Near miss on a Japanese line

[Welly]

I stumbled on this YouTube clip of a diesel loco being coupled to a broken down EMU in a station and someone forgot to apply the handbrakes on the EMU!

 

Fortunately disaster was averted.

 

Translated page here:

 

http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ja&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3FNR%3D1%26feature%3Dendscreen%26v%3DuylvUa_Dmf8

 

 

[beast66606]

The translations are amusing too !

[Dagworth]

Something fairly similar happened to me once resulting in a unit greasing the stops on platform one at Charing Cross. Splitting a pair of 4EPB units in the platform, I was driving from the London end cab of the country end unit. I'd put my key on and charged the brake pipe while holding the train still on the EP brake. Along came the shunter (a new starter and a little inexperienced) who lifted the pipe cocks on both units, split the pipes and multi jumper but didn't put the cocks back down on the London end unit, leaving that unit's brake pipe charged and its brakes off. Once the multi jumper is disconnected the EP brakes on that unit also release. The only thing holding it still is the buckeye coupling it to the unit I'm sat in. To split a buckeye you have to compress it and pull a lever/chain to release the jaw. The shunter called me to squeeze the coupling while he knelt to pull the lever. As I moved forward (towards the other unit and the stops) the coupling released, but the compression in the coupling and the brakes being released on the other unit meant that it rolled away from me and onto the stops. The shunter, had he been more experienced, should have dropped the cocks on that unit as soon as he saw it moving which would have exhausted the brake pipe and applied the brakes (well, he *should* have dropped them after splitting the pipes and before calling me forward)...

As it was I saw what was happening, threw my brakes into full, jumped out of my cab and ran to the other unit and dropped the cocks myself, by that time it had bounced back off the stops and was rolling back towards me!

I never heard anything from management about the incident, I guess no-one reported it but the stops which had previously been clean had grease marks on them for a long time afterwards.

 

Andi

[Metr0Land]

Reminds me of all those Japanese games shows Chris Tarrant used to introduce.

[cromptonnut]

I found it slightly odd that the two guys are hanging on to the buffers digging in their heels trying to stop the thing... did nobody think to try and open the cab door to access the controls and put the brakes on?

[Welly]

^^^

I thought exactly the same, how can a couple of 150 pound guys expect to stop an 80 odd tonne train? I suspect a lack of training and experience has come into this particular incident.

 

Out of curiousity, does Japan have an equivalent to our RAIB?

[dullsteamer]

The EMU hadn't failed, it was being loco-hauled back from the J-TREC (Tokyu) works after overhaul.

 

The Japanese equivalent to the RAIB is the Japan Transport Safety Board, which comes under the authority of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.

 

http://www.mlit.go.jp/jtsb/english.html

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[Xerces Fobe2]

When people use the Japanese Railways as an example of excellence,  I will show then this video!

 

XF

[Southernman46]

I trust there were the customary rounds of "Seppuku" after this........................................

[Pugsley]

 

I thought exactly the same, how can a couple of 150 pound guys expect to stop an 80 odd tonne train? I suspect a lack of training and experience has come into this particular incident.

It's a pretty instinctive move to make when something is rolling away from you that shouldn't be, having been in a similar situation myself. We came to the realisation that three of us weren't going to stop the 40 tonne buffet car a lot quicker than they did with that EMU though!

[trisonic]

"There is no right to speak with  others is like to hear of such a mouth."

 

 

Best, Pete.

[Welly]

I had a look at the railway statistics ( English Language natch ) and it looks very impressive - hardly any level crossing crashes in Japan for example! http://www.mlit.go.jp/jtsb/statistics_rail.html

 

Spot the amusing mistranslation - "Heavy leakage of dangerous objects"! when you scroll down!

 

Unfortunately the railway accident reports are in Japanese only.

 

By the way, I looked at several Japanese rail clips on YouTube and I ended up getting a Japanese language advertisment just before starting an English language video!

[Glorious NSE]

Got to say I didn't like the sight of the guy almost being dragged along by the runaway, with the loco chasing it just a few feet behind....

[jjb1970]

Japanese railways are operating at the limit of what is possible in my experience. We like to beat ourselves up in the UK imagining that our trains are dire compared to any number of other countries. I have to say that Japan is the only country I visit where I really do come home, look at our trains and think about why we can't just pay the Japanese to take over our railway network as it is the one railway that really does shame and embarrass us.