In our country, we frequently hear about rail accidents and sometimes even of trains getting derailed. But have you ever wondered if applying emergency brakes in a situation may cause derailment? Users on Quora are curious to know. So, let us know what an engineer from the Indian Railways has to say.
Many people believe that applying emergency brakes could cause a train to derail, which is a misconception, according to railway officials. Animesh Kumar Sinha, an engineer in the Indian Railways said, “There is a misconception among the general public that hitting the emergency brake derails the train.” He explained that there is a whole mechanism for stopping a train and how it can be done. The brakes are installed on each side of the train, attached to the locomotive from its first to last compartment. The brakes start functioning when the air pressure within the gas cylinder reaches the highest point. However, even after the brakes are applied it takes a while for it to start.
Now what happens when you have applied the brakes? During emergency brake application, every wheel attached to the compartments experiences a very high braking force, which remains constant for each wheel. This means, that the pressure on each wheel remains the same. Because of this, the train is able to halt immediately. The LHB Maintenance Manual published by the Ministry of Railway states that there’s no possibility of train derailment during emergency brakes.
Another question arises is that why a train stops at a short distance after the emergency brakes are applied. When the driver applies the brakes, the signal reaches the first compartment before the engine. It then goes to the second, and third and finally reaches the last compartment. For comparison, a normal brake takes around 10 seconds to reach the last or the 24th compartment, while an emergency brake takes around 4 seconds. If a train is moving at a speed of 110 kilometres per hour, it will stop before 260 meters after emergency brakes are applied.
Comments
0 comment