Railway staff exhibit courage, exemplary dedication

A train halted by chain pulling in the middle of a bridge 

Precarious Situation 

• Some miscreants resorted to Alarm Chain Pulling (ACP) 
• Anthyodya Express stops on Bridge No.553 at 3.10 pm 
• The bridge is located between Tanguturu and Singarayakonda section. 
• The train halted in the middle of bridge 
• It is mandatory to reach coach and reset ACP for restoring movement  
• There is no side path on bridge to walk up to and reach the coach

How Train Could Move On

Assistant Loco Pilot (ALP) R K Jha immediately started crawling from the loco underneath and the LHB coaches to reach the affected coach which was 10th from the loco.

He reached the affected coach, but he was unable to reset the ACP from inside the coach due to heavy crowd. Again, he immediately reached the under truck and closed the ACP by isolating COC available under the coach so that the train can be started. 

Presence of Mind

Even as the ACP was being reset, the guard arranged for a JCB which was available near the bridge on the ongoing works of new line construction.

After resetting the knob to facilitate normal movement of the train ALP got into the JCB and reached the ground

Amaravati: Exemplary performance with dedication to duty by Assistant Loco Pilot and other staff saved precious time of passengers and avoided consequential delay in train operations on the busy section. 

The incident happened on Sunday for Train No.22877 Howrah-Ernakulam Anthyodya Express running between Vijayawada and Renigunta section on South Central Railway.

Some miscreants resorted to Alarm Chain Pulling (ACP) and stopped the Anthyodya Express on Bridge No.553 at 15.10 hrs between Tanguturu and Singarayakonda section. 

It was mandatory to reach the coach and to reset the ACP for restoring the normal train movement.  There was no side path on the bridge to walk up to and reach the coach which was in the middle of bridge for resetting the knob to start back the train. 

There was no provision of vestibule facility to reach the coach from inside the train which had LHB General Second Class Coaches. 

Assessing the grave situation, the Assistant Loco Pilot (ALP) R K Jha immediately started crawling from the loco underneath and the LHB coaches to reach the affected coach which was 10th from the loco. 

He reached the affected coach but he was unable to reset the ACP from inside the coach due to heavy crowd. Again he immediately reached the under truck and closed the ACP by isolating COC available under the coach so that the train can be started. 

Meanwhile, the guard arranged for a JCB which was available near the bridge on the ongoing works of new line construction. After resetting the knob to facilitate normal movement of the train ALP got into the JCB and reached the ground. 

Later, the ALP and loco pilot started the train at 15.40 hrs. M Sridhar, loco pilot;  R K Jha, assistant loco pilot and R Viswanath, guard of the train of Renigunta depot were appreciated by Vijay Pratap Singh, Divisional Railway Manager, Guntakal Division, SCR for their dedication towards duty and efforts to resume the journey in a critical time within short period.