Coach Cleaning

“Mixed with chemicals, a single disc machine cleans and gives glazing to the floors,” said Rajesh of CR. After running the single disc, the entire floor is washed with high pressure jet and an ordinary wipe is used to remove the excess water. Thereafter, a round with the wet & dry vacuum cleaner leaves the surface clean and dry. Dry vacuum is also used to remove cobwebs, dust particles from the seat corners or even dry dust from the floors.

Primary trains coming in are normally covered with dust. They even have excreta stuck on the outside. “A thorough run down with Karcher high pressure jet, locally made special coir scrubber-brushes, JohnsonDiversey R2 chemical and vacuum cleaners help clean the external panels,” added Rajesh of BVG.

One train requires at least three sets of machines at a time for cleaning. Some of the secondary trains handled at Wadi Bunder include the Gitanjali Express and Howrah mail.

At Jabalpur that falls under the West Central zone of the railways, Dinesh Kalve, Director, Ultra Clean & Care Pvt Ltd who has recently started coach cleaning at the Loco pit line, uses auto scrubber and wet & dry vacuum cleaner of Eureka Forbes and the high pressure jet machines. “We also use Eureka Forbes backpack vacuum for easy access especially in external cleaning of coaches,” he said. In all, the agency uses 40 machines in this project.

Toilet cleaning

One of the areas that requires intensive cleaning is the toilets. “High pressure jet is a must for toilets,” said Rajesh. This machine cuts into the grime and is faster to clean. “Ideally, steam cleaning is the right choice for toilets, but with the limited time given to clean trains en route or on board a train, use of high pressure cleaner is the only next best solution. Steam cleaner disinfects, leaves least residual water and reaches inaccessible areas comfortably. Hot treatment on dirt is always better. This machine could be adopted in cleaning coaches at the yard,” suggested Sunil Kapoor.

“Heavy stains in the toilet are treated separately with Delstar buffing machine,” said Rajesh. The buffing machine is a handy tool which works like a hand grinding machine to which a nylon brush or a polishing pad can be attached. “It is mainly used for cleaning WC and washbasins. It can also be used for cleaning vinyl flooring in AC coaches, removing paan stains, cleaning glass with buffing pad and places which bigger machine cannot access,” said Ajith Lalwani, National Head, Delstar. Non-foaming detergent is applied to the surface before the buffing machine scrubs clean the stains.

Even though janitors are provided with protective gears, they expressed their inability to work effectively with protective gears like gloves and boots. As they are continuously working in water, they get wet and water also enters their boots and gloves. Being in wet boots and gloves affects their skin eventually.

The other approved tools and accessories include brushes for external cleaning, windowsill, toilet chute cleaning, floor & door corners, colour-coded brooms, plastic buckets, floor wipers, window glass squeegees, glass cleaning cloth dusters, jute cotton dusters and disposable bags for waste. “It is not possible to clean a toilet manually using just brushes, nor can one use hands to clean inside the WC. Cleaning stains in toilets require mechanical action and force which can be achieved through a buffing machine. Brushes or pads can easily be fitted to the machine and these are not expensive. In fact, separate brushes can be used for cleaning WC or washbasins,” said Ajith. Over and above, it is definitely unhygienic to manually clean a toilet, especially when the janitors, in most cases, find it difficult to work with protective gloves and boots on. BVG is using 45 buffing machines besides other tools of Gala and Unger for cleaning coaches at the CR. Given the constraints of using a manual brush and treating stains effectively, buffing machines not only give quality output but also reduce operational costs, said Ajith.

For Ultra Clean in Jabalpur, cleaning toilets is all the more challenging. “We are basically veterans in platform cleaning and this is our first project of coach cleaning which we are doing since September last year,” said Dinesh. Ultra Clean is cleaning 110 coaches per day of primary trains in three shifts with around 50 workers. In primary trains, the toilets come to the Loco pit line in a very bad condition. It’s not just a matter of cleaning the WC or washbasin but of removing paan stains as well. A combination of chemicals and machines are needed here. Ultra Clean mainly uses chemicals of Altret, JohnsonDiversey and Ecolab.

“High pressure jets are ideal, especially in Jabalpur, as they consume less water and enable intensive cleaning in the least time. We are also fabricating customised brushes along with Bangalore Brushware for coach cleaning,” said Dinesh. Besides, the trains originating from Jabalpur return in the same rake after two-three days. It is first taken up for overhauling at Veraval before it is sent to the Loco pit line. The primary trains handled by Ultra Clean include Jabalpur-Jaipur Express, Jabalpur-Nizamuddin, Jabalpur-Bhopal VIP train and Jabalpur-Howrah.

Not just in the toilets, people spit paan and gutka under the berth and on the side walls of the coach as well.

Some of the other initiatives being taken by the IR in keeping with Vision 2020 include controlled discharged toilet system (CDTS) designed to prevent discharge on track in platform area when train speed is below 30kmph. This has been adopted in LHB design of coaches through transfer of technology and has been provided on about 1300 coaches. These will be fitted in all coaches turned out in dedicated rake formations from railway production units. Zero discharge toilet system, including bio-degradation type toilets, retention type toilets and vacuum toilets are also being procured for conducting field trials to decide the type of environment-friendly toilets to be adopted on coaches of the Indian Railways.

Cleaning Agents

In keeping with the ecological requirement for cleaning agents laid down by IR, CR uses JohnsonDiversey range. The chemicals have to be biodegradable, phosphate free and not combustible.

Cleaning agents have to meet the stipulated composition like anionic surfactants, pH value of dilution at 7, solidification point at <0 ‘C and no flash point up to 100C. It should be a high-grade damp mopping product, free from wax and solvents; should not be sensitive to water hardness; should be mild to the skin; should provide excellent cleaning; retain shine and not damage the emulsion films.

Inspection and grading of rake cleaning

All the coaches, once cleaned, are inspected by the railway officials who grade the cleaning. Accordingly, the payment is released to the contractor. Each aspect of cleaning is graded. If the work is satisfactory and a grade of 90 is awarded, the contractor will be given full payment. If the grading is unsatisfactory and between 70 and 80, the contractor will be subjected to certain penalty. If it is below 70, no payment is made to the contractor. Normally, officers inspecting the coaches look at the quality of work done to the smallest detail. Areas of concern are below the washbasin, corners of the toilet, rooftop of the coaches, magazine net bags and the berth surface. Inspectors rub their hands on the berth to see if it has been cleaned thoroughly. People tend to insert gutka pouches, used tissue paper or bits of chocolate wrappers into the magazine nets. All these are intricately checked by the inspecting officers.