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Issue# 81 Free Monthly News Bulletin – for Internal Circulation July 2012

Email: integralnewsicf@gmail.com Contact: 9003141464, 9003149539,9003149659.

Chief Editor: K.Ravi, SSE/Shop80 Associate Editors:

M.A.Jaishankar, SSE/M&P

A.R.S.Ravindra, SSE/WS

K.Sudhir, SSE/Shop41 Treasurer:R.Mehalan, Ex-SSE/IT-ICF

Shell Offices:V.Ramesh, SSE/Project

S.K.Satishkumar, SSE/M&P

K.Sekar, OS/Engg

N.Jeganivasan, Stores Inspector

N.Ganesh,SSE/MPO/S

N.Vijayan,Ch Typist/Plant

S.Ghatikachalarao,SSE/WS

N.Devaraju, SSE/Plant

S.N.Vivekanandan, Ch.OS/P9

Shell Shops: P.Baskaran, SSE/40

A-shed: R.Nagarajan,, SSE/10

B-shed: A.V.Gopalakrishna, SSE/22

Shop 24,25,26: P.Chandran, SSE/42

D&L-shed:R.Shanmugam, SSE/13

40,J,E: R.Lakshminarayanan, SSE/40

Stores: K.Thiyagarajan, CDMS

RT,RPF: R.Kasim, JE/48

11,23,41,TS:R.Jegathiswaran,SSE/41

Insp: J.Ananthakumar,SSE/42

Progress: M.Saravanan,SSE/PCO

CMT: G.Sivakumar, CMS-1

Electrical:D.T.Vijayaraj,SSE/45

Fur Offices:Elamurugan.N,SSE/MPO

Accts: Sudharsan.MN,SSO/Accts

PlgF,TS: G.Muthukrishnan,SSE

Stores:V.V.Mahadevan,OS/P8

Fur Shops: R.Sundarrajan,SSE/30

30: Bipinkumar Karn, SSE/30

31,32,34: P.Satyanarayana, JE/34

33,CMT,38:D.R.Suresh,SSE/33

80,81,37:D.Santhakumar,SSE/80

88: K.S.Rajakumar, SSE/88

Elect: M.Devaraj, SSE/85

36,54: A.Srivijayan,SSE/54

Progress:D.Baskar, SSE/PCO

TTC: J.Selvakumar,SSE/TC

D&D: Sabapathinathan.M,SSE/D&D

Hospital: Raju Balaji, Ch.OS

Web: K.Chandran, Webmaster/IT

Advisors:

S.Muthukumar,WM/TPTY/SCR

B.Chandrasekaran,SME/D-II

R.Velu, Ex-PE/PL/F-ICF

T.R.Ravichander,SME/I/F

ICF WINS

GOLDEN PEACOCK ECO INNOVATION AWARD 2012

Golden Peacock Awards, instituted by Institute of Directors in 1992, are now

regarded as holy grail of Corporate Excellence worldwide.

Golden Peacock Awards Secretariat receives over 1,000 entries per year for

various National and Global awards, from India and over 25 countries

worldwide. Organisations believe that the achievement of the Golden Peacock

Award is the most speedy and powerful way to build their brand image. The

Award winners are eligible to use the Golden Peacock Awards logo on all printed

and promotional materials for next one year, which evidences to all its customers

and suppliers the highest accolade acclaimed by the company. No other business

award today receives the kind of recognition and adulation among peers that the

Golden Peacock does.

Justice P.N. Bhagwati, former Chief Justice of India and Acting Chairman, UN

Human Rights Committee, is the Chairman of the Golden Peacock Awards

Committee. The Award applications are assessed at 3 three levels by independent

assessors and finally by a grand Jury. The Global Awards are finalized by a Jury

headed by Dr. Ola Ullsten, former Prime Minister of Sweden.

All institutions whether public, private, non-profit, government, business,

manufacturing and service sector are eligible to apply. Leadership Awards are

determined through nomination. They provide not only worldwide recognition

and prestige but also a competitive advantage in driving business in this

tumultuous world under Golden Peacock Award models.

GM/ICF will receive the Golden Peacock Eco Innovation Award during the

14th

World Congress on Environment Management being held on 7 - 8 July

2012 in New Delhi.

X- Std TOP SCORERS FROM ICF FAMILY

Selvi Anjala Beegum, D/o.Abdul Hammed Kunil, SSE/39,

has secured 497/500 marks, same as that of state I

rank. She has secured centum in Sanskrit, Maths &

Science, 99 in Social science and 98 in English.

490

M.C.S.Chandravalli,

D/o.C.Saravanan,

SSE/ WSC

490 V.Nandhini

D/o.V.S.Venkatesh,

JE/37

489

V.Priyadharshini,

D/o.P.Udayasankaran,

JE/37

487

M.Monicaraj,

D/o C.K.Manikaraj,

Helper/Shop30

From

ICF Staff Club

AG129/18,VII Main Rd

AnnaNagar,Chennai-40

To

484 S.Shabnam

D/o.Renugadevi,

PS to CEE

483 T.Damini,

D/o.M.Taranirajan,

WM/Paint/F

482 C.S.Niharika,

D/o.C.D.Subramani,

SSE/40

481 B.Kirithika,

D/o. M.Bharani

kumar, Tech-1/36

481 J.Lakshmipriya

D/o.S.Jayaraman,

OS/Engg/F

480 S.Nithya Sree

D/o.T.G.Sharmila,

SSE/Engg

479 S.Pradyumna

Rao, S/o.

S.Ghatikachala

Rao, SSE/WSC

478 H.B.Abhinand,

S/o.N.V.Harikumar,

SSE/MPOF

477 R.Sreya,

D/o. J.Rajesh Rao,

Tech-3/18

475 M.Gauthami,

D/o.C.N.Mani,

SSE/PlgF

475 P.Arunkumar

S/o.A.Paramasivan

JrClerk/16

471 E.Swathi,

D/o. B.Ethiraj,

Tech-1/88

School Topper-

ICF SJ MHSS

471 J.Sandhya,

D/o. R.Janaki

Raman, Tech-1/36

470 K.M.Aravinda

kumar,

S/o.K.Mohan,

Tech-1/21

470 S.Nikeshbabu

S/o. V.P.Sundaram,

SSE/42

464 R.Manojkumar

S/o.Late K.Raman

SME/Design

463 K.Deekshidha

D/o.D.Hemamalini

JE/IT

456 R.Sowmya D/o.

R.Dharmambal

Jr of Peon/Plant

CBSE-X Top scorers

10/10

R.Anusha

D/o.Prabhavathi

Ravikumar SE/IT

10/10

A.C.Krishna

Raghav S/o.

Padmavathi

Ch.OS/CWEF

10/10

M.Devadharshini

D/o.S.Murugan,

SSE/54

9.8/10

S.Surya

S/o.V.Sathiya

murthy

OS/Stores/S

9.6

M.Heerendra

kannan S/o.

G.Meganathan,

PCO/33

1147 in +2

S.Ranjani,

D/o.K.P.Indira,

Peon/MPOF

1145 in +2

S.Sai

Prashanthi,

D/o.

S.Sundaresan,

OS/PB

Person of the Month

March’12: Shell

M.Satyanarayanan, SSE/20

March’12: Fur

A.Thandavamoorthy,JE/39

April’12: Shell

J.Narayanan, Tech-1/10

April’12: Fur

D.Aribaskar, JE/30

S/Shri R.Ravindran,SSE82, H.V.Ramakrishnamurthy,

SSE29, B.Venkatesaprasad, Sailesh Sriram Behenkar &

N.Sasikumar, JE/D&D, S.Rajasekaran, Insp/82 have been

awarded in appreciation of their survey of passenger

amenities provided in MRVC coaches to be considered

for MUTP phase-II project on CR & WR.

Verify your medicine

Whenever a unit of medicine is produced at the factory, it

is labeled with a unique code. When you purchase a

medicine you can send this code, which is at the back side

of the unit to 9901099010. You will receive an SMS

which tells whether the medicine is genuine and provides

you will batch number, date of expiry and other

information. ---- -Antony George Sahayaraj, SSE/42.

New Holiday Home built by ICF at COURTRALAM was

inaugurated by GM/ICF on 27th June. It consists of 4

Suites - 2 each for Gazetted & Non-Gazetted

Birthday of Sri V.P.Singh, former Prime Minister, was

celebrated in a grand manner by ICFOBC Association. In

shop48 portrait was opened by Sri P.Sivaraman,

DyCME/Plant. In Fur canteen portrait was opened by Sri

M.E.Srinivasan, DyCME/Fur. In shop88 and assn office

portrait was garlanded. S/Shri R.Dharmaraj, President,

K.Ramamurthy, Secretary, M.Thangavel Pandian,

Treasurer, S.Anbukumar, WP, S.Ramesh, WGS and other

members of the assn were present. Office bearers of

SC/ST assn, SCMs and other union leaders participated.

OFFICIAL POSTINGS Name S/Shri/ Smt Previous Present

S.Kumar DyCMM E.Rly

K.N.Babu DyCME/D-II Secy to GM

S.Anandan SPO/G SPO/Bills

A.R.Suthakaran APO/Bills APO/Gaz

K.S.Sridharan SME/DSD PE/PL/S

K.N.Mohan PE/PL/S WM/A-1/S

B.Chandrasekaran WM/A-1/S SME/D-II

E.Jothipandian AEE/Plg AEE/M-II

Sanjeev Kumar Singh AMM/UP/S Tfr to Patna

Pragati Kumar C.Rly AMM/UP/S

Sri Jagadish Alagar, DyCPO, has been nominated as Dy Mukhya Rajbasha Adhikari.

Sri Debi Prasad dash, CEE/QC&C, has been nominated as

president of ICF institute committee in place of Sri

Umesh Rai consequent to his deputation to CMRL.

Shri A.K.Mittal, GM/SWR, has assumed the additional

charge of the post of GM/SR, on 31st May. Shri Deepak

Krishan, GM/SR, retired on superannuation on

31.05.2012.

CIRCULARS

AC22: Clarification and mode of filling up of non –

gazetted posts as per 6CPC recommendations.

AC23: Seminar cum meditation retreat on “Meeting

challenges, greeting change” at Gyan Sarovar, Mt Abu.

AC24: List of holiday homes on Indian Railways.

Last date for submission of application:

Asst Manager, Manager, DGM, SrDGM- RITES 13.8.12

� The following staff will function as secretary for

canteen - Smt Annie D Suther, S&WI/S, Workers

canteen & Admn office canteen/ Shell; Smt C.P.Nandini,

S&WI/F S&WI/S, Workers canteen & Admn office

canteen/ Fur

• Sri V.K.Gupta, Secretary/RB has taken over as GM/NR,

Sri Alok Johri, CAO/Rae Bareli Coach Factory, has

assumed charge as GM/NCR and Sri R.S.Virdi,

CME/NFR, has taken over as GM/NFR. Sri R.C.Jat,

COS/RCF, has become Secretary/RB.

The GOC Workshop has been adjudged the best

workshop in Southern Railway. During 2011-12, GOC

released 138 diesel locos from POH against the target of

79, besides overhauling 15 locomotives of PSUs. It had

also converted 5 MG locos into BG shunting locos under

RSP and had manufactured 298 wagons. In recognition of

this achievement, Shri S.J. Sood, CME/SR, presented the

shield to Shri P. Mahesh, CWM/GOC on 29th June.

To cater to the needs of production shops, compressed air

line was provided to the pillars outside shop37. Thirty

points were provided in a short time. This was

inaugurated by CWE/F on 19th June. CWE/F announced

group cash award to the staff in appreciation of their

work.

We deeply mourn the sudden demise of J.Ganesan,

Tech-2/34 and K.Rajendran, OS/CBS.

STAFF INFLOW – LAST MONTH

Sl Name S/Shri Design Shop 1 Praveen Kumar.K App Mech TTC

2 Anand.B App Mech TTC

3 Lokesh Babu.J App Mech TTC

4 Suresh Babu.D App Mech TTC

5 Prasad.P.R App Mech TTC

6 Anand Paramesh.B App Mech TTC

7 Sumbu Kumaran.A App Mech TTC

8 Satheesh Kumar.D App Mech TTC

9 Sivakumar.M App Mech TTC

10 Yaddala Anand App Mech TTC

11 Chinni.S App Mech TTC

12 Komaragiri Ramesh App Mech TTC

13 Taragaturi VD Sarathbabu App Mech TTC

14 Rajeswar Hansdah App Mech TTC

15 Raju Mahali App Mech TTC

16 Bhagaban Bisoyi App Mech TTC

17 Ahim Deori App Mech TTC

18 Saurabh Chandra Sharma App Mech TTC

19 Venkateswararao Darla App Mech TTC

20 Dileep.U.S Helper 74 21 Vimal Kumar.M Helper 74

22 Sebastian.P.J Helper 74

23 Payani.M Helper 74

24 Elumalai.K Helper Engg 25 Anthoni Samy.J Helper Engg 26 Jose.M.A Helper Engg 27 Munirathinam.P Helper Engg 28 Rajendran.B Helper Engg 29 Sasi Kumar.V Helper Engg 30 Ajitha Kumar Kooloth

Valappil

Helper Engg

31 Soman Pillai.N Helper 88

32 Rajasekaran.T Peon Plg

33 Udhaya Saravanan.N Peon Plg

34 Mangal Barail Helper 48

35 Jayakrishnan.R Tech-2 16

36 Pintu Kumar Meena Peon GM’s off

37 Kadu Lal Meena Peon GM’s off

38 Bhoor Singh Meena Vendor Cant/S

39 Murari Lal Meena Peon 74

40 Baliram Prasad Gupta Sancleaner Engg

41 Jaiyan Meena Sancleaner Engg 42 Dinesh Kumar Meena Sancleaner Engg 43 Banwari Lal Meena Sancleaner Engg 44 Ajay Kumar Saw Sancleaner Engg 45 Raju Kumar Sancleaner Engg 46 Mukesh Chand Meena sancleaner Engg 47 Ravi Relli Peon CWES

48 Tulagapu Purnachandrarao Peon CWEF

49 Mukesh Kumar Meena Peon CWES

50 Vishram Meena Peon CWEF

51 Bharat Singh Meena Peon CWES

52 Dharam Singh Meena Helper 88

53 Vikram Kumar Meena Helper 48

54 Rajeev Kumar San cleaner Hosp

55 Bagish Kumar San cleaner Hosp

56 Kamlesh Kumar Meena San cleaner Hosp

57 Pudumai Raja.R Peon PB/S

58 Sajeevan.M.P Peon PB/S

59 Balaselvam.S Pon PB/S

60 Barun Barman Peon PB/S

61 Om Prakash Meena Peon TO/S

62 Paramasivan.P Peon PB/S

63 Shyam Prosad Peon Stores/S

64 Ramawatar Meena Peon Stores/F

65 Sivanandhan.Y Appmech TTC

66 Praveen Kumar.P Helper 13

STAFF OUTFLOW – LAST MONTH

Sl Name S/Shri Design Mode 1 Sundaravadivelu.N Helper/77c Dismissal

2 Venkataraman.V Tech-1/36 Dismissal

3 Chinnusamy.A Sse12 RITES

4 Pandi.K Helper/77c Transfer

5 Sundaresan.TD Help48 Transfer

6 Nandgaonkar Rahul Gr app77d Removal

7 Samuel.CH Hosp attd91a Removal

8 Diwan Chand Bung peon90d Resign

9 Prasad.K Tech-1/22 V.R

10 John Joseph.G Tech-2/30 V.R

EMPLOYEES RETIRING ON 31st JULY ’12 1 Chandran.M SrTech/BS 13

2 Chelladurai .P SrTech/Weld 14

3 Kasi.G Tech-1/Elec 20

4 Vittal Doss .N Tech-2/Weld 20

5 Selvaraj .P Tech-1/Weld 21

6 Krishnamurthy .C Tech-1/Weld 21

7 Sundararaj.M Tech-2/Weld 21

8 Sundararajan.Aj JE 23

9 Jeevanandam .P SrTech/Paint 25

10 Durairaj.S Tech-1/Paint 25

11 Veeramani.S SrTech/Weld 40

12 Pushparaj.Cm JE 42

13 Kumar.K Tech-1 CWE/S

off 14 Sridharan.D Inspector/Plg.. GM's Off

15 Mathiyalagan .T Progman PCO/S

16 Anburose J . ASI RPF

17 Visalam.L Ch.OS Stores/FD

18 Gideon Selvaraj .W Tech-1/Elec 28

19 Rajamanoharan.V Tech-1/Elec 28

20 Manoharan .K Tech-2/Elec 29

21 Suryababu.A SrTech/carp 30

22 Prabakaran .R SrTech/Carp 30

23 Logaiah .K SrTech/Carp 30

24 Rathinaswamy .N Tech-1/FGL 30

25 Anandan .A SrTech/Wood

Mac 32

26 Elumalai .K SrTech/Elec 35

27 Rajendran.S SrTech/Paint 36

28 Chandrasekaran . SrTech/Paint 36

29 Thandavamoorthy.A SSE 39

30 Rajaraman .R SrTech/Elec 39

31 Palanivelu .G SrTech/Elec 39

32 Balasundaram .G SrTech/Paint 54

We wish them A HAPPY AND PEACEFUL RETIRED LIFE.

ABOUT ICF by Sri R.Srinivasan, SSE/TTC, 9003149472

B shed This shed is the most important large shed in shell

Division, it is of 305 metres length & of 80 metres

width and having IV Bays, I & II are called higher Bays

& III & IV are called lower Bays due to their roof height.

Here Assemblies of the Roof, Under frame & Body shell

are carried out. It consists of Shop 21, Shop 22, and Shop

14.

Shop 21 has Roof section & U/F section.

Roof Assembly:

Major components of Roof are Cant rail, Carline, Purline,

Roof sheet, ‘L’ Stiffeners and Brackets for Light, Fan,

Roof ventilator.

Steps:

� Cant rail parts are welded and formed for required

length.

� Cant rail Assembly put in Roof Jig & clamped.

� Marking for placing Carlines done and Carlines are

placed and welded to Cant Rails.

� ‘U’ Stiffener or Purline welded for full length is

placed over Car line.

� ‘L’ Stiffeners placed & welded to Carline.

� Roof sheets are placed first in the middle and then

towards end with over lapping of 15 mm.

� Roof Bands are used to keep them in position.

� Tack welding & then full welding done.

� Roof is rotated & welding with carline vertical

down hand position.

� Two holes are made at the ends for lifting.

� After declamping, the roof is lifted and placed over

Trestle (Just a stand)

� Various detail items are welded as per drawing.

� Inspection is carried out and if passed it is painted

with ROZ primer.

There are about 10 Jigs available out of which 2

for only EMUs and 4 are Flexi type (EMU or

conventional) and remaining are for Special builds.

Welding Sequence:

i.e from A, then B…… to F

UNDER FRAME ASSEMBLY:(conv.)

� It is the base structure of shell which holds all other

structures like Sidewall, End wall, Roof, Partitions and

Interior furnishing items. It is a very important &

critical assembly of shell.

� It consists of sole bar, Head stock, Body Bolster,

Framing below trough floors, Cross bearers, Trough

floor sheets, Brackets, stiffeners, Lifting Pads, etc.

� First Solebar of Z cross section are assembled for the

full length by welding and placed both sides of U/F jig .

� Positions of Body bolster, Cross bearers and Framing

below trough floor marked.

� Body Bolsters one at each end placed & welded and

then Two Head stocks one at each end positioned &

assembled.

� Then framing below trough floor and cross bearers are

placed. Next the doorway stiffeners are marked &

welded.

� Full welding to be done in sequential method to avoid

distortion (ie from centre towards end).

U/F welding Sequence

� There are about 13 U/F Jigs available and out which 3

are for EMUs, 5 are of Flexi type (BGS & EMU) and

remaining for special types.

� U/F assy time is decided by no. of quotas required to

complete it. For conventional & AC 6 quotas and for

complicated types like DEMU HHP is of 15 quotas.

� A new method of making the U/F in three parts and

joining them in the Jig is being followed for EMUs. (ie)

The U/F end parts are made at Shop 18 and brought to

Shop 21 for final Assembly of Under frame.

� The U/F after Jig work is tilted and placed over trestle

and the back pieces, channel supports, angles, brackets

and flats for ply wood flooring support etc are welded.

� The U/F is checked dimensionally & inspected as per

the drawing and after clearance it is painted with ROZ

primer.

SHOP 22

Body shell assembly

Body shell assembly is carried out using a fixture named

at ICF as Body assembly jig. There are about 13 jigs, out

of which 5 are for conventional builds, 2 for EMUs, 3 for

Flexi type and 3 for LHB, DEMU, Srilanka etc.

First the U/F is loaded in the Jig by locating the body

bolster exactly in its position. Then camber setting is

done.

Camber is the negative deflection given intentionally to

the U/F to compensate for the sagging of the U/F when it

is fully loaded so that the U/F can remain straight.

The Camber is measured at 10 reference points (5 on each

side sole bar), zero reference being the centre line of body

bolsters. With the help of tie rods the U/F is lifted at both

ends and centre as per the requirement.

In case of ragging in colleges/ schools, complaints

can be lodged at raggingcomplaints@gmail.com

A B (UF

Centre)

A

Conv.& Trailer 6 mm 15 mm 6 mm

Motor coaches 10 25 10

LHB 0 0 0

Camber is measured and after clearance by

Inspection other sub assemblies will be assembled. Coach

centerline is marked over the U/F, middle Sidewall

erected, body pillars and Sole bar are welded. Lavatory

sidewalls are lowered, erected & welded with middle

sidewall & U/F. End walls of both sides are assembled,

checked with plumb bob to have a slant outside by 30 mm

to compensate distortion due to welding. Roof is placed

over, first welded to endwall and then to side wall pillars,

etc. Body width is checked with gauge and any correction

required is done by pushing or pulling side wall.

Allowance of ±10mm is allowed over the width.

Again the camber is re inspected & after passing

it is lifted & placed on dip lorries to move on the track.

In Shop 22- X stand section Door Corner Assy,

Foot step support sheet welding, full welding of Lavatory

side wall & End wall are done.

Note:

1. All the shell Assembly works are dependent on

Overhead Cranes. To minimise the Crane dependency a

new concept of Roll on jig (1 No. for conventional type

coach) is being introduced in the lower bay. In this the

end structure is hinged type and after the Assembly of

shell is over, lifting with special jacks and then pulled

out with special dip lorries.

2. New EOT cranes of 20/5 ton capacity ,4 nos are being

introduced to cater the need.

3. New MONO RAIL system for transferring the detail

and sub assembly items from A shed to B shed is being

considered.

Shop 14:

The XI & XII stand work of shop 22 are re-arranged with

a new shop no: 14.

In XI stand Spot heating / Skin Tensioning, Window bar

assy activities are done.

In XII stand Partition frame assemblies are done.

Spot heating is carried out to impart strength through

induced stress to the side wall and end wall sheets. While

Spot heating the metal molecules expand and during

cooling contract and move towards the centre of the spot

and immediately by hammering they are evenly

distributed.

In modern and LHB coaches it is done by the method

called Skin Tensioning System.

SKIN TENSIONING SYSTEM

REASON:

In strength calculation Skin is assumed to be flat

to carry tensile load, but not so because of various

reasons. So it improves buckling strength of sheet.

Contractual demand of flatness of 1.5mm for a length of

2m can be achieved by heat Skin tensioning system.

Visual appearance is highly improved. Skin tensioning

avoids vibration & deformation of Sidewall sheet during

service or due to temp changes. Acoustic parameters are

improved. If sidewall sheet vibrates paint, filler will get

crack and expose the surface to corrosion.

Details:

Electromagnet of flat surface of 1m * 1m* 200mm.

Magnetic power of 12000kg , Control unit, Pole reversal

unit, Travelling portal, Perforated steel plates(fixtures) of

various sizes(300*200*20mm) with handle, Multi point

nozzle for Oxy acetylene flame.

Working:

Magnet brought to the Outer side wall position. Inner side

perforated fixture held, magnet is switched ON at low

force and once adjustment is over Full force is applied.

Now the Oxy acetylene Torch with four nozzles brought

for heating inner side wall for 2-3 sec just to arrive purple

red hot. After covering all the holes in the fixture, De

magnetized and plate shifted to other location. Process

repeated till the Side wall completed. Strengthening is

done by holding the sheet between magnet and fixture &

retained by heating & tensioning.

(-- to be continued)

SAIL to invest Rs.21,000 crore in West Bengal

The West Bengal government has entered into an MoU

with the SAIL and the Burn Standard Company Ltd

(BSCL) to set up a railway wagon and component factory

in East Midnapore's Jellingham.

Silent Track by TATA

Tata Steel plans to bring to India a unique railway track

laying technology called ‘Silent Track' which will reduce

noise in the vicinity of tracks by up to 50 %. The steel

major's European arm has successfully developed and laid

‘SilentTrack' in the UK. It has installed the tracks at

Blackfriars station in London. Noise and vibration from

moving trains cause lot of discomfort not only to the

passengers but also to the people residing in proximity to

the stations. The need for such ‘Silent Track' rail system

assumes importance in the country, where the tracks run

inside the cities.

Separate timing for Tatkal tickets

From 10.07.2012 booking of Tatkal ticket will start at

10.00 hours on the previous day of journey from train

originating station instead of 0800 hours at present. No

authorised agents, including agents of IRCTC and

RTSAs/RTAs will be allowed to book Tatkal tickets from

1000 hours to 1200 hours. The existing restriction of not

allowing these agents booking of general tickets on the

opening day from 0800 hours to 1000 hours will also

continue.

Business Continuity with Legacy Applications Server

Virtualization – ICF Stores & Hospital Applications -by Sri.G.Loganathan, Sr. EDP Manager, ICF

How Virtualization came handy?

Hardware virtualization is normally used to consolidate

server resources for better utilization and management, by

running multiple Virtual Servers on a single hardware

platform. However, the ability to mask the actual

hardware configuration to the guest OS, by creating a

make believe hardware configuration to suit the needs of

the guest OS, by way of virtual machine, came handy for

running the legacy application. Once it was confirmed

that “Vmware” hypervisor has compatibility with SCO

Open Server 5.x, it was decided to try out virtualization

with Vmware to run the legacy application, by conducting

a Proof of Concept (POC). POC was conducted

successfully, giving the required confidence to switch

over the production environment to the virtual world. The

following hardware configuration, based on contemporary

server configurations available in the market, keeping in

mind the cost, was arrived at:

Server

Name

Memory

(RAM)

HDD

(GB)

CPU OS

Server 1 4*4GB 2*300

with

RAID

1

Quad-Core

2 * Xeon

5500

Processors

VMware

ESXi 4.1

Server2

for

Standby

4*4GB 2*300

with

RAID

1

Quad-Core

2 * Xeon

5500

Processors

VMware

ESXi 4.1

Network

Attache

d

Storage

(NAS)

2GB 3*500

With

RAID

5

Quad-Core

Intel Xeon

3400 series

processors

Windows

Server 2008

Std

While making out the configuration, care was taken to

ensure that adequate redundancy is built to safeguard

against any single point of failure. Two identical servers

have been taken to replicate the Virtual Machine

environment, in active-passive mode, one working as a

cold stand by, to be put into use in case of active server

failure. Manual intervention is required to switch over, in

this set up. This arrangement was done to ensure that the

cost is kept to the minimum and also keeping in mind the

nature of the application (which is not mission critical and

some downtime is acceptable and tolerable). However,

sufficient redundancy within the server was built in by the

way of mirroring the HDD in RAID 1 configuration (for

the host environment) and also providing a redundant NIC

card. The entire Virtual Machine, Operating System

environment and the application, were created in a

separate server (Wipro Z1532) acting as Network

Attached Storage (NAS), which has RAID 5 configuration

for the Hard disk, i.e. failure against one disk failure is

protected. One DAT drive also has been provided for

taking backup of the entire setup.

The advantage of this configuration is not only the

business continuity is ensured against hardware

obsolescence, but also in reducing the downtime

drastically, as the entire Virtual Machine environment

(including the Guest OS, SCO Open Server 5.x along with

the application and data) is like any other file, which can

be moved from Server to Server and the entire system

brought back to life in less than an hour. This is a big

advantage, as compared to the earlier downtimes

running into weeks.

The above configuration was bought and installed and the

legacy application was ported successfully in the month of

December’11. Since then the legacy stores application is

running without any issues. The Servers have been

installed at IT Center and the administration of the Server

is with the department concerned, enabling better

management and maintenance.

There has been tremendous improvement in both response

time as well as availability. The Servers procured are

latest, which give much better performance than the

earlier Servers, thus improving the response time. IT

Center works on 24 x 7 basis and therefore the Servers are

available on 24 x 7 basis, whereas earlier the Servers used

to be switched off at 17:00 hrs daily and were not

available thereafter till the next day morning.

Moving Ahead

Successfully moving one legacy application gave the

confidence to look for moving other similar legacy

applications. Medical department, which has similar setup

i.e. SCO Open Server 5.x and locally developed Foxplus

application for hospital management, was more than

willing to host their legacy application also in a virtual

environment. Main medical stores (from 1996) activities

like receipts, issues and procurement, sub-stores activities

like issues to patients and processing of local purchase

etc, CMD office transactions like addition and updating of

patient details, budget register, miscellaneous bills entry

etc. and Hospital kitchen activities are still being run in

this legacy system. Approximately 100 databases and 160

programs constitute this legacy application. There was a

server crash in the month of Oct’11, resulting in stoppage

of work. Still medical department is not able to find parts

for the crashed server. Medical department legacy

application was also moved successfully in the month of

February’12.

What Next?

ICF Accounts department (both Shell and Furnishing)

also has somewhat similar setup. They use SCO Open

Server 6.x version to host their application in Unify

(another legacy RDBMs, which is no more supported).

The target is to virtualize these servers also in 2012-13.

Similarly, Personnel branch have their locally developed

applications in identical setup. Till such time these legacy

applications are replaced with contemporary technologies,

they have to be kept alive. Gaining the confidence of these

departments, to move them to the virtual environment, is

the goal of IT Center.

As an extension of this, IT center is seriously looking into

Desktop Virtualization, for the desktops available at IT

center. Officers and programmers of IT center, have over

a period of time, accumulated lot of IPR in their

respective desktops, which needs to be properly backed

up. The present system of individuals backing up their

own system, is erratic as well as unreliable. Any loss of

data from their Desktops, will be a great setback not only

for themselves, but also for the organization.

Specialty

Use of virtualization as a solution for running of such

legacy platform and application (SCO Unix and Foxbase)

is done for the first time on IR. This is an achievement for

the IT Center of ICF.

Drain petrol to Book two wheeler by train

Passengers booking their two-wheelers by train should

ensure that the petrol tanks are empty. Passengers failing

to do so are liable to be prosecuted under Section-67 of

Railways Act, with fine upto `1000/-and/or imprisonment

upto 3 years.

Retired staff to help public at ATVMs

The Southern Railway has decided to engage retired

railway employees to help commuters obtain tickets from

the Automatic Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs)

installed at several suburban railway stations. Designated

as “facilitators”, these staff will not only help commuters

get their tickets with ease, but also will educate them

about the benefits of these ATVMs. The scheme has been

introduced at the Perambur railway station on a trial basis.

It will be extended to 29 stations of Chennai division.

Flat-screen TVs in Shatabdi, express trains

Flat screen television sets are to be provided on five trains

MAS-SBC& MAS-MYS Shatabdi Exp, Lalbagh Exp and

TVC-GUV Exp in the first phase of the new on-board

entertainment programme. Soon, popular movies and

television serials would be telecast directly via satellite on

more trains. One of the first services to have this system

was the Ahmedabad-Mumbai Shatabdi Express. Since 2nd

week of june, passengers travelling on the MAS-SBC

Shatabdi trains have been viewing these programmes.

Four flat screen monitors have been installed in all

coaches. A few months later, every seat will have its own

TV console fitted with head phones for entertainment.

The three-year contract for the five trains has been

awarded to Choice Vision, Trivandrum and its subsidiary

Transvision Digital Media Private Limited, Chennai.

Double deck AC train to Bangalore

SR would introduce 12 new trains for Tamil Nadu,

including a double decker AC exp between Chennai and

Bangalore. It would depart from MAS at 07.25hrs. The

timings of Train No. 12639/12640 Brindavan Exp would

be revised from July 1, with dep from MAS at 07.50hrs

instead of 07.15hrs and reaching SBC at 14.00 hrs. Other

Express trains introduced include Bikaner-Coimbatore

(Weekly) Superfast AC Express, Yesvantpur-Kochuveli

(Weekly) AC Express (Via Erode), Shalimar-Chennai

Central (Weekly) Superfast Express, Visakhapatnam-

Chennai Central (Weekly) Superfast Express, Asansol-

Chennai Central (Weekly) Superfast Express, Chennai

Central-Puri (Weekly) Superfast Express,

Tiruchchirappalli-Tirunelveli (Day-time) Intercity (Daily)

Superfast Expresss, Tirunelveli-Dadar (Weekly) Superfast

Express, Kacheguda-Madurai (Weekly) Express and

Tirupati-Mannargudi (Tri-weekly) Express. The Southern

Railway also introduced two passenger trains, one

between Villupuram and Mayiladuthurai and the second

between Villupuram and Katpadi (Daily).

CHANGES IN DEPARTURE TIMINGS AT MAS

T. No From To Existing Proposed

12688 Dehradun/

Chandigarh Chennai —— 2.40

12243 Chennai Coimbatore 6.50 7.15

12639 Chennai Bangalore 7.15 7.50

12507 Ernakulam Guwahati 9.55 10.00

15227 Yesvantpur Muzaffarpur 9.55 10.00

16323 Trivandrum Shalimar 9.55 10.00

12296 Patna Bangalore 14.00 13.55

12577 Dibrugarh Bangalore 14.45 14.40

12969 Coimbatore Jaipur 17.35 17.40

12669 Chennai Chhapra 17.35 17.40

12967 Chennai Jaipur 17.35 17.40

16041 Chennai Alleppey 21.15 20.45

12671 Chennai Mettupalayam 21.00 21.15

T. No 12685 becomes daily from 21.08.2012

CHANGES IN DEPARTURE TIMINGS AT MS

T. No From To Existing Proposed

16853 Chennai Tiruchchirappalli 8.20 8.15

12635 Chennai Madurai 12.45 13.20

16723 Chennai Trivandrum 19.15 19.35

12693 Chennai Tuticorin 19.35 19.15

12637 Chennai Madurai 21.15 21.20

Shalimar-Chennai Superfast Weekly Express

Shalimar-Chennai-Shalimar Superfast Weekly Express

has been introduced. Tr#22825, Dep from Shalimar-12.20

hrs on Tuesdays, Arr at MAS-17.00 hrs on the next day.

Tr# 22826 dep from MAS- 16.15 hrs on Thursdays and

Arr at Shalimar- 21.30 hrs next day.