Indian Railway Facts: In earlier times, trains used to run on coal. Now the number of trains running on coal has reduced considerably. Now most trains run on electricity. Especially trains carrying passengers run on electric power only.. But have you ever thought that the entire train is made of iron, the engine, bogie, track, everything is made of solid iron.
The train made entirely of iron runs on a current of 25000 volts. But have you ever thought that despite everything being made of iron, till date there has never been any complaint of electric current running in the coaches. After all, what kind of logic has the Railways put in place to ensure that an entire iron train running at 25,000 volts never gets an electric shock?
Why does the engine not generate current?
You must have often seen electrical wires installed above your railway tracks. A current of about 25000 voltage runs in these wires. These wires are also called overhead equipment. Actually, pantograph is used to transmit current from these wires to the train engine. Due to which there is no direct contact between the electric wire and the train. In these, insulators are installed in the pantograph which prevent the current from reaching the train engine.
Train runs on AC current
After the current reaches the engine through overhead equipment wires, the motor installed in it uses AC current. Due to which the engine runs, that is, the power that the engine uses is AC current and its strength is also very high. It easily pulls a train weighing thousands of tons.
Due to this reason current does not flow in the bogies
Now you might be thinking that the engine is fine but why current does not flow in the bogies, then let us tell you that there is a transformer installed in the engine. This transformer converts AC current into DC current. This DC current goes to the bogies of the train. Where LEDs, bulbs, fans etc. work for this reason. Actually, even before supplying electricity to the bogies, the transformer converts it into DC current which is not harmful. This is the reason why incidents of electric shock never occur in bogies.
