Sudden smoke emission from train near Basin Bridge triggers panic

Billows of smoke that suddenly poured out of an express train between Basin Bridge and Vyasarpadi here on Thursday evening triggered panic among passengers but Southern Railways dismissed the incident as a glitch in the Head on Generation HoG coupler, which feeds electrical power to the coaches, and said it was immediately addressed.

Billows of smoke that suddenly poured out of an express train between Basin Bridge and Vyasarpadi here on Thursday evening triggered panic among passengers but Southern Railways dismissed the incident as a glitch in the Head on Generation (HoG) coupler, which feeds electrical power to the coaches, and said it was immediately addressed. No one was injured in the incident. The problem was promptly attended to and the train resumed its journey, Southern Railway said. On seeing smoke emitting from behind the engine of the Lokmanya Tilak Express, passengers feared that the train might have caught fire and tried to get off the coaches and rush to safety. ''Smoke got emitted due to trouble in the HoG coupler. The same was attended to and the smoke has been stopped. Train resumed its journey,'' Southern Railways tweeted. ''It is hereby clarified that there was no fire involved,'' the railways said. ''HoG is an arrangement in a locomotive to generate power using traction,'' an official explained.

The HoG system facilitates the feeding of electrical power to the coaches for lighting and fans, directly from the Over Head Equipment (OHE) through the locomotive. The process eliminates the need for separate power car coaches.