East Central Railway issues advisory, asks loco pilots not to leave engine unmanned

The chief electrical loco engineer of East Central Railway asked to strictly implement General Rule 4.61 (Reuters)

The East Central Railway has issued an advisory after the June 20 incident when train no 05497 (Narkatiaganj – Gorakhpur Express) developed some snag on a rail bridge and earned monetary rewards. The advisory issued asked concerned departments to counsel train drivers to not to leave engines unmanned under any given condition.

What happened on June 20?

In the June 20 incident, both driver and the assistant driver got out of the engine, went along the edge of the bridge in order to reach at the spot that developed snag and caused leakage in air pressure. Not only this, but they themselves fixed the fault and then only made sure to start off the train.

This incident not only earned them acknowledgement as the video went viral but also earned them a monetary award from the department. As the video went viral, the divisional railway manager issued a written acknowledgement for them the same day. He further said that the crew showed indomitable courage to fix the problem of drop of pressure of the engine and awarded Rs 10,000 each.

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Why advisory?

The railway after five days of this incident issued the advisory on June 25 only to make sure that the same does not get repeated. The chief electrical loco engineer of East Central Railway asked to strictly implement General Rule 4.61 which sats that in any condition loco pilots cannot leave the engine unattended during the duty hours.

It further said that if in case the train develops any fault and stops at a place where the driver is unable to reach the defective spot to repair it, the driver can discuss the same with the concerned officer and ask for the availability of another locomotive to assist and resolve the problem.

(with inputs from PTI)