Alert 10-Year-Old Averts Major Accident (India)

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http://www.masstransitmag.com/news/10614368/india-alert-10-year-old-averts-major-accident

 

[DET63]

From the article:

The incident took place in east Delhi's Mandawali area at 7.20 on Sunday morning and the Patna-Delhi Rajdhani Express was minutes away from the fractured tracks.
The boy is a rag picker and was collecting water bottles thrown by train passengers when he noticed the fracture in the railway tracks.

First of all, kudos to the kid for being alert and averting a potentially serious disaster.

However, it doesn't exactly strike confidence in the railway system that there isn't a more reliable means of detecting damage to tracks that could result in numerous fatalities.

 

[caravanman]

Hi,

The article goes on to quote an official: "Track fractures happen in winters due to change in temperature. Since all the tracks are circuited, there is no question that we won't get to know about it. Whenever there is a track fracture, there would not be any signal and without that drivers can not drive the trains."

I however know that a track can be damaged, yet be intact enough to carry the low voltages of the signal machinery.

Don't you just love "spokesmen"...?

Ed

 

[jis]

Mandawali Village is in the Indraprastha Extension area between Anand Vihar and Pragati Maidan stations on the Delhi Jn. Bypass via New Yamuna Bridge. It is fully track circuited ABS signaled line. Normally trains travel there at less than 50kph since it is right off the Bridge, or possibly even slower due to congestion and running on Yellow or double Yellow. Approach to New Delhi is notorious for congestion. You can arrive half hour early into the Delhi are and yet be one hour late into New Delhi.

It appears that a fracture had started developing but had not severed the rail and hence it was not detected by track circuit yet. If the track was otherwise well anchored it may or may not have led to a disaster at low speed. George can perhaps elaborate on what sort of fractures trains can pass over at slow speed without derailing.

There really is no known technology for detecting fractures that do not sever the rail other than visual or for even more preliminary detection ultrasonic or magentometric scanning.

This bypass is used by all trains approaching New Delhi from the east that do not go through Delhi Jn. Station. This track and the bridge did not exist before 1965. It connects Sahibabad on the Delhi - Calcutta Main Line to Tilak Bridge on the Mumbai/Chennai - New Delhi Main Line allowing trains from the east to go directly into New Delhi Station without passing through Delhi Jn.