The Hampi Express accident: What lessons can be learnt?
Sucheta Dalal 22 May 2012

The short-cut on single control cabins for WDP4 engines used on high-speed passenger trains is the real reason for the number of rail accidents and near misses

 

Veeresh Malik

By and large, accident enquiries of all sorts tend to place the blame on what is called “human error”, implying that almost everything is the fault of the people on the spot. This is usually the easiest way out, especially when the people involved are dead, and also a convenient way to close a file. But is it the truth, does it provide justice?

As the saying goes, truth and justice are usually distant cousins, and often not on talking terms with each other too. It is likely to be the same in the case of the Hampi Express case here—except for a few simple truths which are now known. And for a change, come with photographic evidence too.

The Hampi Express from Hubli via Hospet to Bangalore, which met with an accident off Penuconda in the wee hours of Tuesday (22 May 2012), was operating under the power of diesel loco WDP-4 number 40036 in LHF (Long Hood Forward) configuration. Here is a photo of this engine in better days, with its control cabin facing forward, in SHF (Short Hood Forward) configuration, the way it should be operated:

 

It is very easy, with hindsight, to draw conclusions. But it so happens that I was on the same sector, talking to loco drivers about the problems they face on this vital arterial link, between Secunderabad and Bangalore, and pretty much what one of them predicted has unfortunately happened.

 

There are multiple issues on this route:

 

1) Largely single track despite heavy traffic, not electrified as yet, and operating through as well as close to Naxalite territory—often with pilot engines preceding Rajdhani Express trains.
2) Huge amounts of plastic waste and garbage lining the tracks, causing lack of visibility as trains pelt past, and interference with signalling systems.
3) Heavy usage of the WDP-4 diesel engine on this sector, in “Long Hood Forward” (LHF) configuration, for passenger trains.
4) A very strong road bus lobby.

 

The first is not all that uncommon all over the rest of India, the second is made worse by the elongated dry season, and it is both these combined with the third which makes for a sure recipe for disaster. Here is a photo of a WDP-4 engine, operating in LHF:

 

 

Please try to imagine yourself in the position of the loco pilot here, in LHF configuration? And then think about the plastic waste. When trying to understand how plastic waste or wind behaves when a railway train pelts past at high speed, please try to see how this would impact you if you were driving through dusty conditions in a car with the front windows rolled up, but the rear window open. A strange effect takes place—the dust and any plastic lying on the road is often picked up, sucked in by the rear window, and then the whole lot sort of, dances inside the car. The dust gets in your eyes and the plastic sheets tend to float around, often settling down wherever it can—including on the windscreen, on your head, between your feet, or steering wheel.

 

This is what it is like for the locomotive pilot of a WDP4 travelling LHF on almost the same sector. See him sticking his head out; see the lack of decent forward vision, and the line of sight obscured by the huge ‘hump’ in LHF configuration? Or see it live, on video:

 

Imagine yourself driving a school bus, in reverse, with your head out of the window. Towing another 20-24 coaches. All controls facing the wrong way, Head out of the window all the time. At 90-120 kmph. To adjust any controls, answer calls on the walkie-talkie or phone, make entries in the log book, and everything else, you have to get up and go in, leaving the visibility part unattended. Typically, in a minute, your train is doing 1.5 to 2 kilometres. And there are well over 1,500-2,000 people whose lives depend on you.

This amazingly dangerous situation is because the big bosses in Indian Railways decided that they could save some money by placing only one control cabin on this class of diesel engines. Unlike in other high-speed or high-power modern engines where there is one control room on either end. Because railway engines can operate in both directions at the same speed. In fact, for better wear and tear, they should be operated in both directions.

Older diesel engines often had only one control cabin. But it was far better designed for ergonomics, did not have that huge ‘bulge’ in front that the WDP4 has, and most of all, was not expected to provide such high speeds. And electric engines have two control cabins, one on each end, for decades now.

 

But for the new modern WDP-4, in their wisdom, the authorities decided to put only one control cabin and at one end. And this, by the way, is the way the WDP-4 engine is supposed to be operated, with “short hood forward”.

 

 

Can you see the difference now?

 

Typically, a single control room engine would be operated as one half of a ‘mated’ pair, both engines connected LHF to LHF, thereby providing a control cabin in ‘front’, regardless of how the train operates. If operated as a single engine, it should be in SHF configuration. But for passenger trains, the authorities often break this rule, and operate with a single engine LHF.

Why?

Because they can and also because there is a shortage of engines, there is always an excuse that they could not turn the engine around because the turntables were unavailable, and because if the loco driver objects then there may be hell to pay. Especially as diesel engines and loco pilots are being replaced by electric engines and loco pilots. The diesel loco pilot, as a result, keeps quiet and accepts his fate.

It is another simple fact that in parts of eastern India, passengers refuse to let a train move if the WDP4 engine is operated in LHF configuration—they are known to force the authorities to get either a fresh engine in SHF configuration or they get the LHF turned around on a turntable.

Will the Hampi Express accident, which occurred with WDP4 engine number 40036 in LHF configuration, bring this simple basic common sense to the bosses in the Indian Railways?

(In my days, I have worked on some huge ships, under really stressful conditions. The WDP4 diesel engine in LHF configuration is something else, again—you have to board one to experience the stress the loco pilots must be going through.

 

Here’s where the road lobby comes in, when the roads outside are good and the commercial bosses in the Indian Railways are forcing high operational speeds on trains in this region.