Yes it is a very very crucial question and it must comes into a passengers mind when they travel in trains through these areas.
As a Railway
man I am try to clear your questions step by step in simple manner, stay with
me till the end of my article. Hope I will able to clear your all doubts. If
anything if in you mind please comment me.
All the
Railway tracks laid in various parts of India are maintained by the Permanent
Way Department of Indian Railways.
It is also
called engineering department. It is one of the largest department of Indian
railway. There duty is to ensure the safety of track at any cost.
Indian
Railways are divides into zones and then zones divides into divisions.All the
fragmentation done for the smooth operation of Indian Railways.
The total
track of a division is divided into smaller sections. Every section is
maintained by a group of track men. Track men are the ground level soldier of
Indian Railways.
A particular
portion of the track is regularly inspected by a PWI (Permanent Way Inspector)
through a system named by push trolley or by motor trolley.
Deficiency
portions of the track are identified and maintenance work is scheduled as per
the sequence. Here are pictures of the trolley on Railway track during
inspection and track men working on the line.
Another type of inspection job done by a designated
railway employee named “key man”. They work in a length of about 6 to 8 km of
the railway track as per their posting area in a single line. In double line,
their working jurisdiction is lesser from the single line.
They check every portion of the track of their
jurisdiction. In double line the system, they walk on track into the opposite
direction of the train. Such as, in up direction line they walking in down
direction and vice versa for down direction line.
This system has adopted for their safety. Here is a pic
of key man during an inspection of the track. As train will comes from the
front side only and key man will notice and will move aside from railway track.
You can see the signal in image and key man walk along with railway track.
In winter’s and during summers a special drive of track inspection
starts. It is called “cold weather patrolling” and “hot weather patrolling”. In
this system key man/men start from a station with a book named hot/cold weather
patrolling book from SM of a station.
Simultaneously
another key man/mans starting from the station in advance to the opposite
direction. They met at a point and exchange their patrolling book with each
other after noting time and signature.
Again they
start in reverse and reach starting station and handover that patrolling book
to SM. This type of patrolling done throughout the extreme hot/cold situation
in a year.
Here is a
picture of track man during hot weather patrolling showing his identity
Permanent speed restrictions are imposed where the landslides occur
frequently. In jungles area where there are animal crossings, there also
permanent speed restrictions imposed.
Nowadays
Railways have started making most of the railways track under the automatic
signalling system. In automatic signalling system all the route length of track
are comes under track circuit system.
In this
system, if anything goes wrong to happen with the railway track, the signal
automatically turns to red. It including fracture of railway track, stone or
trees fallen on the railway track,etc. Those obstruction create a short circuit
in the ‘track circuit” system and signals turns into red. Train will stop after
see the red signal and thus any types of accident could be averted.
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