WAP 3

The Indian locomotive class WAP 3 was a class of 25 kV AC electric locomotives that was designed by Research Design and Standards Organization (RDSO) and Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLW) for Indian Railways in 1987. They entered Active service in 1988. They were the faster variants of the previous WAP-1 class.

History
A variant of the WAP-1, was originally classified WAP-1 FMII, Built in 1987 by CLW. There were 5 of these converted from WAP-1 locos. The first WAP-3 "Jawahar", #22005 was used for the Taj Express for some time. They were the same as WAP-1 but with different Flexicoil bogies (Mark II and IV). These locos could haul 19 coach rakes for the Rajdhani and other prestigious Express trains for which they had been designed at speeds upto 140 kmp/h on good tracks. They were still, underpowered and required Banking locomotives on moderately graded sections, essentially failing their design goals. Max. speed was Rated at 160 km/h on Delhi-Agra section, tested during 1988.

After 1997, All were Converted Back to WAP 1 Specifications and restricted to 130 km/h.

Service
The WAP 3 were An Experimental Class of locomotives aimed at improving the WAP 1 design for better speed and power. Initial Units were simply Named WAP 1 FMII, where FMII denoted Flexicoil Mark II bogies. Although they were more faster than the conventional WAP 1, they had almost the same power output. They hauled some prestigious trains like The Howrah Rajdhani, Taj express and various Shatabdi Expresses, Bhopal Shatabdi being one of them. As trains became longer, WAP 3's low power became a problem and It required Assistance of Banking locomotives in Graded Sections. Starting from 1997, all of them were grdually rebuilt as WAP 1 and restricted to a maximum speed of 130 km/h. 4 units still operate in main line service as WAP 1 and One unit is used as demonstration loco.