Train accident averted in UP, thanks to track heat detection device

Railway officials said the real-time alert was sent from the hot axle box detector at the Chunar station

New Delhi: An alert from an automated track device averted a train accident in Uttar Pradesh’s Mirzapur as it warned officials of a hot wheel axle in a Seemanchal Express coach when it crossed over the heat detection equipment.

Railway officials said the real-time alert was sent from the hot axle box detector at the Chunar station. “When the train (going to Delhi from Jogbani in Bihar) was crossing the station around 10 am on Saturday, very high temperature in the wheel axle of sleeper coach number S-3 was detected,” North Central Railway Chief Public Relation Officer Shashi Kant Tripathi said.

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“The train was stopped at the next station, Jigna, and the coach was detached from the train after moving passengers in other coaches,” he said and added that when the Seemanchal Express reached Prayagraj, a new coach was attached. Officials said the train was delayed by five hours.

“At several points on the railway track, a device known as hot axle box detector is installed. It measures the temperature of axle and provides an alert. The device fitted at the Chunar station provided a timely alert and corrective action was taken,” Chand Mohammed, National Working President, All India Railway Track Maintainers Union, said.