LOCO Pilot Indian Railway

Ministry of Railways of the Government of India. Indian Railways has 114,500 kilometres (7 and 2.8 million tons of freight daily. It is the world's second largest commercial or utility employer, with more than 1.36 million employees As for rolling stock, IR owns over 240,000 (freight) wagons, 60,000 coaches and 9,000 locomotives. By 1947, the year of India's independence, there were forty-two rail systems. In 1951 the systems were nationalised as one unit, becoming one of the largest networks in the world. IR operates both long distance and suburban rail systems on a multi-gauge network of broad, metre and narrow gauges. It also owns locomotive and coach production facilities.

**How vigorous is the job profile can be noted from this very fact that the Railway recruits persons as 'Assistant Loco Pilot' . They work on freight trains for as long as 10–12 years. During this tenure they are supposed to work with experienced Train Drivers and perform only assisting work during the run of a locomotive i.e. An Assistant Driver thus learns the tactics and dos and don'ts required for train operation. Thereafter they are promoted as 'Shunter', after proper courses and practical trainings, wherein they are supposed to drive locomotives in sheds/yards at not more than 15 km/h speeds. After experiencing for not less than two years, they are promoted as 'Goods Drivers', who are always monitored by their respective 'Loco Inspectors'. A train has typical an Assistant driver and a Driver on the Locomotive. The Assistants are normally common but Drivers fall in various categories like Goods Drivers (or Loco Pilots used for running goods trains), Passenger Driver (Driver used to run slow moving Passenger carrying Trains), Mail Express Driver (Driver used to run high speed Passenger carrying Trains) and Rajdhani Drivers (Used for very high speed passenger carrying trains). There is yet another category of crew called 'Shunters' who operate only in yards, for moving trains within a particular station yard. Normally Shunters work alone without an Assistant. The train at the rear end has Guards as its crew. They are categorised as goods guards, passenger guards and mail express guards based on the type of train on which they are working.1,147 mi). of total track over a route of 65,000 kilometres (40,389 mi) and 7,500 stations. It has the world's fourth largest railway network after those of the United States, Russia and China.The railways traverse the length and breadth of the country and carry over 30 million passengers