The Integral Coach Factory (ICF) coach is a conventional

passenger coach A passenger railroad car or passenger car (American English), also called a passenger carriage, passenger coach (British English and International Union of Railways), or passenger bogie (Indian English) is a railroad car that is designed to ca ...

used on the majority of

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

(IR) lines. Between 1955 and 2018, more than 54,000 were produced and some were exported to other countries.

History

The design of the coach was developed by

Integral Coach Factory Integral Coach Factory (ICF) is an Indian manufacturer of rolling stock, and electrical multiple units. Established in 1955, it is located in Perambur in Chennai and is the largest rail coach manufacturer in the world. It is owned and operated ...

Perambur Perambur is a neighbourhood located in the northern region of Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Etymology In Tamil language, Tamil, ''pirambu (பிரம்பு)'' means bamboo, and ''oor (ஊர்)'' means city or place. Before British Raj, B ...

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in collaboration with the Swiss Car & Elevator Manufacturing Co,

Schlieren, Switzerland Schlieren (Zürich German ''Schlierä'') is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Dietikon (district), Dietikon in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zürich (canton), Zürich in Switzerland. History The oldest Ar ...

. The

bogie A bogie ( ) (or truck in North American English) comprises two or more Wheelset (rail transport), wheelsets (two Railroad wheel, wheels on an axle), in a frame, attached under a vehicle by a pivot. Bogies take various forms in various modes ...

s were also known as ''Schlieren bogies'' after the location of the Swiss company. An Indian delegation made initial contacts with the Swiss manufacturer at a railway congress in

Lucerne Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

in the summer of 1947, the contract for cooperation between the company and the Government of India was signed in Delhi in May 1949, and work on the Perambur factory began a year later. The plant was inaugurated by Prime Minister

Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...

in 1955. By 2018, it had manufactured more than 54,000 coaches, of which 601 were exported to countries such as

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Zambia Zambia, officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of Central Africa, Central, Southern Africa, Southern and East Africa. It is typically referred to being in South-Central Africa or Southern Africa. It is bor ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

and

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. The last ICF coach was flagged off on 19 January 2018 by senior technician P. Bhaskar in the presence of Railway Board chairman

Ashwani Lohani Ashwani Lohani (born 22 December 1958) is a retired 1980 batch officer of Indian Railway Service of Mechanical Engineers. He is currently serving as Director of Prime Ministers' Museum and Library Society from 9 June 2025 onwards. He has earlier ...

Project ''Utkrisht''

In April 2018, the Indian Railways launched a refurbishment programme called ''Utkrisht'' ('excellence') to refurbish and modernise ICF coaches in 640 rakes. With a total cost of , the refurbishment included a new

beige Beige ( ) is variously described as a pale sandy fawn color, a grayish tan, a light-grayish yellowish brown, or a pale to grayish yellow. It takes its name from French, where the word originally meant natural wool that has been neither ble ...

and

maroon Maroon ( , ) is a brownish crimson color that takes its name from the French word , meaning chestnut. ''Marron'' is also one of the French translations for "brown". Terms describing interchangeable shades, with overlapping RGB ranges, inc ...

livery, LED fixtures, upgraded bio-toilets with odour control, assistive

braille Braille ( , ) is a Tactile alphabet, tactile writing system used by blindness, blind or visually impaired people. It can be read either on embossed paper or by using refreshable braille displays that connect to computers and smartphone device ...

signage, and improved trash disposal.

Retirement and legacy

Central Railways Central Railway (abbreviated CR) is one of the 19 zones of Indian Railways. Its headquarters are located at Mumbai. It has the distinction of operating the first passenger railway line in India, which opened from Mumbai to Thane on . History ...

is converting ICF coaches having a residual life of 5 years into accident relief and new modified goods-high speed (NMGH) automobile carrier rakes. As of September 2023, 57 ICF coaches have been converted into NMGH rakes and 4 ICF coaches have been converted into accident relief trains. The

Philippine National Railways The Philippine National Railways (PNR) (; ) is a government-owned and controlled corporation, state-owned railway company in the Philippines which operates one commuter rail service between Laguna (province), Laguna and Quezon, and local servic ...

(PNR) had already withdrawn the last of its ICF coaches from service in 2009. 60 coaches were delivered to PNR between 1975 and 1979.

Liveries

Standard

Since their introduction in 1955 with a brick red livery, the ICF coaches were repainted blue in the 1990s, and in beige and red since 2018. ICF Brick Red Livery

Special

India's premier trains - the '' Rajdhani'', '' Shatabdi'', '' Duronto'' and ''

Garib Rath The Garib Rath (lit. Poor Chariot) trains are a series of no-frills trains operated by Indian Railways to provide air-conditioned train travel at a cheaper rate compared to regular trains. Garib Rath Express trains primarily operate on long-dis ...

'' were introduced with ICF rakes. All of these trains have been upgraded with LHB rakes. ICF Rajdhani Livery

Image gallery

References

{{Indian Railways Railway coaches of India