Electric Loco Shed, Ghaziabad is a

motive power depot The motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is the place where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained when not being used. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine she ...

performing locomotive maintenance and repair facility for

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or g ...

s of the

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tota ...

, located at of the

Northern Railway zone The Northern Railway (NR) is one of the 19 Railway zones of India and the northernmost zone of the Indian Railways. It is headquartered at Baroda House in New Delhi. History Officially notified as a new railway zone on 14 April 1952, i ...

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 195 ...

, India. It is one of the two electric locomotive sheds of the Northern Railway, the others being at

Ludhiana Ludhiana ( ) is the most populous and the largest city in the Indian state of Punjab. The city has an estimated population of 1,618,879 2011 census and distributed over , making Ludhiana the most densely populated urban centre in the state. I ...

(LDH) .

History

Steam locomotive sheds used to exist at Ghaziabad until the late 1960s. After Northern 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 sheds was decommissioned. To meet the needs of exponentially increasing rail traffic on the new continuous broad-gauge lines from Delhi to rest of India with the completion of gauge conversion, the Ghaziabad was selected by Indian railways for a new electric locomotive shed. New Electric locomotive shed was inaugurated in the late 1976s with

WAM-4 The Indian locomotive class WAM-4 is a class of 25 kV AC electric locomotives that was developed in 1970 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works for Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), alternating current (A), mixed traffic ( ...

which stayed until late 2009, when they were transferred to other sheds. It later got a large fleet of

WAG-5 The Indian locomotive class WAG-5 is a class of 25 kV AC electric locomotives that was developed in 1978 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works for Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), alternating current (A), goods traffic ...

locos, but later these were then moved to Ludhiana. All

WAP-1 The Indian locomotive class WAP-1 is a class of 25 kV AC electric locomotives that was developed in 1980 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works for Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), AC Current (A), Passenger traffic (P) en ...

locos from Arakkonam and Mughalsarai shed were transferred here for hauling rajdhani expresses. The brand new from ABB were directly allocated to ghaziabad after arrival in India. New

WAP-7 The Indian locomotive class WAP-7 is a class of 25 kV AC electric locomotives that was developed in 1999 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) for Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), AC Current (A), Passenger traffic ...

locos were acquired in 2000s. The shed also held a single WAM-4 units which is earmarked for preservation.

Operations

Being one of the three electric engine sheds in Northern Railway, various major and minor maintenance schedules of electric locomotives are carried out here. It has the sanctioned capacity of 200 Locos.Expansion work on Progress to 225 Locos.Total 293 Electric locos Holding at GZB ELS,including 137

WAP-5 The Indian locomotive class WAP-5 is the name of a class of "High Speed" electric locomotives produced and used by Indian Railways. The first 10 locomotives were imported from ABB in Switzerland in 1995. They are supposed to be a variant of th ...

and 155

. It also housed a WAM-4 locomotives temporarily. Electric loco Shed, Ghaziabad is now housing the largest fleet of

in Indian Railways and it caters to many long-distance electric trains. Like all locomotive sheds, GZB does regular maintenance, overhaul and repair including painting and washing of locomotives. It not only attends to locomotives housed at GZB but to ones coming in from other sheds as well. It has four pit lines for loco repair. Locomotives of Ghaziabad ELS were the regular links for all trains running through Delhi when widespread electrification of railway lines started in Northern Railways. It handled prestigious trains like the Mumbai Rajdhani Express. GZB locomotives used to be predominantly the regular links for trains traveling to east as well.

Locomotives

References

External links

Website

maps of Indian Railway Loco Sheds

showing the ghaziabad Electric Loco Shed
{{Locomotives Sheds of India

Ghaziabad Ghaziabad () is a city in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and a part of Delhi NCR. It is the administrative headquarters of Ghaziabad district and is the largest city in western Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 1,729,000. Ghaziabad Mun ...

Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh Rail infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh Buildings and structures in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 1976 establishments in Uttar Pradesh