RailEnquiry

In order to curtail failures of overhead equipment (OHE), which lead to crippling of train services, Central Railway (CR) launched an action plan earlier this year, which has led to a significant drop in such cases.
Authorities said that they increased the frequency of checks by three times, to detect any faults. Hand-held machines are also being used to identify faults and rectify them in the nick of time.
Explaining the procedure, the officer said that a laptop is used during the inspection and a software measures all the parameters in the OHE. The laptop fitted in the inspection train, alerts about any deviation in the parameters.
Further, structures that may pose harm to these equipment have also been removed. “As many as 243 structures that were redundant or corroded were removed between April and August 2012,” said a senior CR officer.
Twelve OHE failures were reported from April to August this year, while the figures during the same period in the previous year were 14. Officers said that since July, there have been no major failures reported due to the action plan. According to officials, the possibility of failures has increased in the suburban section due to large number of crossovers, where trains interchange tracks.
“Possibilities of OHE failures increase due to improper adjustment at crossovers. We frequently keep a check at the crossovers to avoid any failures,” added the officer.
Sources pointed out that many stone throwing incidents have also resulted in the tripping of the OHE. “Due to large number of foot overbridges and road overbridges, there are possibilities of miscreants throwing some objects below, which results in damage,” said the officer.