Ghost train: secret revealed

Secret of train without driver .... revealed

Inside sources say that the engine which travelled without a driver was activated by a worker of a janashakthi yard who had no knowledge whatsoever about it. The driver and his assistant who was in charge of the L-type engine had parked it in the yard and had at 11.30 in the night handed over the key to the foreman who was on duty in that section. Later it had been activated with a key of the train which met with an accident in Alawwa some years back. 

 The said key had remained in the keyhole of the said engine. Any shunting engine which is parked after its work in the yard is checked daily to ascertain the condition of its brakes. Accordingly, in this instance too the engine had been and at the time had been close to midnight that day. As the night shift changes at that time, the workers of the yard had left for a tea-break and on returning they had found the engine missing. At that point the janashakthi foreman had given a phone call to the Maradana janashakthi yard and inquired whether an engine had come there. The reply was that there was no necessity for them of a shunting engine which then upset the workers compelled them to search for the missing engine.

Even the officer who was in charge of the signal post No. 750 which is found after passing the yard was not aware of the engine which left the yard towards Maradana from Fort. What railway trade unions point out is that if a train moves forward passing that traffic signals post, it is indicated by a red colour on the electric panel board in the post concerned. If such an incident takes place, it is possible to deviate the train from the route from the barrrier in front and it had been the custom to retain a person on duty for that purpose for some time. Even then, unionists point out that these workers are not found at these points during night.

Drivers emphasise the fact that there are 4 barriers at the end of the line from janashakthi to Fort railway station. If the controlling point was aware of this, it could have been possible to direct the said engine to one of those points. They further mentioned that there is not even one such buffer on the coastal line running down from Fort railway station.

Departmental sources mention that the reason for an opportunity of a prevention of any accidents was possible because only one train travelling towards Galle was used along the line on which this engine had proceeded.The brakes had failed to function on the occasion when the engine had thus strayed and it had been brought to a halt at Ratmalana only by manipulating the hand-brakes.

A three-member committee had been appointed by the General Manager of Railways to conduct an investigation on this issue; but the report was not handed over to him by yesterday (Dec 9). In the meantime, the driver of the engine, W. Sumanaratna and Assistant Driver R.A.D. Sunil were once more reinstated yesterday and trade unions say that they have been transferred to Maradana diesel yard.