Crack in wheel halts train near Manmad; no injuries

The wheel broke owing to high contact stress, railway officials said

A major mishap was averted after a holiday special train from Barauni in Bihar was halted near Manmad when one of its wheels broke midway while on the run. The train, on the way to Lokmanya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai, was stopped immediately without injuries to any passenger but the incident caused delays on the line. Following passenger complaints on Twitter, railway teams from the Bhusawal division distributed biscuit packets and fresh food to the commuters who were stranded for close to three hours.

The incident occurred between Pimar Khed and Nandgaon stations in Bhusawal division of Central Railway at around 8:20 am on Sunday. After halting the train, the guard found the second rear wheel of one of the coaches broken. The train was then split to remove the coach with the broken wheel and the section was cleared by 11:55 am. Passengers in the coach were asked to shift to a new coach.

Wheel fatigue responsible

Railway officials said that prima facie this looked like a case of wheel fatigue and further investigation on the movement of that particular coach is on. A senior official said that rail wheels are subjected to high contact stresses of alternating magnitude due to the constant rolling action under load.

However, commuters had a harried time on board the train with no updates regarding the delay. Seafarer Reetu Raj, who had tweeted about the confusion, later thanked the railways for distributing food and biscuit packets after his tweet. "We were on the train and the wheel of boogie no B15 had broken off and for two hours there were no updates from the TTE on board or guard on duty. There were kids on the train and there was no pantry," he had tweeted, tagging Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal. The tweet received a prompt response.

Railway officials said that the delay occurred because the breakdown van had to be ordered from Manmad station after which action of separating the rail coaches could be undertaken. The detached coach with a broken wheel was sent to Nandgaon yard and the train arrived in Mumbai.

3 hrs
Approximate time it took for the railways to clear the route

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