JR West continues with fall-prevention wings

[miyakoji]

JR West presses on with adding fall preventers to various models, namely 221, 223, and 225 series.  I'd be interested to know how long it will take to fit the whole fleet.  My impression is that it's slow going, but I'm not sure.

 

227 and later subseries 521s have them from the factory, presumably 323 series will too.

December 8 news item about 221 series: http://railf.jp/news/2015/12/10/170000.html
December 4 news item about 225 series: http://railf.jp/news/2015/12/05/204500.html
July 31 news item about 223-0 series: http://railf.jp/news/2015/08/01/205000.html
July 9 news item about 223-6000 series: http://railf.jp/news/2015/07/11/210000.html
 

 

223-2000 at Shin-Osaka:

 

221 out of service on its way back to Kansai from Shimonoseki:

[Sacto1985]

Isn't it an awful long distance for JR West to send a 221 Series trainset for an upgrade program? Kyoto to Shimonoseki is a pretty long trip even if your trainset can go 130 km/h.

[ozman2009]

Please, what are fall preventers?

[kvp]

Those ugly blinkers installed on the front of sets that can be run coupled so people won't fall between the cars from the platforms. Platform doors serve a similar puropse. Personally i think if they must add them, then at least they should be removable/foldable when not in use.

[miyakoji]

Isn't it an awful long distance for JR West to send a 221 Series trainset for an upgrade program? Kyoto to Shimonoseki is a pretty long trip even if your trainset can go 130 km/h.

I was thinking that too.  It's not clear from the article if this one got just the wings or the general refurb also.  The undercarriage looks like it might be clean, maybe it got the works :).  The 221 refurbishment program actually started a while ago, it might be done by now.  Here's a formation that returned to service January 11 2013: http://railf.jp/news/2013/01/13/073000.html .  It says that it was done at Suita.

[velotrain]

. . .  then at least they should be removable/foldable when not in use.

 

Foldable is one thing, but removable would not work.  Where would they be stored, and whose job would it be to remember they need to be re-attached when necessary?  That's still an issue with foldable.  I don't think their displeasing you visually is enough reason for JR West to modify the program.

[bikkuri bahn]

I'm waiting for the inevitable "so when is Kato/Tomix/Microace coming out with those to add to my collection?"....or not.... :)

[katoftw]

I would go with not.  I'll be buying "before" a Kato/Tomix to an update.  But I doubt they'll be added.  They don't include mirrors.  So doubt these wings will make it onto future models.

[miyakoji]

Tomix is doing a 227 series in N gauge in March 2016, so we shall find out.  One the one hand, accuracy requires that they include them; on the other hand, it'll look way better without them

[kvp]

Foldable is one thing, but removable would not work.  Where would they be stored, and whose job would it be to remember they need to be re-attached when necessary?  That's still an issue with foldable.  I don't think their displeasing you visually is enough reason for JR West to modify the program.

It could work the same way as the gangways. They have to be manually attached. For foldable, i would connect them to the couplers, so when they are engaged, the blinkers would fold out. (i know the new york city elevated trains have them out all the time too, but it doesn't make them prettier)

 

Ps: Is the number of fall between accidents was so high that they are needed?

[SuRoNeFu 25-501]

Ps: Is the number of fall between accidents was so high that they are needed?

Well, there have been several accidents that caused JR West to enforce the usage of fall-prevention boards on front-end cars, including the one that triggered the enforcement (taken from the Japanese Wikipedia page of Maiko station):

 

"2010年12月17日、快速電車（姫路発米原行き、12両編成）から下車した直後の女性（32）が車両の連結部付近(詳細は下記を参考)でホームから線路に転落した。転落を目撃した他の乗客により、非常停止ボタンが押され、報知灯が作動していたと見られるが、当該電車の車掌は転落に気付かず列車はそのまま発車した。その後ハンカチを振って知らせる乗客に気付き、車掌は電車を非常停止させたが、電車は約50m走行した状態であった。その後電車にひかれた女性は死亡した。また、この際に救出しようとした友人の女性（28）が負傷した。"

 

which means:

 

"On December 17th 2010, a 32-year old woman that disembarks from 12-car rapid train from Himeji to Maibara at Maiko station fell into the track through a gap at the area around coupler. It subsequently attracts attention from other passengers, which immediately presses emergency stop button. However, while the emergency condition light activated, the conductor does not realize that there is something wrong (because he does not seen the emergency light itself), and the train began to depart right after he closes the door.

 

Just after the train began to move, the passengers informed the conductor by waving handkerchief, which makes him realized that there is an emergency condition. He subsequently performed emergency stop (by using emergency handle), and the train has been running about 50 meters when the trapped woman was found in dead condition. Her 28-year old friend (also a woman) was injured during the attempt to rescue her"

 

From the same page, it is found that:

 

"女性が転落した部分は、4両目と5両目の間の先頭車両同士が連結された部分であったため、通常の連結部に設置されている転落防止ガードは設置されていなかった。"

 

which simply means:

 

"The woman was fell at the space between two driving cars that does not equipped with fall-prevention board"

 

This condition was made worse by this fact:

 

"しかし、非常停止ボタンを押しても全ての報知灯が作動するわけではなく、押された非常ボタン付近の報知灯のみが作動する仕組みであり、車掌が報知灯の作動に気付かなかった。"

 

which literally says:

 

"When the emergency button was pressed, only the emergency light near the button that activated, and the conductor does not realized the activation of emergency light"

 

Due to this incident, JR West strictly enforces the usage of fall-prevention board on front-end cars. Also, trains that designed to run in tandem with other trains but not equipped with fall-prevention boards are required to turn on its headlight on the driving car when running as intermediate car (in a tandem formation), which is like in this photo:

 

Edited December 14, 2015 by SuRoNeFu 25-501

[JR 500系]

Interesting! Now I know why the headlights were left on!

 

However, doesn't that ever happen in the East? I mean:

 

 

No protection between cars nor headlights on, but no accidents. Kinda strange... Even if the headlights were on probably most people cant see it cause it's so high up on the E233... 

[kvp]

I see. The problem was with the emergency procedure and the lack of foreign object detection at stations. (like IR barriers) The solution is cheaper, but does not prevent many other types of accidents.

 

PS: Platform emergency buttons must cut traction power and drop all signals to stop. On board emergeny stop buttons must act the same as the driver's emergency brake notch and usually act as an all doors release lever.

[SuRoNeFu 25-501]

Interesting! Now I know why the headlights were left on!

 

However, doesn't that ever happen in the East? I mean:

 

 

No protection between cars nor headlights on, but no accidents. Kinda strange... Even if the headlights were on probably most people cant see it cause it's so high up on the E233... 

Well, it seems that East's protections are much stronger than in the West, but I don't know the exact reason why there are no accidents like the Maiko Incident (personally, I refer the tragedy that happened in Maiko station as "Maiko Incident" ) in JR East's territory. Perhaps it relates to how JR East's employees are trained for handling those situations...

 

OFF TOPIC: by the way, since the cab door is in open condition, one of the crew need to close it as soon as possible #justkidding

[velotrain]

"On December 17th 2010, a 32-year old woman that disembarks from 12-car rapid train from Himeji to Maibara at Maiko station fell into the track through a gap at the area around coupler."

 

This makes it sound like she walked along the train, very close to the track, for this to be able to happen as described - since the doors are not immediately adjacent to the gap between trainsets.  Perhaps she was distracted by being on a phone at the time.  If she had initially walked away from the train before walking along the platform, this wouldn't have happened. 

[katoftw]

I agree with Charles.  While it is a shame someone has dies.  The chances that of 240m worth of train, that someone can fall through the 40cm gap in the middle of the two 120m sections of train would have to fall more on the someone than the railway.  I think it is overkill to install fall preventors on all trains.  Probably due to the systems/procedures they have in place not correctly working as designed in the above news story.  They are hitting this hard to save face.

Edited December 14, 2015 by katoftw

[SuRoNeFu 25-501]

Perhaps she was distracted by being on a phone at the time.

I assume that she was having some important phone communications that causes her to be completely distracted. And since she was too close with the gap between platform and the train (which is beyond the safety lines), it means that she does not realize about what thing that she steps on.

 

When she steps on a part of platform near the gap between intermediate driving cars, perhaps she intended to stepping on the platform, but she instead moves her foot into the gap...

 

 

Probably due to the systems/procedures they have in place not correctly working as designed in the above news story.

Of course this is a very big shame for JR West. You can imagine what will happen if you're seeing an emergency condition in the station or along the tracks, but none of the employees realized it, even after you pressed the emergency stop button...

[Jcarlton]

It looks to me as it JRWest is doing a good job with the wings.  From long experience with them in the NYC area it's almost impossible to make them inconspicuous or hide them.

[kvp]

Metrowagonmash did manage it though. There are only 2+1 foldable hooks on each car end and you can add chains between them, but they mesh on their own too, creating a 3 point barrier without the added pieces.

Can you find them on this picture?