Noticed something odd about the technical halts today.
1. The train halted at Dharakhoh, but on the mainline itself and *outside* of the calling on signal (i. e. before Dharakhoh). One of the LPs deboarded and inspected something behind the head engine.
2....
more... There was no halt at Maramjhiri to detach the bank locomotives, and the train picked up speed to 110 kmph right after crossing the final hillock after Maramjhiri and never stopped.
3. I went over to the middle of the train and patiently waited for it to negotiate a curve, and I saw that there were indeed no bank engines attached.
What happened? Given that the halt happened outside DHQ, I am doubtful there was any way to attach the bank engines. In any case, wouldn't they have to be detached at MJY?
I can only think of two things:
- There was some siding before the calling on signal at DHQ which I missed, where they snuck a pair of bank engines behind the train, and they weren't coupled and so were only acting like pushers, which slowed down and detached from the train automatically as it sped past MJY. This is so unlike standard operating procedure outside of shunting yards for goods trains that I'm fairly sure that's not it.
- There were no bank engines, and the halt was more of an inspection halt (though inspecting what?)
Have any of the rest of you recently traveled on this route? Have you noticed something similar for other trains?