Railway Board flags lax investigation in spring and brake faults
Railway Board has called for a more thorough investigation in cases of faults after mechanical probes reported no defects while automated ones flagged issues. A letter to zonal railways sent out earlier this month noted that the “increasing number of Primary Spring failure and brake binding in coaches are a cause of serious concern.”
These automated alerts are generated by the On-line Monitoring of Rolling stock System (OMRS), which studies acoustics along a track to assess the health of rail equipment.
Lacunae has been found in the physical examination which follow Wheel Condition Monitor (WCM) alerts that generally lead to change to railway wheels after defects are established.
“While analysing failure reports of high OMRS alert value (> 350KN) of coaches, it is seen that some of the Railways report 'no defect found'. Similarly, in brake binding cases also, remarks of nothing found wrong is frequently observed,” the railway board said.
During brake binding cases, the train brakes do not revert to their original position after being deployed, this further damages the equipment of the train.
Noting that there needs to be a diligent study in such cases, the centre said that all coaching depots should be advised to do a proper and extensive investigation of high OMRS alert and brake binding cases.
According to the letter, if no defect has been observed at the primary/secondary depot in either OMRS alert or brake binding case, the coach should be inspected by senior railway officers personally to satisfy that complete investigation.
