Maintenance Depot Guidelines — Traction Distribution Notes

Create a free account to track your reading, save important notes and practise this topic.

OHE maintenance depot count and placement is optimised for minimum capital and recurring cost, governed by 5 real factors: total equipped track-km per depot, the depot's beat on either side, traffic density and time to reach the farthest point, proximity to major yards, and availability of educational/medical infrastructure nearby (staff are reluctant to stay otherwise).

🎯

Exam Focus — The Real Spacing Numbers

A single OHE depot's minimum coverage should be 150 track-km, equivalent to 250-300 EETKM (Electrical Equated Track Kilometres) — on a normal double-line section, this works out to roughly 60 RKM spacing between successive depots. Near terminal/major yards (with large wired track-km), spacing correspondingly reduces. Depot beat on either side should not normally exceed FOUR block sections, to keep breakdown response quick even at the farthest jurisdiction point.

Total staff requirement is calculated from prevalent yardsticks for maintenance and the schedules laid down — this staffing calculation is entirely independent of how many OHE depots a section happens to have. Major and minor depots differ essentially in one thing: a major depot has a tower wagon with its own shed and track connections, plus an OHE Depot Workshop; a standard (minor) depot needs only basic equipment like a drilling machine and bench grinder.

Tools & Plants (T&P) for PSI Depots — Real Official List

The RE (Railway Electrification) organisation supplies a genuine, itemised 41-item list to every PSI depot. Selected real entries, with exact quantities:

Lifting/rigging: Trifor 3 Tonne (3 nos.), Trifor 5 Tonne (1 no.), Chain pulley block 3.0 ton capacity, D-shackles 5/8"-3/4" (3 sets).
Ladders: Aluminium step ladder 8' height (2 nos.), aluminium ladder with hook on top 8' (2 nos.), aluminium step ladder 16' (1 no.), mobile aluminium ladder 36' (1 no.), Magic Pole ladder 8' (2 nos.).
Safety/earthing: Earthing Pole Assembly/Discharge Rod (6 nos. — a real number worth remembering), Fire buckets (4 nos.), First Aid box, Stretcher.
Testing equipment: Mains operated insulation tester 5kV, Insulation tester 2.5kV (2 nos.), Megger 500V, Earth Tester, Oil testing kit, Multimeter (2 nos.), Load cell tester.
Measurement: A.C. Voltmeter 0-150V and 0-500V (1 each), Digital time interval meter 15-1000 seconds, Auto transformer 2A capacity.
Communication: Emergency Telephones (4 nos.) — matching the earlier-covered rule that patrol linesmen must be equipped with emergency telephone access.
125 litre capacity Oil filtration plant, and a Portable diesel-engine-operated welding set (230V) — smaller-scale echoes of the Central Repair Shop's larger 2500 litre/hour purification plant covered in the Breakdown chapter.