Extremely Humungous Typhoon Number 19

[railsquid]

A brace of E353s holed up at Mitaka due to suspension of services on the Chuo Line west of Takao.

 

E353s stabled at Mitaka, 2019-10-13 by Rail Squid, on Flickr

 

If you look carefully, Mt. Fuji is just visible on the left of the picture.

[TheNicofabi]

3 hours ago, railsquid said:

If you look carefully, Mt. Fuji is just visible on the left of the picture.

 

clearest sky I have ever seen near Tokyo... (never could see Fuji that well)

[railsquid]

2 hours ago, TheNicofabi said:

 

clearest sky I have ever seen near Tokyo... (never could see Fuji that well)

 

Usually quite visible after a storm or on clear days between October/November and March/April.

 

The first winter I lived here properly was in an apartment with quite nice views over Shinjuku etc., was living there for a few months from summer, and went out onto the balcony on a crisp clear autumn mountain, looked west and was like "holy cow that's Mt. Fuji" , which had been invisible until then.

[railsquid]

Apart from the Nagano Shinkansen, Ryomo line and Hakone Tozan have major damage.

[Yavianice]

Hakone Tozan suffered major damage due to landslides. I think it will take much time to get it back in operation
 

 

And the Ueda Dentetsu Bassho line in Ueda had its bridge destroyed. 

Edited October 13, 2019 by Yavianice

[bill937ca]

More bad news.   Bridge collapses on Bessho line in Nagano

 

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20191013_44/

 

Edited October 13, 2019 by railsquid
remove FB tracking ID

[bill937ca]

 

Vehicles left behind at Makuhari Vehicle Center in clear weather at Typhoon # 19

Edited October 13, 2019 by bill937ca

[miyakoji]

17 hours ago, Suica said:

 

 

That they were suspending service in various places shows that they were expecting a lot of precipitation.  I can't believe no one thought to park these on higher ground.

[nah00]

17 hours ago, Yavianice said:

You'd think they would store their valuable Shinkansen on high ground/bridges rather than in flood prone areas?

 

Rising water has a tendency to be unpredictable, maybe this was on of those cases. They'll have to gut the insides and likely replace all the electrical components but they should be ale to be put back in service.

[scotspensioner]

Wickipedia is already saying 8 E7 sets and 2 W7 sets are affected

Since posting this I've seen YouTube member Ichi Pikas film of Nagano Station and the normal works which apart from no trains and a couple of Helicopters looks pretty normal so it appears only the Shinkansen Depot and part of the running lines have been affected as far as trains being flooded as such are concerned

Edited October 13, 2019 by scotspensioner
Additional information

[Yavianice]

Ryo Takagi from Kogakuin University and Japan Railway Journal had this to say about the flooded E7 and W7 series.

 

“If the vehicle gets submerged in water, even if it dries, there is a possibility that a fire will break out if you drive it as it is, so it is necessary to refurbish and clean the train completely. In reality, it is difficult, and as long as you look at the video, at least all the equipment under the floor will need to be replaced.

Furthermore, if the air conditioning wiring on the floor was also damaged, it might be scrapping is the only viable solution. However, it would be difficult to immediately produce 120 Shinkansen vehicles from now on. The impact of this is enormous for both the user and the company.” 
 

The trains were built at a cost of about 3.3B yen total, per 12 part set.

The risk to flooding in this area was well known in advance, official hazard maps show a risk of up to 10 m in this location due to the nearby river.

 

source here, text above modified from google translate.

 

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20191013/k10012128411000.html

 

I think the best solution will still be to postpone the retirement of the E4 on the Joetsu Shinkansen, divert the E7 sets on Toki services to the Hokuriku, and reintegrate the E2 8 part series back into service until replacement sets can be built or these trains can be repaired. 

Edited October 14, 2019 by Yavianice

[miyakoji]

Really too bad. Given how new the trains are, plus the matter of producing 120 new cars, I would think they'll go to lengths to repair these, but who knows.  I guess we'll find out.  Good point about the E4 and E2.

[RossDensha]

Again a video of the Shinkansen delays due to the typhoon at Shinagawa station:

Hope everyone is OK!

Edited October 14, 2019 by RossDensha

[Yavianice]

18 hours ago, nah00 said:

Rising water has a tendency to be unpredictable, maybe this was on of those cases.

 

According to the article I shared, official hazard maps placed this area under high risk for flooding up to 10 m before all this happened. A silly location to store expensive trains, then. I wouldn't be surprised if the investigation of why this place was chosen to store multi billions of yen worth of brand new trains reveals that some money was changed hands under the table to get this depot built here. That or someone didn't look at the hazard maps prior to construction, and they will have a poor scapegoat taking the fall. I'm sure that there is more to this story than meets the eye.

 

Edited October 14, 2019 by Yavianice
idiomatic expressions are hard for a non-native speaker

[Suica]

A lot of cars have been lifted up by the water and derailed

 

[bill937ca]

Typhoon No. 19 submerged section Tobu Tojo Line between Takasaka and Higashimatsuyama / 2019.10.14 Video by Rail Note.

 

 

[bill937ca]

Typhoon No. 19 temporary suspension section Tobu Tojo Line Kitasakado-Takasaka / 2019.10.14 Videeo by Rail  Note.

 

 

[bill937ca]

120 vehicles on the Hokuriku Shinkansen flooded ... "May be scrapped" (19/10/14)  Video by ANNnewsCH.

 

 

 

[Suica]

The affected sets seem to be E7 series F1, F2, F7, F8, F10, F14, F16 & F18, as well as W7 series W2 & W7.

[scotspensioner]

Next contracts for Newton Aycliffe building the replacements?!! 😁

Edited October 14, 2019 by scotspensioner
Error

[katoftw]

Newton who?

[scotspensioner]

13 minutes ago, katoftw said:

Newton who?

 

13 minutes ago, katoftw said:

Newton who?

Newton Aycliffe in the North East of England is theBritish location of the Hitachi Factory erecting trains for the British Rail System with some parts being delivered from Japan

Our local trains are mostly from this factory having been built over the last two years. Also being built there are express units for Inter City Services such as London to Edinburgh and London to Plymouth in the west of England.

Edited October 14, 2019 by scotspensioner
Additional information

[trainsforever8]

now for the replacement, will they be the exact same model or something new?

[miyakoji]

3 hours ago, bill937ca said:

120 vehicles on the Hokuriku Shinkansen flooded ... "May be scrapped" (19/10/14)  Video by ANNnewsCH.

 

The pictures on twitter must have been taken after the water receded a bit.  This video shows it above the headlights, almost to the bottom of the passenger windows.  So not only traction motors and underfloor equipment were flooded, so was anything inside up to a certain point, including all passenger seating and electrics in the driver's compartment.

 

The video goes on to say that replacement would take 6 to 12 months at the very least, and cost 32.8 billion yen (about AUD 447 million, CAD 401 million, GBP 240 million, or USD 302 million).  Ten trains is one third of the fleet.

 

2 minutes ago, trainsforever8 said:

now for the replacement, will they be the exact same model or something new?

I would think they'll be the same, design and tooling up would only add more time and money.

 

It would be interesting to know the rationale that goes into their decision.  It's going to be loads of time and money either way.  Save the large mechanical and structural components and install all new electrics and interiors?  What kind of corrosion issues will they have in 10 years?  Or totally scrap 4 year old trains.

 

[Suica]

I especially wonder how things will be handled with those two W7 sets. JR West trains being damaged in an JR East vehicle center. From what I heard, all friendship and unity stops when it comes to money, even within the JR Group.