Railways to introduce dual cab passenger locomotive

In some good news to loco drivers, the railways have decided to introduce cabins at both ends of a diesel locomotive to enable them with better range of view, speed and operation.

In some good news to loco drivers, the railways have decided to introduce cabins at both ends of a diesel locomotive to enable them with better range of view, speed and operation.

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"The trial of the dual cabin system is going on and will be put into operation for passenger trains once it gets the certification from the Commissioner Railway Safety," said a senior Railway Ministry official.

At present, the diesel locos with 4500 HP for passenger trains are equipped with a single driver cabin at the front side of the engine.

"Drivers face difficulties in viewing the signals while running the train in opposite direction," said the official adding "the rear-end drive constraints the driver to speed up beyond 110 km per hour."

The new design, named WDP4D, overcomes speed limitation by providing two cabins for driver and crew-friendly features such as LCD screen displays among others.

"The new locomotive is capable of running at more than 130 km speed in both directions and thus fulfilling the needs for increasing speed of the passengers trains," he said.