The South Central Railway (SCR) has started supplying Fog Pass devices, a GPS-based portable equipment, to loco pilots.
The device helps in alerting the crew about upcoming landmarks or structures, during foggy weather, through audio and visual indications.
During the winter, when visibility is low due to fog, loco pilots face a tough challenge of ensuring safe operations of trains.
The entire data of a particular section such as location of signals, stations, level-crossing gates, warning boards, curves and gradients, are mapped with GPS and fed into the device.
These devices are then incorporated with visual and voice indication for alerting the loco pilot, a senior railway official said.
In foggy weather conditions, loco pilots are forced to restrict the speed of the train, resulting in late arrivals, as they are unable to sight signals.
A fog pass device displays details of at least three oncoming landmarks along with distance from the current location. An audio alert is given, around 500 metres before any approaching landmark, they explained.
Around 250 fog pass devices have, so far, been distributed to Secunderabad and Vijayawada divisions. These are kept at the crew booking points and are issued to loco and assistant loco pilots, when they are on duty. The feedback from them is good, according to chief public relations officer (CPRO) Ch. Rakesh.
Since loco pilots are alerted well in advance about an approaching signal with a Fog Pass, constant speed can be maintained in the section resulting in no loss of punctuality of trains.
It also helps in maintaining the section capacity, said SCR General Manager Gajanan Mallya. Soon, other sections will also be supplied with the devices for better and safe running of trains.
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