Route haul map of Howrah Electric Loco shed

Electric Loco Shed, Howrah 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 gas ...

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 tot ...

, located at Howrah of the Eastern Railway zone in

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

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

Asansol Asansol is a (Tier-II) metropolitan city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the second largest and most populated city of West Bengal and the 33rd largest urban agglomeration in India. Asansol is the district headquarters of Paschim Bar ...

(ASN). there are 150 locomotives in the shed.

History

Steam locomotive sheds used to exist at Howrah until the late 1970s. After Eastern 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 Kolkata to rest of India with the completion of gauge conversion, the Howrah was selected by Indian Railways for a new electric locomotive shed. New electric locomotive shed was inaugurated in the late 2001s with

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 ...

from Ghaziabad which stayed until late 2005, when they were transferred back to Ghaziabad again. It later got a large fleet of

WAP-4 The Indian locomotive class WAP-4 is a class of 25 kV AC electric locomotives that was developed in 1993 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works for Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), AC Current (A), Passenger traffic (P) ...

locos, but later some of these were then moved to Asansol. All WAP-6 locos from Asansol shed converted to WAP-4 units and transferred here. New

WAP-7 The Indian locomotive class WAP-7 is a class of 25 Volt, kV Alternating current, AC Electric locomotive, electric locomotives that was developed in 1999 by Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) for Indian Railways. The model name stands for 5 ft 6 ...

locos were acquired in 2011. In October 2019, Howrah ELS got its first WAP-5 locomotive from Vadodara. The shed also held a few WAM-4 units. All the WAM-4s of this shed have been retired/withdrawn from service.

Operations

Being one of the three electric engine sheds in Eastern Railway, various major and minor maintenance schedules of electric locomotives are carried out here. It has the sanctioned capacity of 175 engine units. Beyond the operating capacity, this shed houses a total of 207 engine units, including 90

and 19

. It also housed a few WAM-4 locomotives temporarily. Electric Loco Shed, Howrah is now housing the 2nd largest fleet of

in Indian Railways and it caters to many long-distance electric trains. Like all locomotive sheds, HWH does regular maintenance, overhaul and repair including painting and washing of locomotives. It not only attends to locomotives housed at HWH but to ones coming in from other sheds as well. It has four pit lines for loco repair. Locomotives of Howrah ELS along with Asansol and Royapuram ELS were the regular links for all trains running through West Bengal when widespread electrification of railway lines started in Eastern Railways. It handled prestigious trains like the

Howrah Rajdhani Express ''Howrah Rajdhani Express'' (also known as ''Kolkata Rajdhani Express'') is a Rajdhani-class train of Indian Railways connects the capital of West Bengal, Cultural Capital of India,Captial before the British Kolkata to the National Capital of I ...

. HWH locomotives used to be predominantly the regular links for trains traveling to north as well.

Livery and markings

Though WAP-4 class have a standardized livery all over India, Howrah WAP-4 locomotives can easily be recognized by their blood red with incomplete yellow band.

Locomotives

References

External links

Website

maps of Indian Railway Loco Sheds

showing the Erode Electric Loco Shed
{{Locomotives Sheds of India Howrah Rail transport in Kolkata 2001 establishments in West Bengal