In Electronic Interlocking (EI) system, provision exists that whenever system (A) goes in error state or fails, the EI works on another system (B), but no information is relayed to concerned maintenance staff about this incidence.

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In this regard, Ajmer division of NW Railway has developed a SMS generation and exception reports system for above type of EI incidences by using system (A) and system (B) healths bits with the help of fault logic of data logger. Whenever any system of EI fails, exception is generated in data logger and SMS is sent to concerned staff and officers which serves as remote monitoring of EI health & preventive action. This is provided at EI system, Westrace make at Falna station on Ajmer – Palanpur section of Ajmer division as a pilot.

This innovation shall be useful in addition to above for the cases where one system is in faulty condition and the maintenance staff is not aware of the same. Any attempt for changeover to stand-by system either due to fault or as a routine maintenance may lead to catastrophic condition.

Failure of EI of Ansaldo system…

In Ansaldo make EI systems, Vital Cut-Off Relay (VCOR) is used for monitoring the health of the EI system. For system (A), A1-VCOR, A2-VCOR, A3-VCOR… and for System (B), B1-VCOR, B2-VCOR, B3-VCOR… relays are used as per the requirement of the yard. For normal 3-Line station, System (A) consists A1-VCOR, A2-VCOR & System (B) consists B1-VCOR, B2-VCOR relays are required. These relays are normally remain in Pick-up condition.

When any of the system fails and remains fail for more than 2 minutes, respective VCOR relays drops and that signals the failure of that particular system. For stand-by systems also this relay remains in normal pick-up condition. Thus, monitoring these relays in parallel and timer of more than 2 minutes can be used for SMS generation on failure of EI system.

Vital Cut-Off Relay

• Each Cardfile will have one Vital Cutoff relay (VCOR) to ensure the healthiness of the system.
• VCOR has 6 F/B dependent contacts each rated for 3 Amps.
• The VCOR contacts are used to control the power to all card file vital outputs.
• The VCOR is controlled by the CPU board.
• When the system is healthy the coil receives voltage from PS PCB on the power supply board.
• On failure of a safety-critical diagnostic, the DC supply to the VCOR is removed thereby opening the contacts that provide battery power to the vital output boards.

This feature of SMS generation on failure of EI should be used for all types of EI…

Do you know, how can we implement this on Medha EI system and Kyosan EI systems???