Northeast Frontier Railway installs hot axle box detectors

DIMAPUR — With an aim to detect incidences of hot axle in the running trains and alert the railway staff to take preventive measures, the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has installed as many as 16 hot box detectors (HBD) at strategic areas.

An update from NFR informed that such sensor-based devices have been installed at Kamakhya (2 HBDs), Guwahati (4), New Bongaigaon (1), Rangapara North (1), New Jalpaiguri (4) and Katihar (4).

The device had detected seven cases of hot axle on freight trains in 2020-21, nine in 2021-22, 14 in 2022-23 and one in 2023-24.

“Due to continuous movement of wheels of the coaches and wagons, ball bearing sometimes fails, which leads to increase in the temperature of axles. This is known as hot axle. There are different causes for the incidence of hot axle, which includes overloading, faulty condition of bearings and other causes,” read the update.

“As hot axle is a major concern in the railway safety, N. F. Railway is undertaking vigorous measures, including counselling of railway staffs and inter departmental co-ordination on safety standards to prevent punctuality loss in train operations besides safety,” it added.