Route haul map of Howrah Electric Loco shed

Electric Loco Shed, Howrah is a

motive power depot A motive power depot (MPD) or locomotive depot, or traction maintenance depot (TMD), is where locomotives are usually housed, repaired and maintained. They were originally known as "running sheds", "engine sheds" or just "sheds". Facilit ...

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 (electricity), battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime mover (locomotive), ...

s of the

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

, located at

Howrah Howrah (; ; alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River, opposite to its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively ...

of the

Eastern Railway zone The Eastern Railway (abbreviated ER) is among the 19 Indian Railways Zones and Divisions, zones of the Indian Railways. Its headquarters is at Fairley Place (Kolkata) and comprises four divisions: , , , and . Each division is headed by a Divis ...

West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...

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

Asansol Asansol is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the second largest city in West Bengal. It is the 33rd largest urban agglomeration in India by population. Asansol is the district headquarters of Paschim Bardhaman district. Accordi ...

(ASN).

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 was 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) ...

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) l ...

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 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 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 (; ; alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River, opposite to its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively Howrah lies within Howrah district and ...

. 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 The colour blood red is a dark shade of the colour red meant to resemble the colour of human blood (which is composed of oxygenated red erythrocytes, white leukocytes, and yellow blood plasma). It is the iron in hemoglobin specifically that ...

with incomplete yellow band. Though WAP-5 class have a standardized livery all over India, two of Howrah WAP-5 with numbers 30106 and 30112 have brand advertisement of Fortune Biryani special Basmati Rice and another Howrah WAP-5 with number 30115 has brand advertisement of Fortune Edible Oils.

Locomotives

References

External links

Website

maps of Indian Railway Loco Sheds

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

Rail transport in Kolkata 2001 establishments in West Bengal