Hi gang !
The Hasler speedo has a long strip of paper, while a Yenkay mechanical speedo has a
circular chart inside it. There is also a 'Meda' speedo with a digital clock that is
rumored to perform the function of the 'transition cards' of the WDM2 as well. Once the
loco is moving a mechanism begins to tick inside the Hasler, it is not the clockwork -
something else. One of the sound that are heard as the loco comes to a standstill after a
noisy ride is the loud ticking from the Hasler. The ticking stops after a few seconds.
Okay , here it is the circular chart from a Yenkay mechanical speedo.
The loco is Guntakal shed's WDM2 17689, the record is of the 6010 Up Chennai Mumbai Mail from GTL (Guntakal) to RC (Raichur), on the 13th of June (its HOT and FRESH !). There is a signature of the 'Chief Crew Controller' (as the loco foreman is known as lately) of GTL on the back with his seal. Also noted is the name of the driver and the KMs traveled on this route (122 Kms). Obviously the loco has traveled a lot more than that, the record being almost for 20 hours. Note the cute graphics in the lower part of the center with the drawing of the house (the home shed ?) and an arrow away and one towards, meaning possibly Down direction (away from home) and Up direction (towards home). Thus 6010 is an Up train (true) for this section.
It seems that the clock of this speedo is not working or set wrong (or the trains was very
late :) - or is it early ? ) The trace starts at around 0230 hours, while the 6010 arrives
at GTL at 0815. Note that in the section MAS (Madras/ Chennai) to GTL the train known as
6010 Down as it is on the down tracks. It is very puzzling to see 'reversed' numbers at
Chennai Central station. Everyone refers to 6009 as 9 Down, while the Chennai walas refer
to her as 9 Up ! All
the argument about trains moving away from a port is Down does not hold true as all trains
at Howrah (HWH) are referred by the same number all through the journey, 8002 is Up all
the way to Mumbai and Calcutta is a sort of port too.
The analysis of the chart is simple, the red trace is the speed vs time graph. The loco
seem to have crossed 110 Km/h at around 0435 hrs (not easily possible).
One bizzare convention I saw on the Pune station's electronic rolling display is '6530 Up
is coming on platform no 0 !' Pune has seven platforms and zero refers to 'platform not
yet decided'.
More information on the WDM2 and detailed photos coming up ! I will also upload a section
(or the whole) Hasler paper strip, once I figure out how to scan it !