Accident of Bikaner-Guwahati Express: An American viewpoint on our Couch Potatoes and Thumb-masters
You all know about the accident of Up Bikaner-Guwahati Express 13th January near Jalpaiguri in which nine passengers died and scores were injured as the locomotive and twelve coaches capsized or climbed over another coach. What stood out was:
Although the safety record of Indian Railways (IR) has
improved in recent years, thanks to greater stress on maintenance of
infrastructure, it still faced criticism as the number of fatalities and
serious injuries would have been zero had LHB coaches been in use on the train.
Successive accidents have shown that whenever ICF type coaches are involved in
derailment at high speeds, coaches climb and capsize causing heavy casualties
whereas similar accidents with LHB coaches have practically no casualties and
certainly no fatalities.
The cause of the accident is a traction motor of the
locomotive falling down, something which is rather bizarre as this equipment is
secured very strongly. It indicates a serious manufacturing defect compounded by
improper examination of the fitment of traction motor on the bogie during
maintenance.
The accident would naturally lead to a one-time examination
of this fitment on all locomotives of this series on a pit by maintenance staff;
a top Railway Board executive, however, passed a laughable instruction that
this aspect be examined by Loco Pilots while taking over charge and even during halts, never mind that a
routine check by a Loco Pilot can hardly detect a failure of fabrication, or
weld, and it would unnecessarily stress them out. So much for knee jerk.
Such accidents strengthen a case of introduction of more
train sets in large numbers as they are certainly safer.
I
did cover these aspects in two successive shows on the YouTube channel News
Station in Hindi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M2BBXmkadQ&t=6s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92NniLP0jKA&t=536s
I was preparing to supplement this by writing a blog when I received a write-up from an American friend, Prakash Tendulkar, who is not only very knowledgeable about railroads but also takes a keen interest in the goings on in IR. It covered everything so nicely that I am sparing myself the effort, I will simply share his wisdom, which he has gracefully permitted me to use, and I reproduce verbatim:
This tragedy is being blamed on the detachment of a traction motor from the WAP-4 loco. Although such incidents are rare, this event is unique due to the # of casualties.
About five years ago, another WAP-4 TN got detached as the train was starting. Due to low speed, only a few feet of track and one point was damaged. https://tinyurl.com/26e4f2jz
If you follow Twitter, someone had posted a video clip of this train passing over the crossing gate before the derailment occurred. You can see that the road surface at the crossing received scratches during the passage of this train.
It was recorded by a CCTV camera whose footage is analyzed always after the bad incident has taken place. https://t.co/hy59mhhcom
A couch potato at Rail Bhavan who happens to be ED(RS)?? has issued a notice that LP should check for TMs when taking over a loco, either at a trip shed or at a station en route. Matter closed for this Babu.
Any railway professional can attribute detachment of TM to either a manufacturing or design defect or shoddy maintenance practices. Why place the ball in the court of Loco Pilot? It happens because there is no one to defend him in the chain of command.
Try this in the US and their union, Brotherhood of Loco Engineers and Trainmen (BLET) will file a court case against the authority who issues this notice, whether it is by an individual railroad, AAR, or FRA. If I search the NTSB database, I find at least two cases in the 1990s, both related to SEPTA and attributed to shoddy maintenance practices. The report says:
The National Transportation Safety Board's investigation into this accident involved inspection of similar SEPTA commuter rail equipment after the accident. Traction motor support systems were inspected on 19 other cars in SEPTA'S fleet. Of the 76 traction motors on these 19 passenger cars, 27 traction moto support systems were found to have improper installations of the vertical support bolt and its locking nut and cotter pin assembly. https://tinyurl.com/cu679n67
I am sure IR has all the info about such events but it is all shrouded under the cover of secrecy, Confidential that is. Although IR has many talented officers, the promotion system has so many flaws that a mediocre officer can reach the Apex body. A good example was observed lately when the MoR sent a board member packing due to his lack of knowledge of his departmental function.
This very same person was shunted out from DRM/BB-VT to Salem in SWR. After that, his track record was ‘clean’ due to procedural defects and he climbed to the apex body smoothly.
Seven years ago, a local train derailed at Andheri after one of the axles broke. This axle was removed, reworked, and tested using ultrasound only a few months earlier at Parel workshop. My friend in IR commented, someone just signed the test report without testing it. Thumb-Master Zindabad. I believe MoR needs a large fly swatter to clean up couch potatoes and Thumb-masters.
Dear Sudhanshu,
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Having worked in ICF for more than three years, I am upset that the coaches are referred to as "ICF Coaches"
Shri Akhileshwar Sahay, an IRAS officer has even used the term "Killer ICF Coaches". In fact so called ICF coaches were manufactured in RCF also.
Under your able guidance ICF has switched over to LHB.
To prevent climbing it was proposed to retro fit the existing ICF design coaches with CBCs.
In fact the Chennai - Thiruvanantha puram Mai was retro fitted, but there were complaints of Jerks.
A "balanced type "of CBC was also developed.
Different makes of couplers were tried out and only one make passed the tests.
I understand that the retro fitment has been given up.
The other problem is that the ICF bogie gets detached from the body.
When the ICF coaches were evaluated for 130 km speed,lateral dampers fitted between the bogie and body were tried out.However, it was decided to fit lateral dampers within the bogie.
Dear sir, all you state is correct. The crescendo which has built up, just as in the past when such an accident took place, runs down ICF type coaches calling them coffins on wheels. This is an exaggeration as this type of coaches have served the country well since 1950s. As for retrofitment, it turned out that it was not the best bang for the buck. The solution today lies in manufacturing 9000 coaches per year, which is not difficult and replace as many ICF coaches, say another 24000 by 2025 end...
DeleteSir Just a request. Instead of introducing as a retired rail professional, call yourself as a REATTIRED rail professional as this is your calling. Ofcourse Galib and Shakespeare is also in your blood and in your DNA. Age is just a number and as long as your faculties are working and you have the enthusiasm to share your viewpoints, please continue these posts.
ReplyDeleteReattired! I like that, thanks
DeleteWorld over Railways have implemented EN50126 RAMS structure for all assets. All Metros also follow this.
ReplyDeleteNoted...the safety record of IR is not so bad, what is needed is some positive actions to improve further
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sudhanshu. The safety record of IR is not bad at all, though incidents like traction motors getting detached smack of basic incompetence. In my years in IR, I never heard of a traction motor getting detached and falling down (including electrical and diesels). Silly comments like asking loco pilots to check this makes it even more causal an approach. In the meanwhile, thumb masters, zindabad!
ReplyDeleteRetro fitting with CBCs is such an obvious thing to do; it takes the greatness of some railway men to defer it.
Thanks for your comments, sir....
Delete