RAILWAY ACCIDENT PREVENTION SYSTEM (RAPS)
1. This invention relates to prevention of virtually all types of Railway accidents pertaining to moving trains.
2. India and the rest of the world have been beset with various types of Railway accidents. Most of the accidents pertain to moving trains which collide or get derailed etc. While in many cases the accidents are not pre-meditated, there are numerous examples of Railway accidents which are pre-meditated, some of the recent ones being disruption of the railway track by Maoists in India.
3. Most of the present proposals for prevention of Railway accidents have inherent drawbacks which are intended to be addressed in the present invention. For example the latest Anti Collision Devices (ACDs) proposed to be installed on all trains and railway crossings of the Indian Railways uses Radio Frequency and GPS for its operation. Both of these are susceptible to inherent failure and/or jamming of signals by disgruntled/ anti-national elements.
4. A normal train (goods or passenger) travelling at its top speed has a braking distance of at least one kilometer if not more. This is essentially due to the huge momentum because of the combined mass of the train. In order to ensure safety of passengers/ goods of the moving train, the state of the railway track at least one kilometer ahead needs to be sensed by the train and brakes applied automatically so that by the time the actual train reached the designated spot of the problem, it is at a complete halt.
5. Use of microwaves, infrared, radio-frequencies or GPS for detection by the moving train does not assure the required safety due to the following
reasons: -
(a) Railway tracks are not always in straight lines but also curved and microwaves or lasers etc. travel in straight tine. Especially in hilly tracks, there are sharp bends, where there could be a fallen boulder on the other side of the bend which would not be picked up by the sensor on the moving train in time.
(b) Railway tracks also run parallel to each other in many places. Use of Radio frequency or microwaves makes it difficult to distinguish between two tracks running parallel to each other. For example, let us assume that ACDs have been installed in two trains (in the front and rear of each train) which are running on parallel tracks. Normally the ACD in front of one train is supposed to detect the ACD in the rear of the other train and slow down if they are on the same track. However, since Radio Frequency is used, and the trains are on parallel tracks, they will interact with each other and may cause the train which is behind to slow down although there is no other train ahead of it.
(c) Most importantly, ACDs and GPS signals can be jammed very
easily these days and hence it is very important to ensure that any kind of
safety device for a moving train must be an integral part of the moving
train itself and not depend on any external device not physically connected
to the train.
(d) Also, in case the tracks itself have been tampered with (like in the
recent example of Railway accident where the Maoists had removed the
ffsh-plates on the tracks), then any kind of ACD, GPS or any of the
existing accident prevention systems cannot prevent accidents.
6. Other attempts have also been made i.e. passing some kind of signal through the tracks or providing sensors at regular intervals to detect the over speeding of the trains which would 'automatically' regulate the speed of the moving train. However, even these systems do not cater for safety of the moving train from all foreseeable accidents.
7. In view of the drawbacks of the existing systems, my invention comprises of a set of ten 'bogies' which are attached in front of the train. These single 'bogies' will be of the smallest dimension which are manufactured and have the special characteristics as described in the succeeding paragraphs.
8. The Front Bogie. This will have an electric motor which will be the prime mover for this bogie. The electric power for this motor shall be derived from the engine of the train via a special 'Umbilical Cord' (described in the succeeding paragraph). The speed of this Front Bogie shall be dependant on the speed of the Train i.e. when the actual train is moving at its maximum speed, the speed of the Front Bogie will be such that the distance between the engine of the train and this Front Bogie is egual to the braking distance of the train. This bogie shall also have the following sensors:-

(a) X-Rav Cameras which are looking down at the tracks and ahead. These will keep taking snapshots of the track at a sufficiently fast rate so as to not miss even one millimeter of track at the highest speed of the train. These snapshots will be analysed by a micro-computer fitted onboard this bogie and in case any section of the track is found to be defective which can derail the train, then a braking signal will be sent back to the engine via the above-mentioned 'Umbilical Cord' and cause the brakes to be applied automatically without the drivers intervention.
(b) Impact Sensors. This will be in the front part of the front bogie and in case of impact with any object which has fallen on the track (say a boulder); it will again send the braking signal to the engine as described above.
(c) Infra Red and Normal Video Cameras. These will be looking forward and the feed of these cameras will be passed through the 'Umbilical Cord' to the engine where the driver can see ahead of the train equivalent to the braking distance of the train.
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9. Other Bodies and Umbilical Cord Arrangement Each of the ten bogies (including the 'Front Bogie') will have spooled arrangement of about 100 meters of 'Umbilical Cord'. While the 'Front Bogie' will have all the deployed sensors and the processing 'intelligence', the balance 09 rear bogies will only be the carrier of the 'Umbilical Cord'. This is because if there were no 'carrier' bogies, then at full speed of the train, there would be about one kilometer of 'Umbilical Cord' trailing behind it up to the engine of the train. This is not desirable since the cord could droop and touch the tracks and get damaged and also during sharp curves (say in hilly areas), the cord could get entangled etc.
10. When the train starts moving, all the 10 bogies are attached to the front of the train engine. As the train picks up speed, the Front Bogie electric motor will get the signal to move faster so that it moves ahead of the balance 09 bogies and the Umbilical Cord (of 100 meters in its spool) will start deploying. When the train speed is such that its braking distance is about 100 meters, the Front Bogie will be 100 meters ahead with its complete umbilical cord deployed. When the train speed increases more then the 2nd 'Carrier' Bogie will be pulled by the Front Bogie and its spool of Umbilical Cord will start deploying and so on until at maximum speed, the complete Umbilical cord of all the 10 Bogies i.e. 1000 meters will be deployed.
11. From the above description it is clear that the Umbilical Cord shall carry the following types of cables: -

(a) Power Supply Cable for the Electric Motor (i.e. the Prime Mover) of the Front Bogie.
(b) Control Signal Cable for regulating the speed of the Front Bogie. This Control signal will be generated by a device fitted in the engine which will get the speed of the train as an input and give the control voltage (or digital signal) which would be passed over the Umbilical Cord to the Electric Motor in the Front Bogie to vary its speed.
(c) Control Signal Cable for 'Braking' Signal from the Front Bogie to the Engine of the train. On receiving this signal from the Front Bogie, the engine will commence braking.
(d) Video Signals from the cameras in the Front Bogie to the display mounted inside the train engine.
12. Umbilical Cord Cable Spools. The Cable Spools of the Umbilical Cord in each of the 10 bogies would be Spring Loaded i.e. when the cable is deployed due to the pulling power of the electric motor of the Front Bogie, it is stretched against the spring tension of the spools. In case the speed reduces, the spring tension in each spool would ensure that there is no slack and the cables get stowed back in the spools. The Spring tension would be different for each Carrier Bogie Cable Spool. The tension would be least for the 1st Carrier Bogie behind the Front Bogie and would be maximum for the last Carrier Bogie (i.e. the Carrier Bogie closest to the engine). This will ensure that when the cables are required to coil back in the spool (in case of slowing down of the train or emergency braking), then the umbilical cord will coil back in the last Carrier Bogie (i.e. Carrier Bogie closest to the Engine) first and so on.
Possible Variants
13. The variants which are possible in respect of the above invention are enumerated in the succeeding paragraphs.
14. Change in the Number of Bogies & Umbilical Cord Length. The
number of bogies and the length of the Umbilical Cord can be changed depending on the braking distance of the train. For longer braking distances the number of bogies in front of the train can be increased and/or the length of the umbilical cord cable in the spool of each bogie can be changed.
15. Removal of Video Cameras in the Front Bogie. Since the cameras in the Front Bogie are only a desirable feature (since the Front Bogie processing element ensure automatic generation of braking signal) this may be removed. This will have the advantage of lesser number of cables in the Umbilical Cord since the cable for video feed of these cameras would not be required.
16. Use of Cable Spool Motors Instead of/ In Addition to Spring Tension.
It was indicated in Para 12 above that the cable spool of each Bogie will have spring tension to pull the slack back when the speed of the train and the Front Bogie slows down. Instead/ In addition to the spring the spool of each bogie could be provided with a motor which would be activated when the cable of the bogie becomes slack (due to lowering of speed) and this will reel in the cable until it is taut again. When the front bogie picks up speed and the cable is deployed again, then this spool motor will not come into play. The Power Supply for the spool motor can be derived from a dynamo connected to the wheels of the bogie.
17. AC or DC Electric Motor. The Electric Motor used as the prime mover
for the Front Bogie can be either an AC or a DC Motor.
DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
1. Figure 1 describes the initial position of the ten bogies in front of the train.
2. Figure 2 describes the 'Front Bogie' and its parts.
3. Figure 3 describes a sample 'Carrier' Bogie behind the Front Bogie.
4. Figure 4 describes the Control Logic for the 'braking signal' generation by the Front Bogie Processing Element.
5. Figure 5 describes the units inside the engine of the Train and the control logic for signal generation for the electric motor of the Front Bogie.
6. Figure 6 describes the Umbilical Cord details.
7. Figure 7 describes the Cable Spool details.
8. Figure 8 describes the behavior of the System when the engine starts moving.

- In Step 1, before the train starts, all the Bogies in fronts of the engine are next to each other.
- In Step 2, as the train picks up speed, due to the increase in power supply from the engine (through the umbilical cord) the motor in the Front Bogie is activated and the Front Bogie moves ahead and pulls (uncoils the cable) from the cable spool of the 1st Carrier Bogie (against the spring coil tension of the spool). This continues till the cable in the spool of the 1st Carrier Bogie is uncoiled completely. Now the braking distance of the train is about 100 meters (equal to the length of the cable uncoiled).
- In Step 3, as the speed of the train increases, and the power to the Motor in the Front Bogie is increased, it will exert a pull against the spring tension of the 2nd Carrier Bogie. Hence the cable on this spool will also start uncoiling till the point when braking distance of the train is about 200 meters (equal to the length of the cable uncoiled for the 1st and the 2nd spool).
- In Step 4, the train is nearing its top speed and it is depicted that the cable spools of the first nine Carrier Bogies have uncoiled. This is when the braking distance of the train is about 900 meters.
- In Step 5, the train is at its top speed and hence the cables spool of each Carrier Bogie has uncoiled. The braking distance is now about 1000 meters (plus the length of 10 bogies i.e. 20 meters).
- In Step 6, the Front Bogie Sensors (i.e. Impact Sensors or XRay Camera Sensors) have picked up a problem with the track ahead and hence activated the braking signal in the Engine. The power supply to the Motor in the Front Bogie has been switched off from the Engine, and Spring tension in each Carrier Bogie cable spool has ensured that the cable has coiled back in the respective spools. Since the Engine applied the brakes 1000 meters before the spot where the track was defective, by the time the engine reaches the spot, it has managed to come to a halt thereby preventing damage to the passengers and/ or goods.

we claim,
1. The above-mentioned Railway Accident Prevention System (RAPS) will prevent virtually all types of railroad accidents pertaining to moving trains.
2. The RAPS has inherent advantages over all other types of prevalent Railway safety system since it ensures braking of the train before it reaches the spot of contention.
3. Due to incorporation of this system in all trains, the track utilization can be increased since two trains can run right behind each other and not collide. Imagine two trains are running on the same track in the same direction (one behind the other). In case the train ahead slows down such that the Front Bogie of the rear train touches the rear of the train ahead. Immediately the engine of the train behind will start braking and when this happens, the gap between the trains will again increase. Maximum Track Utilization has great economic implication since more trains on the same tracks means greater revenue for the Railways.
4. Also due to incorporation of this system, the manual checking of tracks which is frequently done by the railways can be done away with. Each time a single train with this system runs on the tracks, the real time track health data (by the X-Ray cameras of the Front Bogie) will be monitored. In case of any problem or after review of this data at the end of each journey, where ever tracks are deteriorating can be investigated and repair action taken. This will lead to huge reduction in manpower and hence increase the profitability of the Railways.
5. The cost of implementation of this system would be much lesser than any other system like ACD since this has to be fitted only in the front of each train.
6. Since this system does not depend on any external system for railway safety, there will be no effect of jamming of signals etc. on this system. Hence in the present age of anti-national elements willfully damaging railway tracks, this system will ensure safety of passengers and goods being transported by the Railways.