Guard on tracks, train starts rolling

KOLKATA: A train guard with South Eastern Railway (SER) S N Roy was nearly run over by the Howrah-Digha Superfast AC Express, which he was in charge of, on Friday. It was his presence of mind and the quick reaction of Railway Protection Force (RPF) constable Swarup Dutta that saved his life. While SER has ordered an inquiry into the incident, the RPF is considering felicitating Dutta for his effort.
The incident occurred around 11.30am, barely minutes after the train left Howrah. The driver suddenly noticed a drop in reservoir air pressure and applied brakes. Roy stepped out and detected a disconnected feed pipe between two coaches. Handing over his walkie-talkie to Dutta, Roy entered the space between the buffers and started re-connecting the pipes. It is yet to be ascertained whether he had informed the train driver.

The brake pipe was intact. The moment Roy reconnected the feed pipe, the reservoir pressure rose and the driver released the brakes. While Roy managed to climb on to the intact brake pipe, Dutta kept yelling over the walkie-talkie for the driver to stop the train. He then urged another RPF man on the train to pull the emergency chain.

The train finally came to a halt with the distinctive hiss associated with an emergency chain-pull. Roy then got off the brake pipe. Due to the trauma he suffered, he was replaced by another guard before the train left for Digha.

“An inquiry panel will probe whether the driver was aware of the guard’s position when he restarted the train,” SER CPRO Sanjoy Ghosh said.