Indonesian KRLs and Grids...

[Socimi]

 

Why Indonesian EMUs have those  grids on the front windows?

[kvp]

These grids were often used in europe in the past for safety. They are there to protect the drivers from flying objects, tree branches and anything that happen to be in the loading gauge and could hit the windshield at speed. A more classic variant is a screen made out of welded iron bars. Since then high strength safety glass and regular loading gauge checks are in use in europe, japan and northen america to avoid accidents. Indonesia (and other countries like India) still plays it safe and mandates safety bars or grids.

[ToniBabelony]

Kids throwing stones come to mind.

[velotrain]

They used to be known as "ghetto grills" in the US.

 

Here are Amtrak and MBTA versions.

 

 

 

 

[HantuBlauLOL]

vandalism (mainly throwing stone into train) rate is very high in Indonesia.

[velotrain]

Are they angry at the railway or government, or just don't have anything else to do with themselves?

 

[HantuBlauLOL]

usually kids did that, for childish reasons.

 

actually meshes were going to be replaced by stronger (bulletproof?) glasses. some U18 locomotives already had them.

Edited January 22, 2016 by HantuBlauLOL

[Socimi]

Thanks.

[kvp]

Afaik they may have come handy in case of the recent ACS-64 derailment in Philadelphia...

[SuRoNeFu 25-501]

The usage of anti-stone throwing nets is actually effective for reducing the number of drivers that must be downgraded from duty due to the blindness. This is because a number of employees of KAI Commuter Jabodetabek's parent company (PT Kereta Api Indonesia) in the past were actually former train drivers and driver assistants that downgraded from their position because they suffered blindness due to stone throwing. But sometimes, the stone being thrown by the kids is much smaller than the size of the net's hole itself, which means that there is still a risk for the windscreen to be broken by the stone.

 

actually meshes were going to be replaced by stronger (bulletproof?) glasses. some U18 locomotives already had them.

Balai Yasa Pengok did planned to replace all of the net on the locomotives with the stronger (maybe it is really bulletproof) glass, but a group of CC201 and CC203 locomotives overhauled in the 2014 were not receiving the glass. This is because there was a shortage of the glass when the overhaul was in progress, so the locomotive's nets are still retained while waiting for the next overhaul at Pengok...

[Fasubkhanali (Ali)]

Some locomotive in Indonesia use polycarbonate glass. So it's enough to not use grid

[velotrain]

Afaik they may have come handy in case of the recent ACS-64 derailment in Philadelphia...

 

I don't believe there was any confirmation of that.

 

IIRC, there were reports of stoning in the area, but nothing to indicate that was related to the accident.

[Socimi]

Damn stone-throwing kids.

 

I remember now that some italians loco had them back in the '50s, but they were used for a very limited time due to visibility concerns.

 

Today Plexiglass would come handy. 

 

Anyway, i found in internet an educational advertisment of LDZ (Latvijas dzelzceļš - Lativian National Railways) about stone-throwing.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZGKvx9RPH4

[SuRoNeFu 25-501]

KAI Commuter Jabodetabek once planned to remove all of the anti-stone nets and replacing the windscreen glass with the polycarbonate ones, but they couldn't doing it because of the fact that the front destination boards would not stick to the polycarbonate glass...

[Socimi]

In that cases the solutions are two:

 

1) you put the destination boards elsewere  (for example in-between the lights)

 

2) You buy a digital destination indicator.

[SuRoNeFu 25-501]

2) You buy a digital destination indicator.

This solution has been already considered for mass usage many years ago, but as usual, they are too lazy to implement it (and unfortunately they still let some of passengers to board the false train, since the colors are completely unified to save the cost for using different colored-bands. Even the destination boards still not solved the problem in proper ways)...

[HantuBlauLOL]

they should try different livery for different routes..

[velotrain]

and unfortunately they still let some of passengers to board the false train

 

Speaking of getting on the wrong train, I had an interesting experience while doing a bike tour in Spain a decade ago.

 

I got to the Aranjuez station, bought a couple of pastries for the train, and then had a cafe in the station cafeteria.  The train was due at 9:30 and perhaps 10 minutes before that a Regional Express train rolled in which I took to be the one for Jaen, but I should have been suspicious.  Unfortunately there were no "now arriving on track .... " announcements, so you’re left to your own devices.

 

Luckily the conductor arrived fairly soon and when I showed him my ticket for Jaen, he informed me that this was a train for Toledo (where I had started from at 6 AM).  As I was going through angst at having screwed up so badly and thinking I would need to get to Madrid and take the bus all the way to Cordoba after all, he got on the phone to the train crew.  He indicated to me that the train would be stopping (I had the sense it was not a scheduled stop) and I should get off and then go to the opposite platform and wait for the right train.  I found myself at the small Castillejo station and the agent asked me why I was there.  When he saw the ticket for Jaen he looked very concerned and immediately made a phone call.  I saw his head nod and suspected that the arrangement for the Jaen train to stop for me had already been made, although this was not a regular stop for it.  I kind of think I’m not the first person that this has happened to.  It’s very fortunate that the Toledo train uses the same line to Castillejo, which is the junction of the two lines, before splitting off.  My great thanks to Renfe for this rescue of a day on my trip.

[Jace]

The ghetto grilles were more to protect against cinder blocks - someone was creative enough to hang such a block on a rope from a bridge at just the right height...

 

The US Federal Railway Administration actually specifies a cinder block test for railroad safety glass: 30 mph impact for type 1 (windshield) glass, 8 mph for type 2 (side windows).

[SuRoNeFu 25-501]

they should try different livery for different routes..

Unfortunately, we already know what things that resides in their minds. The same case (almost) happens with KAI's new colors for passenger coaches, because if my friend does not e-mailed the management about differing the door's color, we could say that both K1, K2 and K3 coaches are having exactly same colors  :confused5:

 

 

The US Federal Railway Administration actually specifies a cinder block test for railroad safety glass: 30 mph impact for type 1 (windshield) glass, 8 mph for type 2 (side windows).

It would be good for PT Kereta Api Indonesia to have similar tests, to know whether the polycarbonate glass being applied on locomotives is unbreakable by any unwanted objects (like ballast stones being thrown by people) or not...