The Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express leaves Telo after regaining its bogies on Thursday. (Pankaj Singh)

Passengers of the New Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani Express had a close shave early on Thursday, when the engine of the train got detached from its dozen-odd bogies after passing through Gomoh junction, 32km from Bokaro city.

Railway sources claimed that the express, which normally runs at an average speed of 140kmph, had slowed down to a moderate pace because it was only 5km from Telo station, where a cabin man first spotted that the coaches were missing.

The train was on its way to the Orissa capital from Delhi and had passed Gomoh at 6.38am. Its scheduled arrival at Telo, 12km from Gomoh, is 20 minutes later.

Sources said the stationmaster asked the cabin man to show the green flag because Rajdhani doesn’t stop at Telo, but the latter only saw the engine approaching and red-flagged it to a halt.

Officials at Gomoh were informed and they rushed another engine to tow the decoupled bogies to Telo, where it was once again attached to the Rajdhani engine. The train left its unscheduled station at 7.20am, 24 minutes late.

Divisional railway manager of Dhanbad Sudhir Kumar confirmed the incident and said Rajdhani was delayed by around 40 minutes.

“The route is under Adra division and hence, they will conduct an inquiry on why and how the bogies got detached,” he said.

However, retired railway engineer of Dhanbad R.K.P. Singh said this wasn’t a unique case though bizarre. “There is a hook or socket to couple bogies to the engine. Sometimes, these couplings loosen or even break down if the train is moving fast,” he said.

On why the driver didn’t realise that the bogies were no longer attached to the engine, he said: “It is a mechanical error and the driver will take a few minutes to realise, but by that time express trains like Rajdhani and Shatabdi can ply a distance of several kilometres.”

According to Singh, maintenance staff are responsible for ensuring that the couplings are in shape before every journey. Loose ones need to be tightened and cracked ones need to be replaced.

“In this case, the couplings may have been left loose because the bogies were later attached again,” he said, adding that another train on the same track, even if several minutes behind, could have resulted in a fatal accident.