Lower Parel derailment: Uneven buffers may be to blame

Initial inspections into the derailment of one empty coach at Lower Parel have led Western Railway (WR) officials to believe that the buffers might have been at fault for the incident. Senior officials suspect that the buffers that hold two coaches together were not compatible and that there is a high likelihood of them not being fixed tightly due to a high difference in their circumference.

At around 2:18 am on Tuesday morning, the 13-coach train carrying various supplies headed out from the Lower Parel workshop and was travelling towards the yard. After crossing a certain distance the second coach, which was a passenger train’s coach on the way to be scrapped, derailed at 2.20 am. This coach was dragged for a good 70 metres and crashed into some construction material that was dumped very close to the track causing it to capsize, after which it came careening to a halt.

Senior WR officials at the site said it seemed as if the buffer of the passenger coach that was to be scrapped climbed on top of the first one and derailed due to being hiked up at such a high angle. “If you have seen buffers, they are tightly fitted together and connect one coach to the other. The rule is that if the circumferences of these buffers have a difference of more than 75 mm, it is likely the buffer will climb on the other, causing it to derail. This is what we suspect happened,” said an official.