When there is a break of guage,how are the bogies of a train changed?

Question

Indian Railways :

In India when there is a change of guage(eg: from broad guage to meter guage) then how are the bogies of the train changed? How is it done?

Answer 1

I watched a documentary once about the train that runs across Australia. Where there needed to change the gauge (guage) of the bogies.

Whether they still do it I do not know.

From what I can remember, it runs from Sydney to somewhere in Victoria on one gauge of track and then a different gauge out to Perth.

They lifted the carriages off the bogies roll the old ones away, roll the new ones in and then lower the carriage.

Answer 2

I can find no reference to gauge changing in India - and to change from broad gauge to metre gauge is quite an undertaking, bearing in mind the difference in loading gauges as well as rail gauge. These wikpedia entries and their references may be of interest, however:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_ga... and:-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_de_Tar...

Answer 3

I'll go with derails answer, I know tht in the early part of the century Russia was worried about invading armies bringing in weapons on their own trains so they used a different gauge.

Later on when they wanted to use the same cars they would actually raise each car up and change the trucks (bogies) by rolling one assembly out and another one in.

I will assume in India would be the same although this is conjecture.

I

Answer 4

I've heard of this in Russia, but not in India. All railroad rolling stock has the wheel bogies secured by a single "bolster pin". This is simply a 5 to 10 pound steel pin about 16 inches long that drops through the bolster beam of the rail car in to the center of the bogie, allowing the bogie to swivel. When a rail car is lifted up, it pulls up the bolster pin with it and the bogies stay on the track. In Russia, at the terminals where two track guages meet, each car is lifted by an overhead lift crane and the previous guage bogies are rolled away and the new gauge bogies are rolled in and the car is lowered again. It's very time consuming and truly an expensive bother. But, that's what they do - over towards Siberia - or used to do anyway.