ALAPPUZHA: It was the signal operating panel flashing red due to ‘track circuit failure’ prevented a catastrophe when the Mangalore Express derailed recently, contrary to the claim of the Karukutty railway station master that he averted a major mishap.
It was found by the high level inquiry committee appointed by the Ministry of Railways to probe the reasons that led to the derailment of the Mangaluru Express. “Unable to clear the down line signal for Chennai Superfast Express, the station master informed the section traffic controller that the signal operating panel(equipment to detect the presence of a train on track) flashed red due to ‘track circuit failure’ and this train had to receive ‘by piloting’ (authorising the loco pilot to pass the signal in danger).
“If the outer signal had not suffered the glitch, the oncoming train would have rammed the derailed bogies of the Mangaluru Express which might have led to another catastrophe,” sources said.
Sources said the station master at Karukutty got to know about the accident only when the assistant loco pilot of the derailed train walked down the track and informed him. It was the detailed analysis of the ‘event logger’, similar to the black box in aircraft, which revealed that the ‘track circuit’ had snapped due to the impact of the derailment of the Mangaluru Express leading to the suspension of signals.
“The outer signal which is some 300m from the station flashed red and the loco pilots of Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram Superfast Express stopped the train there,” a source in the engineering section of the Southern Railways, told Express.
The statement given to the commission by assistant loco pilot R Madhusoodanan too concurred with the committee’s finding.
As per the event logger, the derailment of Mangaluru Express occurred at 2.13 am on August 28 and the Chennai-Thiruvananthapuram Superfast Express had left Chalakkudy station at 2.17 am. It passed the ‘Intermediate Block Signaling’ (IBS) point at Koratty by 2.20 am and reached Kurukutty outer signal at 2.24 am.