‘Mismatch’: train detained in Madurai

In a freak incident, Nagercoil-bound Kacheguda Weekly Express suffered over an hour detention here on Thursday as the loco pilot refused to board the locomotive citing “lack of training” to operate the particular type of engine.

After all the attempts made to find the right person for the locomotive failed, the railway authorities decided to find the right locomotive for the person, railway sources said.

However, by the time the train moved with the second locomotive, the train suffered a delay of 1.20 hours.

A railway official said that the crew booking officials had failed to take note of the type of locomotive that was hauling the express train and also to verify whether the loco pilot was trained to operate it.

The Kacheguda Express arrived at 3.28 p.m., as against its scheduled time of 3.15 p.m. A new team of running crew had to take over the locomotive operation to run the train up to Nagercoil. “The crew booking office used to keep the loco pilot ready around one hour before the arrival of the train. However, in this incident, it failed to look into finer details,” a union leader said. Later, as attempts failed, officials brought a locomotive that was available in the railway yard here in which the loco pilot was trained.

This locomotive was attached to the rake (along with the original engine) to haul the train that finally left at 4.50 p.m.