A pantograph breaks at Nagpur
by Alok Patel
It was fun time for the Nagpur station administration folks today. They seemed to make one goof up after another. They must have been thankful to have gotten back home in one piece.
The first goof-up of the day (that I know of) -- some trains running late... Howrah Pune Azad Hind Express too, is announced as arriving 15 minutes late... No big deal you say? Read on.
15.55 Azad Hind Express enters Nagpur Yard area with WAM-4 6P #21279 from Bhusawal.
15.56 Azad Hind Express crosses diamond crossing with pantograph down. Nothing unusual at all.
15.57 Driver raises pantograph, it goes up correctly, however, some problem crops up. The heavy pantograph topples towards the trailing cab with the current collector pan facing down, and short-circuits the OHE with the locomotive body. The loco trips.
Driver does not know this, tries to close the DJ again, loco again trips. This time driver looks at the pantograph and finds the panto broken! Loco has travelled some 15-20 metres from the diamond crossing and has stopped -- conveniently -- between two section isolators.
15.59 Driver radios problem to traction controller. The Azad Hind Exp. rake and loco were now blocking both Nagpur-Delhi lines from the Goods Yard and both Nagpur-Howrah Lines from the Passenger Yard as well as the Goods Yard. All Goods Yard movement to north and east blocked.
16.05 No sign of any action being taken. Train was standing dead in yard with curious passengers coming up to the loco to check what went wrong. Many passengers for Nagpur give up and get out. They walk to the nearest exit out of the station. I find out and rush to the 'scene'.
16.10 Only a couple of engineering staff arrive at the scene. Still no action being taken. Everyone is busy figuring out things even now ;-). Lots of discussion. No action.
16.15 More officials arrive at the scene creating proportionately more chaos. Everyone ordering others to do omething or the other. Nothing moving an inch. Some people are looking for discharge rods1 and more importantly, for people to carry the discharge rod to the site.
16.16 Meanwhile other officials are busy deciding which place the discharge rod is to be brought in from. Contractor on site offers his discharge rod (don't get ideas) but says there are no people to bring it to site. This unexpected element adds more confusion ;-).
16.18 A shunter is asked to come in. The Plan of Action now is that the loco may be restarted after removing the damaged pantograph on site and taking the train into the platform. Discharge rod still nowhere in sight.
16.19 A senior official asked to call up Control by his superior but is more interested in going to check the OHE at the diamond crossing so that he has material to make a report that everything there was OK.
16.20 Traction control asked to shut off the power supply to the OHE to that particular section. Driver displeased and afraid of what may happen afterwards ;-). Plan of Action now is to remove the collector and tie down the rest of the assembly, then run the loco to BSL as it is with the load!!! Lots of walking around the loco by the officials in the meantime. Contractor watching the fun with amusement.
16.25 Things start moving. A WDS-6 Shunter gets clearance and inches into the line. The much in demand discharge rod finally makes an appearence with three people from the station staff. They seemed to be the only ones who felt that the train should actually reach its destination as early as possible.
16.30 Discharge rod is quickly assembled and hooked up to the OHE after confirming that the OHE has been isolated and shut down. Shunter attached to front of the WAM-4.
16.32 Three people climb up on the roof of the loco and remove the collector pan of the broken panto, with all the finesse and the grace of a rhinoceros, and lower it into the cab. Their speed at removing the collector pan impressed me, though.
16.33 They then try to push the elbow of the panto further down so that it does not come into contact with the OHE under any circumstances. Doesn't budge. A more high-tech method is used after that -- someone manages to get a footing on the elbow of the pantograph, gets a hold on the contact wire of the catenary, and jumps up and down on the elbow ;-).
16.38 Even the high-tech method does not work, everyone gives up. The POA now is that panto arm is to be secured. Control is told to arrange for a replacement loco from several available at Nagpur. The damaged loco is to be detached. Line Clear obtained for platform. Discussion ensues over where the dead loco is to be kept!
16.40 Panto tied down, everyone gets off the rooftop of the loco. Passengers' faces angry. Looking for excuse to beat up someone. I try not to be that someone and so keep a low profile.
16.45 Discharge rod removed, staff climbs into locos, WDS-6 shunter blows horn, loco starts up slowly. Rake doesn't wanna budge... Oops! Dead WAM-4 brakes not released or isolated ;-)... Loco slowly moves with brake blocks screaming for mercy.
16.46 Loco brakes released, WDS-6 starts singing a throaty song, train starts towards platform finally at 5km/h. (I can walk along with it).
16.50 Train reaches platform, begins its 'inspection parade' with Deputy SS and other staff standing on the front of the short hood of the WDS-6 shunter loco. They seemed like they were all basking under the attention they were getting from everyone on the platform. Passengers on platform are left wondering what the hell is happenning. Some may even have thought it was a GM (General Manager) Special ;-).
16.55 Boy telling seemingly interested girl of what IR will be doing ("piche ka engine nikalenge phir doosra lagayenge aur phir gaadi chalegi" -- "the engine at rear will be removed; a new one brought in; and then the train will be off") Very perceptive indeed. He ought to have been employed instead of those dozen folks.
16.58 The WDS-6 reaches the starter. Shunter detached with dead loco.
17.07 WAM-4 #20647 from BSL moves in to take charge.
17.30 Newly installed starter on PF No. 2 line turns yellow for Azad Hind. What has now become the intermediate starter (the old starter) is still red.
17.39 Much the same scene. Everyone wondering why intermediate starter is still red. Driver asked by Control why he is not moving. Driver says signal not yellow. Control suddenly remembers something, intermediate signal turns yellow. Driver blasts horn, accelerates out of the platform.
Some people were saying that the driver may not have lowered panto in time at the diamond crossing and so the collector may have gotten stuck and broken. There may be trouble for him.
Others maintain it happened afterwards. The driver himself was at pains to assure everyone it wasn't his fault. It may not really be the driver's fault. He may have thought that the loco simply tripped. Happens sometimes. After two tries he did check the panto. That and the fact that he may not have got any OHE voltage in the gauges inside the cab. Besides there was no damage apparent to the OHE at the Diamond Crossing either.
Whatever else it may have been, it was certainly an interesting time watching the proceedings at the site.
Thursday 27 September 2007
A tribute to the Darjeeling Mail
by Joydeep Dutta
With Darjeeling Mail in the news I could not really hold back and decided to write something about the train which has a special place in my heart. Definitely the Darjeeling Mail is the train on which I have travelled the maximum number of times.
Like the Deccan Queen in the west the Darjeeling Mail has accquired a legendary status in the east. For me the Darjeeling Mail was the train that took me home on every vaccation and brought me back to my boarding school at the end of it. I guess in that sense I always loved 43UP while I wasn't very happy to be in 44DN. However the Darjeeling Mail had silently made a mark on my mind. I guess I have been travelling on this train from the early seventies when it was WP hauled. During those days the locomotive and the crew of New Jalpaiguri worked the mail till Rampurhat from where a Rampurhat loco and crew took it all the way to Sealdah. There is an old saying in North Bengal which I guess is still true. It says the following : New Jalpaiguri springs to life with the arrival of the Darjeeling Mail and sleeps with its departure in the evening. 19:15 in those eraly days was the famous time when the mail left Sealdah in the up direction and New Jalpaiguri in the down direction. From my home in the railway colony every evening as child I used to see the WP thrusting forward with the mail and the cab had a red glow followed by a string of lights which made an everlasting impression. Even during diesel days in the eighties when I was at home during the vacation I used to reliieously see the departure of the mail. At 19:15 hours one could hear the notch up sound of the WDM-2 and the within a few mninutes it rushed by with a string of ligths following it. The train was so popular that it was very difficult to get a reservation during any time of the year and there was a real fight among waitlisted passengers to get a berth. The TTE's really had a good time and made fortunes on the mail. Apart from catering to two slip coaches from Haldibari the mail also had two slip coaches for Katihar which was detached at Kumedpur. Though those slip coaches to Katihar were later abolished the mail continued to stop at Kumedpur and the small junction near Barsoi from where the line divergerd to Katihar.
The Darjeeling Mail is indeed a true Minister's train and all West Bengal VIP's visiting north bengal travel by it. In fact on one occasion I even had as my co-passenger in AC 2-tier the current Chief Minister of West Bengal. The Darjeeling Mail earlier used carry second class 2-tier coaches which were later abolished. Initially three first class coaches were the sole upper class segment of the mail and being a railway child I always travelled in them. However one of them was later replaced with AC Chair cars. The Ac Chair cars on the two rakes of the mail had names. They were called Kailash and Nandadevi and these two coaches belonged to NFR/NJP while the rest of the rake belonged to ER/SDAH. Though New Jalpaiguri is only a secondary maintainence depot for the Darjeeling Mail yet nearly complete primary maintainence schedule is carried out for the mail. In fact the railway staff and even the officers take at NJP take a special pride in the Darjeeling Mail though the train officially belongs to Sealdah. The staff in Sealdah is also equally proud and I guess the best idea to increase this pride is to have one rake of NFR and one rake of ER for the mail. In fact at the coaching depot at NJP the best spare coaches are kept for the mail. The depot also has spare name boards for the mail. The Darjeeling Mail departs from platform number 1 at New Jalpaiguri (this was earlier platform 3) and arrives on platform 2. The controllers give the mail the highest priority and if any down train arrives at NJP around the departure time of the mail it usually is made to wait till the mail departs. The top officials of NJP are present almost regularly during the departure of the mail.
However during the eighties the services of the mail deteriorated. In both directions it ran late and poor coaches were provided. The coaches were essentially the old coaches of another legend the Kalka-Mail. It also had a very low priority on the Howrah-Bardhamann chord which the mail joined from Dankuni. Most of the days it used to be overtaken by Kalka and Imperial Mail (Bombay Mail). It used have a WAM-1 to haul it to Bardhamann and then a WDM-2 of Bardhamann shed took it to NJP. The WAM1 gave a poor performance since in order to save the old traction motors the DEE of SDAH had instructed the drivers not to go beyond the 17th Notch and requested them to coast most of the time. Thus sometimes it took more that 3 hours to cover the distance of 107 kms. However in the mid-nineties with the introduction of the air-brake rake the Darjeeling Mail regained its old glory and its priority again went up and it started running on time. From 1995 it was also completely dieselized which for me was indeed a dream come true. It in fact has a very accident free record though in 1975 with a WP it plunged into the rear of a local train at Ultadanga (now called Bidhanagar Road). I am sure that I can tell a lot of stories about the mail which I will definitely do again though I will stop for today.
I remember a very curious incident while in high school. I was travelling with a friend who hails from North Bengal. Since we were travelling on a short notice we had no choice but to travel in second class general. It was the second one from the engine and the train was running before time and at 7:30 a.m. next morning we approached Rangapani the station just before NJP. While one crosses the outer-warner at Rangapani (the signalling at the time) there is a tight curve and the train leans into the curve and then enters Rangapani yard. As usual I was looking out of the window to see the driver in the cab. But suddenly I saw that the loco got detached from the train and sped off and luckily since the curve had 15 km/h restriction the Darjeeling Mail slowly came to a halt. The driver and the assistant recognised it much later and they were already at the NJP outer-warner. In fact it took two and a half hours for the loco to return and take the train at slow speed to NJP. We were lucky that we were slow on the curve or else who knows what would have happened. So our right time journey turned sour. I will continue later with some more stories of the Darjeeling Mail.
by Joydeep Dutta
With Darjeeling Mail in the news I could not really hold back and decided to write something about the train which has a special place in my heart. Definitely the Darjeeling Mail is the train on which I have travelled the maximum number of times.
Like the Deccan Queen in the west the Darjeeling Mail has accquired a legendary status in the east. For me the Darjeeling Mail was the train that took me home on every vaccation and brought me back to my boarding school at the end of it. I guess in that sense I always loved 43UP while I wasn't very happy to be in 44DN. However the Darjeeling Mail had silently made a mark on my mind. I guess I have been travelling on this train from the early seventies when it was WP hauled. During those days the locomotive and the crew of New Jalpaiguri worked the mail till Rampurhat from where a Rampurhat loco and crew took it all the way to Sealdah. There is an old saying in North Bengal which I guess is still true. It says the following : New Jalpaiguri springs to life with the arrival of the Darjeeling Mail and sleeps with its departure in the evening. 19:15 in those eraly days was the famous time when the mail left Sealdah in the up direction and New Jalpaiguri in the down direction. From my home in the railway colony every evening as child I used to see the WP thrusting forward with the mail and the cab had a red glow followed by a string of lights which made an everlasting impression. Even during diesel days in the eighties when I was at home during the vacation I used to reliieously see the departure of the mail. At 19:15 hours one could hear the notch up sound of the WDM-2 and the within a few mninutes it rushed by with a string of ligths following it. The train was so popular that it was very difficult to get a reservation during any time of the year and there was a real fight among waitlisted passengers to get a berth. The TTE's really had a good time and made fortunes on the mail. Apart from catering to two slip coaches from Haldibari the mail also had two slip coaches for Katihar which was detached at Kumedpur. Though those slip coaches to Katihar were later abolished the mail continued to stop at Kumedpur and the small junction near Barsoi from where the line divergerd to Katihar.
The Darjeeling Mail is indeed a true Minister's train and all West Bengal VIP's visiting north bengal travel by it. In fact on one occasion I even had as my co-passenger in AC 2-tier the current Chief Minister of West Bengal. The Darjeeling Mail earlier used carry second class 2-tier coaches which were later abolished. Initially three first class coaches were the sole upper class segment of the mail and being a railway child I always travelled in them. However one of them was later replaced with AC Chair cars. The Ac Chair cars on the two rakes of the mail had names. They were called Kailash and Nandadevi and these two coaches belonged to NFR/NJP while the rest of the rake belonged to ER/SDAH. Though New Jalpaiguri is only a secondary maintainence depot for the Darjeeling Mail yet nearly complete primary maintainence schedule is carried out for the mail. In fact the railway staff and even the officers take at NJP take a special pride in the Darjeeling Mail though the train officially belongs to Sealdah. The staff in Sealdah is also equally proud and I guess the best idea to increase this pride is to have one rake of NFR and one rake of ER for the mail. In fact at the coaching depot at NJP the best spare coaches are kept for the mail. The depot also has spare name boards for the mail. The Darjeeling Mail departs from platform number 1 at New Jalpaiguri (this was earlier platform 3) and arrives on platform 2. The controllers give the mail the highest priority and if any down train arrives at NJP around the departure time of the mail it usually is made to wait till the mail departs. The top officials of NJP are present almost regularly during the departure of the mail.
However during the eighties the services of the mail deteriorated. In both directions it ran late and poor coaches were provided. The coaches were essentially the old coaches of another legend the Kalka-Mail. It also had a very low priority on the Howrah-Bardhamann chord which the mail joined from Dankuni. Most of the days it used to be overtaken by Kalka and Imperial Mail (Bombay Mail). It used have a WAM-1 to haul it to Bardhamann and then a WDM-2 of Bardhamann shed took it to NJP. The WAM1 gave a poor performance since in order to save the old traction motors the DEE of SDAH had instructed the drivers not to go beyond the 17th Notch and requested them to coast most of the time. Thus sometimes it took more that 3 hours to cover the distance of 107 kms. However in the mid-nineties with the introduction of the air-brake rake the Darjeeling Mail regained its old glory and its priority again went up and it started running on time. From 1995 it was also completely dieselized which for me was indeed a dream come true. It in fact has a very accident free record though in 1975 with a WP it plunged into the rear of a local train at Ultadanga (now called Bidhanagar Road). I am sure that I can tell a lot of stories about the mail which I will definitely do again though I will stop for today.
I remember a very curious incident while in high school. I was travelling with a friend who hails from North Bengal. Since we were travelling on a short notice we had no choice but to travel in second class general. It was the second one from the engine and the train was running before time and at 7:30 a.m. next morning we approached Rangapani the station just before NJP. While one crosses the outer-warner at Rangapani (the signalling at the time) there is a tight curve and the train leans into the curve and then enters Rangapani yard. As usual I was looking out of the window to see the driver in the cab. But suddenly I saw that the loco got detached from the train and sped off and luckily since the curve had 15 km/h restriction the Darjeeling Mail slowly came to a halt. The driver and the assistant recognised it much later and they were already at the NJP outer-warner. In fact it took two and a half hours for the loco to return and take the train at slow speed to NJP. We were lucky that we were slow on the curve or else who knows what would have happened. So our right time journey turned sour. I will continue later with some more stories of the Darjeeling Mail.
Monday 10 September 2007
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