establishing electric locomotion as the primary motive power, and the Steam locomotive shed was decommissioned.[3] To meet the needs of exponentially increasing rail traffic on the new continuous broad-gauge lines from Chennai to Kanyakumari and Palakkad with the completion of gauge conversion, the steam shed site was selected by Indian railways for a new electric locomotive shed.[4]

New Electric locomotive shed was inaugurated in the 1980s with WAM-4 class. This shed then got 5 WAP-1 from Ghaziabad which stayed until 2002, then they were transferred back to Ghaziabad again. It later got the entire Southern Railway (SR) fleet of WAP-4 locos. Later these were then moved to Erode and Lallaguda. New WAG-7 locos were acquired but later transferred to Erode. In 2009, 30 WAP-1 locos transferred back from Ghaziabad out of which all but 5 were sent to Royapuram in 2011.

All the WAM-4s of this shed have been retired/withdrawn from service. All WAP-1 units has been moved to Erode(EDDS)

Operations

Being one of the three electric engine sheds in Southern Railway, various major and minor maintenance schedules of electric locomotives are carried out here. It has the sanctioned capacity of 150 engine units. This shed houses a total of 184 engine units, including 90 WAP-4, 91 WAG-5.[5] and 3 WAG-9 Electric loco Shed, Erode is now housing the 2nd largest fleet of WAP-4 in Indian Railways and it caters to many long-distance electric trains.[6][7]

Like all locomotive sheds, AJJ does regular maintenance, overhaul and repair including painting and washing of locomotives. It not only attends to locomotives housed at AJJ but to ones coming in from other sheds as well. It has four pit lines for loco repair. Locomotives of Arakkonam ELS along with Erode and Royapuram ELS were the regular links for all trains running through Kerala and Tamil Nadu when widespread electrification of railway lines started in Southern Railways. It handled prestigious trains like the Kerala Express, and the Tamil Nadu Express. AJJ locomotives used to be predominantly the regular links for trains traveling to north as well.

Livery and markings

AJJ based locos can be identified by sticker marks of AJJ ELS. AJJ WAP-4 can also be identified by thunderbolts sign in front and back of the loco. AJJ based WAP-4 has many different types of liveries. Some liveries are given below.

SN Locomotive Livery Pic
1. AJJ WAP-4 in standard red livery
2. AJJ based WAP-4 in ICF shatabdi livery
3. AJJ based WAP-4 in ICF rajdhani livery
4. AJJ based WAP-4 in the old sapthagiri livery



AJJ based WAG-9 and WAG-5 have a standard livery all over India

Locomotives
SN Locomotive HP Quantity
1. WAP-4 5350 98
2. WAG-5 4300 33
3. WAG-9 6122 37
Total Locomotives active as of October 2023[8]168

See also

References
  1. "[IRFCA] Indian Railways FAQ: Steam Locomotive Sheds in the 1970s". IRFCA. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  2. "scan0189.jpg". IRFCA. Retrieved 20 May 2020.
  3. "Report of the expert Committee on Coal Consumption on Railways, 1958". INDIAN CULTURE. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  4. "Electric loco shed location". Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  5. "Indian Railway-shed wise engine.holdings" (PDF). p. 1. Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  6. "fleets under sheds". Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  7. "List of Locos in Erode". Retrieved 23 November 2016.
  8. "e-Locos".
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