Indian Railways is the second largest rail network in Asia and the fourth largest rail network in the world. Everyday millions of people travel by train. You must have also experienced it, but have you ever noticed why train coaches are of different colours and what they mean?
The most interesting thing about Indian Railways is that if all the tracks of Indian Railways are connected in one straight line, then its length would be 1.5 times more than circumference of earth.
You would be surprised to know that the slowest train in the country runs at a speed of 10 km per hour. The name of this train is Mettupalayam – Ooty Passenger, commonly known as ‘Nilgiri Passenger’ which passes through dangerous mountains.
You must have noticed that most train coaches are blue in colour indicating that these coaches are ICF coaches i.e their speeds vary between 70 to 140 kilometers per hour. Such coaches are installed in Mail Express or Superfast trains.
ICF air conditioned trains like the Rajdhani Express use red coloured coaches.
Green coaches are used in Garibrath trains. At the same time, brown coaches are used in meter gauge trains. The Bilimora Waghai passenger is a narrow gauge train that uses light green coaches. However they also use brown coaches.
Apart from these, some railway zones have designated their own colours. For example, some trains of the Central Railways follow a white-red-blue colour scheme.
PNN/Agencies