diff --git a/scripts/train/train.py b/scripts/train/train.py
index 34c16dfea1..66e369cad0 100644
--- a/scripts/train/train.py
+++ b/scripts/train/train.py
@@ -114,6 +114,22 @@ def validate_config(cfg: DictConfig):
                 f'MoEs with expert parallelism (moe_world_size {moe_world_size} > 1) require `use_orig_params=True`.'
             )
 
+def _initialize_gloo_and_nccl(dist_timeout: Union[int, float]):
+    # First, initialize with a gloo process group and test a barrier
+    log.debug('Initializing dist with cpu...')
+    dist.initialize_dist('cpu', timeout=dist_timeout)
+    log.debug('Testing barrier with cpu...')
+    dist.barrier()
+    log.debug('Barrier test passed with cpu. Destroying process group...')
+    tdist.destroy_process_group()
+    log.debug('Process group destroyed.')
+
+    # Now, initialize with the correct device
+    log.debug('Initializing dist with device...')
+    dist.initialize_dist(get_device(None), timeout=dist_timeout)
+    log.debug('Testing barrier with device...')
+    dist.barrier()
+    log.debug('Barrier test passed with device.')
 
 def main(cfg: DictConfig) -> Trainer:
     # Run user provided code if specified
@@ -188,21 +204,11 @@ def main(cfg: DictConfig) -> Trainer:
         logging.getLogger(__name__).setLevel(
             python_log_level.upper())  # Train script
 
-    # First, initialize with a gloo process group and test a barrier
-    log.debug('Initializing dist with cpu...')
-    dist.initialize_dist('cpu', timeout=dist_timeout)
-    log.debug('Testing barrier with cpu...')
-    dist.barrier()
-    log.debug('Barrier test passed with cpu. Destroying process group...')
-    tdist.destroy_process_group()
-    log.debug('Process group destroyed.')
+    # We have experienced an issue where the first barrier with NCCL does not timeout properly,
+    # and can hang forever if something is wrong. To attempt to mitigate this, we will first
+    # initialize with a gloo process group and test a barrier, then destroy the process group
 
-    # Now, initialize with the correct device
-    log.debug('Initializing dist with device...')
-    dist.initialize_dist(get_device(None), timeout=dist_timeout)
-    log.debug('Testing barrier with device...')
-    dist.barrier()
-    log.debug('Barrier test passed with device.')
+    _initialize_gloo_and_nccl(dist_timeout=dist_timeout)
 
     # Get global and device batch size information from distributed/single node setting
     cfg = update_batch_size_info(cfg)