Coaching Stock

The different types of passenger coaches include the electric multiple units that are a part of suburban trains and conventional coaches such as II class, I class, II sleeper, ac three tier, ac two tier and ac I class coaches.

In 1994-95, Indian Railways had a stock of about 3600 EMU coaches and 30,000 conventional coaches capable of carrying a total of about 3.7 million passengers. These coaches have three basic structural designs.

(a) Integral coaches built by the Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Perambur, Chennai

(b) Integral coaches built by Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML), Bangalore

Some of the salient features of these three types of coaches are given in Table 24.8.

Table 24.8 Salient features of IRS, ICF, and BEML coaches

	IRS	ICF	BEML
Type of body	Wooden	Light metal	Light metal
Type of structure	Wooden body	All metal, all	Similar to an ICF
	resting on rigid	welded integral	coach except that
	steel underframe	coach of a tabular	here load is taken
		construction	by the floor

	IRS	ICF	BEML
Coach dimensions Overall width	3250 mm	3250 mm	3250 mm
Overall length	21,031 mm	21,337 mm	21,336 mm
Overall height	3886 mm	3886 mm	3926 mm
Damage during	Extensive	Less damage	Same as ICF
collisions and derailments	damage	because of the presence of an anti-telescopic structure in the end walls to absorb shocks

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