Page 21 - Seniors Today - April Issue

First Person
Derailed Train,
Edgeless Strain,
Endless Pain
It happened in 1995. Although there is mention of the incident on the
internet, not much is known. A first-person account by S P Khade
Rejuvenation after a railway accident
is tough and a sequel of accidents is
devastating. Sequel will be re-collapsing
of a house during rebuilding, enforced
by disasters. I recall one derailment in
Khandala ghat which brought multifarious
rotten luck, manifesting that misfortunes
never come alone. Each catastrophe led
to a severe affliction. Before a blow was
downsized, another hit from nowhere.
A train ascending a ghat is pushed from
behind by a banking engine which is
attached at the foot of the ghat, Karjat or
Kasara. This additional engine is an escort,
a guarantee for the arrival of a full train
at Lonavala or Igatpuri. Parting of a train
without banker will leave some dead,
departed souls!
The job of working of trains in ghat needs
skills and is done by those who know their
onions. Working a train by two locomotives
and two drivers is as difficult to imagine
as its operation itself. A back seat driver in
road vehicles is a nuisance but for banking,
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #22 | APRIL 2021
a great assistance. From their cabs at either
end, the two drivers can neither talk or
rock nor see or plea. The festoons of hose
pipes running from one end to the other,
provide a continuity. The destruction of
the air or vacuum is not only for braking
but conveys a message of braking. The
drivers remain vigilant like soldiers at
borders and keep watch on the gauges. The S Kumar
actions of the drivers are facilitated to be
synchronous, through gestures, as they call
in choreography, by gauges. A dance of two
dancers with light and wooden on foot will
sound banal but bad synchronism of drivers
for the trains will be fatal.
An express train left Karjat. There are
three lines in the ghat section. The train
was signalled to move on the bidirectional
middle line. Near Jambrung, the tunnel for
this line is exclusive, other two lines have
their exclusive alignments too. The front
portion of the train derailed near Jambrung.
The rear driver continued to push the train,
smashing a few coaches completely. Bad luck
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