Troubleshooting faults in air brake system en-route:
The major problems noticed in the air brake system are BP punctured / Hose burst, FP punctured / Hose burst, AR pipeline punctured or damaged, Malfunctioning of DV, Malfunctioning of PEAS.
BP punctured / Hose burst:
- In case of the single pipe system, if brake pipe is punctured the brakes get applied to the full formation. The affected wagon should be detached from the formation.
- In case of twin pipe system, if the brake pipe is punctured, the brake pipe of the affected coach can be bypassed without detaching the coach by connecting the FP of the affected coach with the BP of the adjacent coach.
- A specially made intermediate coupling made by welding the FP and BP palm ends together is available to establish these connections.
FP punctured / Hose burst:
The train has to be run with single pipe system isolating the FP pipe from the first coach itself.
AR pipeline punctured or damaged:
If the branch pipe between the FP and AR is punctured, the Isolating cock provided on the branch pipe of FP of the particular coach can be isolated and that particular coach will work on single pipe system. If the branch pipe between the common pipe bracket and AR is punctured, both the isolating cocks on the BP and FP branch and also the DV to be isolated and the particular coach will not have brake power, this has to be endorsed on the BPC.
Malfunctioning of DV:
DV to be isolated and ensure the brakes are released. It has to be endorsed in BPC.
Malfunctioning of PEAS:
In the case of leakage through PEAV, if the leakage is not arrested even after resetting the PEASD, isolate the cock provided between the BP pipe and the PEAV.