Case Studies

CP PLUS Secures Agra Cantt. Station

Agra Cantonment is the main railway station in the city of Agra, and among the 100 most frequented station in the Indian Railways. Situated towards the southwest of the city, it intersects the main Delhi-Chennai and Delhi-Mumbai lines.

The main motive of the railway authorities was to monitor the wheelbase of the train coaches to check for damages, and simultaneously identify the train and coach number in which the damage has been detected.  

Challenges

Implementing the new system wasn’t easy. Having provided multiple suggestions and a demo, a solution was finally reached upon which satisfied the railway authorities. Another challenge that stood before the implementation team was to ensure the successful operation at night in the absence of adequate lighting. However, with a careful selection of state-of-the-art cameras equipped with night vision, this challenge was eventually taken care of.

Solution offered

Considering that trains leave the platform with an approximate speed of 25-30 kmp/h, an IP camera was chosen which performed at 50-60 FPS (frame per sec). This could easily monitor the wheelbase and at the same time identify the train and coach number as well.

However, installing the camera close to the railway lines was risky as it could be easily tampered with or damaged by passengers, objects/ particles flung by the high velocity of the passing trains, etc. To resolve this, the camera was installed inside an enclosed high density steel box mounted atop a pole that cemented & buried 2-3 feet below the ground. Further, a halogen lamp was installed inside the box to amplify the image quality and achieve better images during the night. So now, the wheel base could be effectively monitored from a central control room in the railways station without requiring manual intervention.

Results

On successful implementation, the railway authorities could now:

• Monitoring any defects in the wheelbase
• Identify the train and coach number of the train with the defect.
• Achieve clear images quality during the night for round-the-clock effective supervision.
• Since officials usually identify faults by listening to the sound coming from the wheel base of a train, a microphone was fitted to help them continue doing so from the control room itself.

The solution provided proved to be very helpful in monitoring the wheel base - a very important aspect of maintaining trains.