The Indian locomotive class WAG-7 is a class of 25 kV AC

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 that was developed in 1990 by

Chittaranjan Locomotive Works Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) is an electric locomotive manufacturer based in India. The works are located at Chittaranjan in the Asansol Sadar subdivision of West Bengal, with an ancillary unit in Dankuni. The main unit is 32 km f ...

for

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 ...

. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), alternating current (A), goods traffic (G) engine, 7th generation (7). They entered service in 1992. A total of 1970 WAG-7 were built at CLW and

BHEL Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking. It is under the ownership of Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India. It is based in New Delhi, India. Established in 1956, BHEL is India ...

between 1990 and 2015, which made them the most numerous class of mainline electric locomotive till its successor the WAG-9. The WAG-7 is one of the most successful locomotives of Indian Railways currently serving both freight and passenger trains for over 30 years. Even though with the advent of new 3-phase locomotives like WAG-9 and

WAG-12 The Indian locomotive class WAG-12B is a class of 25 kV AC electric locomotives that was developed in 2017 by Alstom with technological collaboration with Indian Railways. The model name stands for broad gauge (W), Alternating Current (AC), Go ...

, all WAG-7 locomotives except ones destroyed in accidents, rest are in service and doing all types of duties.

History

The history of WAG-7 begins in the early 1990s with the aim of addressing the shortcomings of the previous

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 ( ...

class and remove

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s from IR by a target date of 1990. The WAG-5 though were great successes, had become underpowered to meet the growing demands of the Indian Railways. So in early 1990s IR decided to look for a successor the WAG-5 class. The required specification was of a 5000 horsepower locomotive. Initially, the Indian railways invited tenders to build locomotives to the new specification. The following responses were received: * CLW submitted their upgraded WAG-5 model with 5000 hp with Co-Co bogies. * BHEL submitted a 5000 hp locomotive with thyristors control and Co-Co bogies. Each company submitted their prototypes and Indian Railways designated these prototypes as the WAG-7 class and WAG-8 class respectively. Technologically thyristor controlled BHEL WAG-8 was meant to be superior to the WAG-7 which was effectively using tap-changer technology from the 1960s. But due to issues from WAG-8, WAG-7 was selected for mass production. However, even before the WAG-7 another type of electric locomotive was imported from

ASEA ''Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget'' (English translation: General Swedish Electrical Limited Company; Swedish abbreviation: ASEA) was a Swedish industrial company. History ASEA was founded in 1883 by Ludvig Fredholm in Västerås a ...

in 1988. This locomotive was classified as WAG-6A. However WAG-6As were not selected for mass production because emergence of 3 Phase AC locomotives.

Locomotive sheds

References

External links

SpecificationsIndia railway fan club
{{Broad gauge locomotives of India , state=collapsed Electric locomotives of India 25 kV AC locomotives Co-Co locomotives 5 ft 6 in gauge locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1992 BHEL locomotives Chittaranjan Locomotive Works locomotives

History

Locomotive sheds

See also

References

External links