Diesel Loco Shed, Ernakulam

Diesel Loco Shed, Ernakulam (Code:ERSX) is a motive power depot performing locomotive maintenance and repair facility for diesel locomotives of the Indian Railways, located at Ernakulam Junction (ERS) of the Southern Railway zone in the city of Kochi, Kerala. It is one of the four diesel loco sheds of the Southern Railway, the others being at Tondiarpet (TNP) at Chennai, Erode (ED) and Golden Rock (GOC) at Trichy and the only locomotive shed in Kerala and the southernmost loco shed in India. Although it is in Kerala, its locomotives were mainly used in Goa and Maharashtra, and very rarely near the shed for passenger trains.

History
Steam locomotive sheds used to exist at Kollam Junction (QLN) and Shoranur Junction (SRR) until the late 1970s. After Southern Railway set a deadline to eliminate all steam locomotive operations by 1985, a push was given towards establishing diesel as the primary motive power, and the Ernakulam Diesel locomotive shed was established in the year 1981 to meet these ends and the needs of exponentially increasing rail traffic on the new continuous broad-gauge lines from Trivandrum to Mangalore and Palakkad with the completion of gauge conversion of the Ernakulam – Kottayam – Kayamkulam line. The steam sheds at SRR and QLN were subsequently decommissioned.

Initially, the shed handed only WDM-2 and WDS-6 class locomotives, but gradually were allocated WDM-3As, WDG3-As and for a short time, was the only loco shed in the country to have WDM-7 locomotives allocated to its roster. The first loco to be homed at ERS was a WDS-6 with road number #36012. The last WDM-2 (18701) was removed from service in June 2019 after being in the shed for 38 years. The shed received its First HHP loco WDP-4D(40114) from GOC in December 2019. Elocos were gradually alotted by the railways in 2021.

Operations
Like all locomotive sheds, ERS does regular maintenance, overhaul and repair including painting and washing of locomotives. It not only attends to locomotives housed at ERS but to ones coming in from other sheds as well. It has four pit lines for loco repair.

Locomotives of Ernakulam DLS along with Erode and Golden Rock DLS were the regular links for all trains running through Kerala until around the year 2000 when widespread electrification of railway lines started in Kerala. Until then it handled prestigious trains like the double-headed Kerala Express and the Trivandrum Rajdhani Express. ERS locomotives used to be predominantly the regular links for trains traveling on the Konkan Railway as well. As more and more railway lines in Kerala were electrified, ERS started losing links to electric locomotives, mainly WAP-1, WAP-4, WAG-7 and WAP-7 locomotives from the Erode (ED), Arakkonam (AJJ) and Royapuram (RPM) electric locomotive sheds. Ironically, the Thiruvananthapuram railway division in which ERS is located has 100% electrified lines.

Despite all the electrification across the country, ERS locomotives still used to take trains as far as Gujarat, Bikaner and in the Shornur–Nilambur line of Kerala. The Ernakulam–Okha Express used to run with two ERS locomotives in multiple unit operation before electrification. The 12201/12202 LTT–Kochuveli Garib Rath was an ERS link running south of Ernakulam. A prestigious link for ERS was the Dadar–Madgaon Jan Shatabdi Express which was regularly hauled by an ERS WDM-3A for a long time.

Livery and markings
Indian Railways allows diesel loco sheds to paint their locomotives in their own unique liveries. Ernakulam's locomotives have their current livery scheme as painted in orange with a wide cream band around the middle, with orange lines on the top and bottom, to match with the erstwhile Rajdhani livery. The livery was introduced to match that of the Trivandrum Rajdhani when it was introduced sometime in 1997 as ERS considered the Rajdhani its most prestigious link. The cream bar and the orange line taper downwards at both ends of the locomotive to create a V-shaped design. This orange–cream–orange color scheme gives the locomotives a cheerful and pleasant look. One locomotive, WDM-3A #16666 was for a short time painted in an experimental light green–cream–light green scheme. Originally, the livery scheme of the Ernakulam shed was yellow at the top and spinach-green at the bottom.

Closure controversy
In October 2013, Southern Railways submitted a proposal to the railway board to shut down the Ernakulam DLS and convert it into an electric loco shed. Employees at the loco shed, later joined in by the public and people's representatives protested against this decision, alleging a plan to move the shed to Mangalore, demanding the ELS should be established without closing the DLS as it was the only major railway establishment in Kerala. After protests got much popular support, Southern Railway backed down from its move to close the shed. Then the Indian Railways opened new electric & diesel loco shed at Ernakulam in 2023 may 5.

Electrification of Shed
Electrification work at Ernakulam Diesel Shed started on 21 January 2021.Work completed in November 2021 and E loco trial completed on 31 December 2021. Erode WAP-1 #22008 was used For E loco trial run. From 22 Jan 2022 onwards, it has been converted into an electric loco shed and all diesel locos were to be shifted to Golden Rock Diesel Loco Shed in 2023.