1. ABSTRACT

ICF Bogie is a conventional railway bogie used on the majority of Indian

Railway main line passenger coaches. The design of the bogie was developed

by ICF (Integral Coach Factory), Perumbur, India in collaboration with the

Swiss Car & Elevator Manufacturing Co., Schlieren, Switzerland in the

1950s. The design is also called the Schlieren design based on the location of

the Swiss company

The dynamic behaviour of a railway bogie has been investigated by using a

mathematical model,a space state equation, for simulation with a computer.

The comparison of a damped with a undamped bogie demonstrated that the

driving stability at high speeds can be uprated after the installation of dampers

acting in driving direction and allaround the vertical rotation axis of the bogie

The maximum speed of the damped bogie has amounted to 76 m/s.

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2. INTRODUCTION

2.1 PROBLEM DEFINTION

Design office takes care of the changes in the availability of the new

materials, standardization, obsolescence, feed back reports from the user Railways

and recommendations by various standing committees and study groups on the

Indian Railways.

With the changing requirements of the Railways, the design office is

challenged to drastically cut down the design cycle time. The design office can

proudly take the credit of development of the following new designs in the past

three years.

Started in 1952, the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) is located in Perambur, a

suburb of Chennai, India. Its primary products are rail coaches. Most of the

coaches manufactured are supplied to the Indian Railways, but it has also

manufactured coaches for railway companies in other countries, including

Thailand, Burma, Taiwan, Zambia, Philippines, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam,

Nigeria, Mozambique and Bangladesh. Recently, ICF exported coaches to Angola.

It also has got orders worth of Rs. 102 crores from Sri Lanka.

The coach factory provides a number of different coaches primarily for the Indian

Railways, primarily first and second class coaches, pantry and kitchen cars,

luggage and brake vans, self propelled coaches, electric, diesel and mainline

electric multiple units (EMU, DMU, MEMU), metro coaches and Diesel Electric

Tower Cars (DETC), Accident Relief Medical Vans (ARMV).

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3. HISTORY

Schlieren-Zurich (Switzerland). The first Kirloskar 8½” centre lathe was

installed by the then Railway Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in the machine shop on

20th Jan 1955. It was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of India Pandit

Jawaharlal Nehru on 2nd October 1955. Thus this great factory, ICF, came into

being with K. Sadagopan, as the first Chief Administrative Officer. Dignitaries

present on this occasion included Lal Bahadur Shastri, Railway Minister;

O.V.Alagesan, Deputy Minister for Railways; K. Kamaraj, Chief Minister of

Madras Presidency and U.Huber, Director of the Swiss company for whom this

was a proud moment, a witness to the consummation of the efforts of his experts

working in collaboration with Indian engineers. Production began in a modest

manner in 1955 with the manufacture of seven third class coach shells. Today the

coach factory produces more than 1600 coaches of more than 170 varieties. In the

year 2007-08, ICF created a milestone by producing 1291 railway passenger

coaches, coaches per annum. It employs about 13,000 persons. Nearly 1336

coaches are manufactured every year, and 6 coaches are manufactured per day.

4. INAUGURATION

Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, is a premier Production Unit of Indian

Railways manufacturing railway passenger coaches. ICF is the first of its kind to

be established after Independence for the manufacture of light weight, all steel and

all welded Integral railway passenger coaches. The factory was set up in 1955

with Swiss collaboration.

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5. STRUCTURE OF THE ORGANIZATION

The Integral Coach Factory consists of two main parts - shell division and

the furnishing division. The shell division manufactures the skeleton of the rail

coach, while the furnishing division is concerned with the coach interiors and

amenities.

5.1 PRODUCTION

ICF’s initial plan was to produce 350 Broad Gauge Third Class shells

(unfurnished body of the Railway Coaches) only, which were to be furnished by

the Zonal Railways workshops. Later, in view of the severe limitation of capacity

of the Railway workshops and also to take advantage of mass production, a

separate Furnishing Division was added on 2nd October, 1962. The capacity was

progressively expanded from the initial 350 shells to 750 fully furnished coaches

per annum by 1973-74 with additional inputs. This was enhanced progressively

from 850 coaches during 1986-87 to 1000 coaches in 1990-91. The modernization

project is under last stage of execution to augment capacity to 1250 coaches and

will be over by 2010-11.

Capacity is further being enhanced to 1500 coaches per annum through

infrastructure additions and modernization of machines.

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5.2 DESIGN FEATURES

The design concept of the coach stipulates that the roof, side wall, end wall

and the underframe are joined together by welding, to form a fully integral coach

shell. The end-wall construction has been made specially strong to make it anti-

telescopic to ensure maximum safety to passengers. Further, crashworthy features

are provided with CBC design to minimize impact on passengers during

accidents/derailments.

From the basic design handed down by the collaborators, ICF has diversified

having established its expertise and skill in this field, to design and manufacture

more than 350 different types of coaches for Indian Railways and export market.

Every time a new type of coach is launched, emphasis is laid on improving

passenger comfort, passenger safety and higher speeds. ICF follows standard

inspection procedures to ensure quality from raw material stage to the finished

coach.

5.3 PRODUCT RANGE

ICF has been meeting the needs of the Indian Railways for varied types of

coaches, however sophisticated the type may be. Some of the important types are:

5.3.1 SELF PROPELLED COACHES

Electric Multiple Units for suburban services in Metropolitan cities;

Diesel Rail Cars;

Metro Coaches for Kolkata Metro Railways;

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Diesel Electric Multiple Units & Diesel Hydraulic Multiple Units for

non-electrified routes and Mainline Electric Multiple Units for long distance

inter-city commutership.

Accident Relief Trains / Medical Vans

OHE Inspection Cars

5.3.2AIR-CONDITIONED & NON-AIRCONDITIONED PASSENGER

COACHES

Air-conditioned Sleeper Coaches of first & second class;

Air-conditioned Chair Cars of first and second class;

Double Decker Coaches with seating capacity for 148 passengers as

against the conventional 90 passengers.

5.3.3 SPECIAL COACHES

Air-conditioned & Non-air-conditioned Pantry Cars

High Capacity Power Cars for Shatabdi & Rajdhani Express Trains

Air-conditioned Military Ward and Saloon Cars for Indian Army.

Air-conditioned Saloon Cars, Dining Cars, Bar & Restaurant Cars,

luxury suites for luxury tourist trains like Palace on Wheels (WR), Deccan

Odyssey (CR), The Golden Chariot (SWR), Royal Rajasthan on Wheels

(NWR) and Maharajas� Express of IRCTC

Lifeline Express for operation of hospital on wheels

Jet Deflector Crane Cars,

Inter Communication Coaches for DRDO

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5.3.4 EXPORT

ICF’s achievement on the export front has been enviable since its

inception. Against stiff international competition from more advanced countries

like Japan, etc., ICF secured several export orders, most of which are repeat orders.

So far, 359 bogies, 11 stainless steel coach shells and 481 coaches including air-

conditioned coaches have been exported to 13 Afro-Asian countries. ICF has

bagged a number of awards for Export Excellence also.

5.4 DESIGN & DEVLOPMENT EFFORTS

Complementing the existing design capacities and facilities, a fully

computerised Design & Development Cell has been set up with sophisticated state-

of-the-art computer designing facilities and testing equipment both for coach

components and raw materials. D&D Centre uses 3-D modelling on SolidWorks

platform for generating 3-D drawings and IDEAS software for Finite Element

Analysis.

Strain gauge testing and squeeze test are done on prototypes before

commencement of series production.

5.5 PRODUCTION WITH INNOVATION

ICF has carved a niche in the Indian Railway system by constantly

improving the quality of travel through its passenger coach design which has

undergone a sea- change from the days of bye-gone era of mere transport of

passengers. There has been a steady growth both in the quality and quantity of its

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production. Over the years ICF has endeavoured to meet passengers expectations

through innovations like

Cushioned seats in General Second Class and SLR coaches

Provision of Controlled Discharge Toilet Systems

Anti-injury features in the passenger areas of A/C 2-tier and Sleeper

coaches

Enhanced carrying capacity in A/C 2-tier, First A/C and Garib Rath

Chair Car

Provision of forced ventilation, PIS/PAS in AC/DC EMUs for WR

and CR

UIC vestibules in mainline coaches

Disabled friendly features in SLRD/SRD coaches

Modular toilets in passenger coaches

Provision of laptop and cell phone charging points in passenger

coaches

Use of stainless steel in Pantry Cars including interiors and the

equipment

As milestones in this endless travel, ICF has obtained the ISO: 9001, ISO: 14001

and ISO: 18001 certificates for the QMS, EMS and OHSAS systems respectively.

All this has been made possible through ICF’s commitment to progress and

improvement with its dedicated workforce functioning in a contented atmosphere

in pleasant surroundings and working conditions. Several welfare schemes like

staff quarters, adequate clean water supply, improved medical facilities, online

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information kiosks, issue of pass centrally, encouragement in sports activities, etc.,

are provided.

PRODUCTION WITH INNOVATION is our motto and we will continue to live

up to it.

6 MILESTONES

1 First Third Class Shell production 2nd October 1955

2 First Indigenous Shell produced 14th August 1956

3 First Full production capacity achieved 1958-59

4 First Incentive system of payment introduced January 1960

5 First MG First Class Coach 1960-61

6 First 1000th Shell, fully furnished and produced 1962-63

7 First Fully furnished third class sleeper coach October 1961

8 First AC EMU A produced September 1962

9 First MG Diesel Rail Car 1964-65

10 First MG EMU Motor coach 1965-66

11 First AC Express 1966-67

12 First Rajdhani Express November 1968

13 First Power Car (WLRRM) November 1968

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14 First DC EMU Motor coach 1969-70

15 First AC Composite Coach (FACCW) 1972-73

16 First BG AC 2 tier Sleeper December 1974

17 First AC Power Car (WLRRM AC) 1975-76

18 First Second Class Day Coach (SDC) 1975-76

19 First DC EMU high capacity Motor coach January 1976

20 First BG Double Decker Coach 1976-77

21 First Manufacture of Vaigai Express 15th August 1977

22 First 23 Metre (70 feet) SCN Coach 1978-79

23 First Military Ward cum Dining Car 1978-79

24 First MG Milk van Bogie 4th July 1979

25 First MG ACCW coach 1981-82

26 First Metro Coach for Calcutta Sub-urban 1981-82

27 First Taj Express 1987-88

28 First Shatabdi Express 1989-90

29 First MG Palace on Wheels,20 Coaches, 5 types July 1991

30 First Conventional Coach with Air Brake November 1993

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