Train Chart
All the passengers travelling in a train - their names, genders and ages, apart from their origin and destination stations,The coach and seat/berth numbers of all passengers with tickets that are confirmed,
The coach and seat numbers of all passengers whose tickets are still in the RAC list when the chart is prepared,
All passengers on the RAC/waitlist and their final status when the train's chart is prepared - if confirmed or RAC, their coach and seat/berth numbers,
Passengers who have been given a free upgrade,
Empty seats or berths in the train, if any.
Chart Prepared and Chart Not Prepared
While the details of every passenger - confirmed, RAC or waitlisted - are stored in the railways' database, they are not usually listed in print form - not until the train's chart is prepared. At the time of chart preparation.
Passengers who had a waitlisted/RAC ticket that got confirmed are allotted coach and seat/berth numbers,
Coach and cabin numbers are allotted to passengers travelling by First AC Sleeper and First Class Non-AC,
The system randomly selects passengers for a free upgrade, if there are vacant seats in a higher class and a waitlist in a lower class,
The list of passengers in each coach is printed out and eventually pasted near the door of the coach.
In some stations, the charts of the train are pasted on boards, to save passengers the trouble of waiting for the train to arrive and the chart pasted near the door.
The significance of the chart being prepared is that once this happens, there can be no further changes in the status of your reservation. If your ticket is still on the waitlist when the chart is prepared, you cannot board any reserved coach of the train. If you have a waitlisted/RAC ticket that got confirmed at some point, the time of chart preparation is when you find out which coach and berth is yours.
Chart prepared
four hours before the train departs. For trains that leave in the morning (before 11 am), the chart is generally prepared the previous night, though this depends on the operating procedures of the station preparing the chart. Every station does not prepare a chart for the train. The train's chart is prepared and pasted on the train at the train's origin station. If there are particularly important stations falling in the route of the train, they are classified Remote Locations and fresh charts are prepared for passengers boarding at these stations, or any station beyond the remote location (upto the next remote location, if there is any). Thus, if you're boarding at a station several hours from the origin station of the train, the train's chart might be prepared more than four hours before the train departs your station.