Engine chugs along for 10 km before driver realises rest of train is missing

Passengers on board the Visakha Express going from Bhubaneswar to Hyderabad were left bemused on Monday when their train came to a sudden halt in the middle of nowhere. While unexpected stops are not uncommon on India's busy rail network, they discovered that the reason they had stopped was quite simply — the train had no engine.

The bizarre incident occurred when the engine of the Visakha Express got detached from the coaches due to damaged link rods. While the engine continued chugging along for around 10 km before the driver realised that there was nothing behind him, the coaches came to a standstill once the momentum died — between Narsipatnam station and Tuni station. When some of the passengers got out to investigate, they were shocked to find their train had no engine. Railway authorities were then contacted.

Meanwhile, the driver of the train returned to recover his lost flock, now accompanied by coach technicians who fixed the problem for the train to travel as a whole unit.

Visakha Express had left from Bhubaneswar at around 4.30 pm and the incident took place at around 6 pm. Following the mishap, several trains on the same route suffered either a change in departure schedule or ran late. Rail authorities have launched an investigation into the incident.