Eastern Railway (ER) has installed panel interlocking in the Howrah Goods Cabin with 4th line connectivity a week ago. Earlier, the goods cabin was operated by lever frame interlocking.
This cabin has now been renamed as Howrah Link Cabin. The replacement follows ER’s move to replace mechanical ( lever frame) interlocking systems with electrical or electronic interlocking systems to increase enhance safety in train operations besides augmenting existing capacity.
In addition, this will ensure reduced operational response time as well as more flexibility in routes in mail express and suburban train services with South Eastern Railway (SER) by providing 4th line with Tikiapara [ SER jurisdiction starts after Tikiapara which is situated just at the outskirts of Howrah].
The panel for the Howrah link cabin has been provided at Howrah RRI Cabin. Provision of additional line with Tikiapara has been made by modifying the circuit for existing route relay interlocking at Howrah.
Salient features of panel interlocking for Howrah Link Cabin
1) No. of running lines – 7
2) Type of signalling – Multi Aspect Colour Light Signals
3) No. of routes – 48
4) Block signalling with continuous track circuit for better safety
5) 15 Motor points for replacing lever operated points
6) Data logger for monitoring.
7) MSDAC (Multi-signal digital axle counter) for track detection.
