The derailment of a local train of the Central Railway (CR) on Sunday evening seems to have been caused due to overheating of the wheel bearing. At around 8.55 p.m. one wheel of a coach went off the tracks near Kurla station affecting services for over two hours.
Senior railway officials said that the problem was detected a little before Vidyavihar station when staff had observed smoke emanating from the faulty wheel. “The train was scheduled to be terminated at Kurla, where passengers would have been asked to deboard,” an official said. The train was running with a speed restriction from Vidyavihar to Kurla.
Officials also said that Kurla was chosen for a host of reasons. “The station is much larger than Vidyavihar and would have been able to accommodate the additional rush that would have deboarded. Moreover, commuters would have been able to board slow and fast locals as well as harbour line trains. Kurla also has a loop line, by which we could reverse the train to take it to the car shed,” an official said.
The slow local was originally bound to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) from Kalyan. The train was to be terminated at platform number 3 at Kurla station, when the wheel got locked barely 100 meters from the station.
The issue was rectified only by 10.40 p.m. affecting train services on the slow corridor for over two hours. CR had diverted all slow services on the fast corridor at Vidyavihar and rerouted them to the slow corridor at Matunga during the period. Services ran nearly 30 minutes late due to the same.
While overheating seems to be the prima facie cause, officials said that they were inquiring into why it occurred. Overheating of bearings can be caused due to many reasons such as added friction owing to a lack of lubrication or an external particle the system during the course of the journey.