A broken air spring of a general coach of the Allapuzha-Dhanbad Express was replaced within 40 minutes at the Vijayawada Railway Station on Tuesday without the coach being detached from the train — a feat said to be carried out for the first time in South Central Railway (SCR) zone.
According to a release, a general service (GS) coach of the Allapuzha-Dhanbad Express sustained a deflated air spring while heading towards Dhanbad in Jharkhand.
Staff of Palakkad Division who noticed the defect restricted the train’s top speed to 60 kmph as a precautionary measure and alerted the Vijayawada Division officials.
Upon receiving the information, a mechanical team of Vijayawada Division swung into action and commenced repairs as soon as the train arrived at the city railway station at 12.30 p.m. on Tuesday.
To avoid further delay in the train schedule, the team took up the repair work without detaching the coach from the train and taking it to a pit line, which is a general practice.
Passengers of the coach were detrained and the mechanical team consisting of about 20 members swung into action. Within 40 minutes, the team was able to replace the air spring and rectify the defect, thus enabling the train to again ply at its top speed of 130 kmph on its onward journey.
Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer, Vijayawada Division, M. Ravi Kiran monitored the repair work. He said it is the first-ever en-route in-situ replacement of a broken air spring on a platform in South Central Railway.
Divisional Railway Manager Shivendra Mohan congratulated the engineering officials and the mechanical team for swiftly accomplishing the task.
