Extremely Humungous Typhoon Number 19

[nah00]

No, not really. Given the amount of rain this dumped and the short time it dumped it (and the high winds) the only 'safe' alternative is to stick them in a tunnel but then what happens if you have a landslide on one side of the tunnel? Another problem with elevated track is the very really chance of overhead centenary collapsing onto the train. My guess is that they'll strip these down to bare metal and structural members (those shouldn't be too damaged though I don't know much damage the derailments could cause, anything that's bent slightly is huge problem on something this fast and heavy) and replace everything else. Might be able to save the window glass too (seems like a little thing but it adds up over 120 cars). 

 

Best option would have been to take them where the storm wouldn't be (or wouldn't be as severe). Maybe up by Joetsu? Or up to Niigata on the Joetsu Line? 

[railsquid]

6 hours ago, nah00 said:

Might be able to save the window glass too (seems like a little thing but it adds up over 120 cars).

 

At the Seibu open day I went to the other week they had a display showing the cost of various kinds of train glass, I don't recall the exact details but for one of your fancy newer commuter trains with a single-piece cab front window the price was somewhere in the order of a small car, so I imagine even the passenger windows would be a non-trivial price and it would be nifty if they could re-use that. Whether it's feasible to remove the glass in one piece so it can be reused is another question.

 

Meanwhile, on the TV news just now they were discussing the issue of flooding danger and residential property and quoted from a survey where only about a 3rd of people claimed to have check the hazard map for their residence.

[cteno4]

2 hours ago, railsquid said:

Meanwhile, on the TV news just now they were discussing the issue of flooding danger and residential property and quoted from a survey where only about a 3rd of people claimed to have check the hazard map for their residence.

that actually sounds like a good statistic! I doubt it’s anywhere near that here as when ever I’ve mentioned flood maps to anyone here I get blank stares...

 

I would expect the glass is put in with rubber seals that could be removed. I kind of remember seeing some technical doc that mentioned using them to absorb stress and isolate the glass from the car for vibration and such. I’m sure it’s pricy stuff as it needs to be really strong.

 

jeff

[Yavianice]

Repair of the Hakone Tozan Railway will take a long time, at least not finished by the end of the year. This link also has a video of showing some damaged parts of the Hakone Tozan railway.

 

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20191016/k10012134811000.html

[railsquid]

Blockage on the southern freight-only section of the Musashino Line:

 

 

Location is here: https://goo.gl/maps/oHrU2EZpV8B1Jy7k7

 

Freight trains being diverted over the Nanbu Line.

[Yavianice]

Also, the Suigun line (Fukushima & Ibaraki Prefecture) has been hard hit by the Typhoon, with a bridge washed away near Hitachi-Daigo. It will take months to repair the line between Koriyama and Hitachi-Daigo, and the part between Hitachi-Daigo and Hitachi-Omiya will remain closed "without prospect of resumption of service". 

Edited October 16, 2019 by Yavianice

[katoftw]

Unless they have a few spare spans of bridge section lying around. That bridge will take over a year to fix.

 

The bridge on the Kyudai Line near Hita took 18 months to fix. And tgat was a regular girder bridge using universal parts.

[bill937ca]

Question. Were the damaged Shinkansen in the Tohoku region?  The Japan News by Yomiuri Shimbun is reporting the Tohoku region normally receives fewer typhoons than Kyushu.

 

Typhoons weaken as they move northward into cooler air. This means the Tohoku region sees fewer of the big storms. From 1951 to 2018, 256 typhoons came within 300 kilometers of the Kyushu region, compared to 215 typhoons for the Kanto-Koshin region and 175 for the Tohoku region.

 

Tohoku has fewer typhoons and major rainstorms than Kyushu and other regions, so their embankments don’t anticipate so much rain. The heavy rain from this storm exceeded expectations, which is what probably caused the flooding,” said Hiroshi Niino, a professor emeritus of meteorology at the University of Tokyo.

 

https://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0006085372?fp=03ac34d5fe0e92ecb5a768d67b316746

Edited October 16, 2019 by bill937ca

[railsquid]

8 minutes ago, bill937ca said:

Question. Were the damaged Shinkansen in the Tohoku region? 

 

No, Nagano is the "Shin" part of what the article calls "Kanto-Koshin" (more usually lumped together with Niigata as "Kanto-Koshin'etsu").

[RossDensha]

Chuo Main Line between Takao and Otsuki is still closed.

There's a new timetable for the Hokuriku Shinkansen between Tokyo and Nagano, one train runs about every hour.

The section between Nagano and Joetsu-Myoko is flooded.

According to a JR East press release:

"At the moment it is confirmed that there is serious damage at the power supply apparatus related to signals, and it is expected to take about 1 or 2 weeks for the apparatus to recover. However, it could take more time if there is any other defects of equipment found such as defects related to traffic signal controllers."

 

The new timetable:

https://www.jreast.co.jp/aas/20191015_o_typhoon19_english_01.pdf

A map of the closed sections:

https://www.jreast.co.jp/aas/20191016_o_typhoon19_hokueng_02.pdf

JR East press release:

https://www.jreast.co.jp/aas/20191015_o_typhoon19_multeg_01.pdf

 

[bill937ca]

A Japanese language news story detailing the situation with the Hokuriku Shinkansen and tis rolling stock. Apparently this loss falls into an  exclusion in the insurance coverage. Without  specific flood coverage flooding from above is covered but not from below.

 

"Hokuriku Shinkansen" JR East emergency measures to fully recover within the year

 

https://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20191017-00010002-newswitch-bus_all&fbclid=IwAR2HseXv__lqOS12uxKfVoabd_JG53wDpvxrHYmTSQuL7EeTv87Sph-2hkE

　On the Hokuriku Shinkansen, the Chikuma River Embankment broke out in the early morning of March 13, and part of the track was submerged and the vehicle center was inundated throughout. In the future, a full-scale local survey is planned, but serious damage has been found in signal-related power supplies, and it is expected to take 1-2 weeks to resume operation.

Edited October 17, 2019 by bill937ca

[bill937ca]

Public must awaken to flood risks as record rainfalls overwhelm infrastructure

 

https://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0006082408?fbclid=IwAR1tjIAcEFWTLJiWvEjQv6Z51i6u870OQ3qnbKYk0M9y8FioKiDqG-hSfc8

 

The record-setting heavy rain brought by Typhoon No. 19 caused many rivers to overflow in a short period of time mainly in eastern Japan, resulting in widespread flooding in river basins. With torrential rainfall occurring more frequently in recent years due to climate change, measures such as building levees and dams can only go so far. To save lives, it is essential that residents become more aware of the need to evacuate early.

[katoftw]

They said the same thing last year after the big one. Granted though last year many ignored the warnings.

[RossDensha]

The Chuo line is reopened, but with significantly fewer services.

https://www.jreast.co.jp/aas/20191018_o_typhoon19_route_eg_01.pdf

(feel free to tell me to stop if these updates are too frequent. I aim to please)

[scotspensioner]

I see that NHK are saying 40% of JRs Shinkansen depots are located in flood prone areas.

Seems like a big rethink is called for.

[railsquid]

On 10/16/2019 at 8:49 PM, railsquid said:

Blockage on the southern freight-only section of the Musashino Line:

 

 

Location is here: https://goo.gl/maps/oHrU2EZpV8B1Jy7k7

 

Freight trains being diverted over the Nanbu Line.

 

Cleaning up yesterday:

 

 

 

[railsquid]

7 hours ago, RossDensha said:

The Chuo line is reopened, but with significantly fewer services.

https://www.jreast.co.jp/aas/20191018_o_typhoon19_route_eg_01.pdf

 

 

Manual crossing operation for the Takao-Ostuki shuttle service in single line operation:

 

 

The line isn't signalled for bi-directional working so the crossing sensors won't work.

 

This is the crossing immediately to the west of Takao station (street view), in the video the crossing booms appear to be missing, interestingly in the street view version the ones on the left hand side of the road are red and white, instead of the usual yellow/black.

[nah00]

I would think that in the electrical box for the crossing there would be a switch to manually control the crossing, seems like a huge expenditure on manpower to have 8 workers manning this crossing. 

 

4 hours ago, scotspensioner said:

I see that NHK are saying 40% of JRs Shinkansen depots are located in flood prone areas.

Seems like a big rethink is called for.

 

It's a problem of practicality as well, generally the only place you'll find an area large enough for this type of depot is going to be in a flat flood pone area (especially in Japan. You could build up the depots on fill but then you have to worry about floodwaters eroding the fill. 

[chadbag]

5 hours ago, nah00 said:

I would think that in the electrical box for the crossing there would be a switch to manually control the crossing, seems like a huge expenditure on manpower to have 8 workers manning this crossing. 

 

This is Japan.  There is always a handful of people out directing traffic at every little spot, parking lot, etc.

 

("There are always  a handful of people" for you Queen's English and related speakers who can't match verbs and nouns 🙂 )

 

Edited October 18, 2019 by chadbag

[Sacto1985]

Sadly, if those E7/W7 train sets are to be scrapped, they'll have to build replacements really fast. This means not only KHI in Kyogo have to start construction again, but also will need another company to build them (Hitachi in the Shunan area maybe?).

[miyakoji]

1 hour ago, Sacto1985 said:

Sadly, if those E7/W7 train sets are to be scrapped, they'll have to build replacements really fast. This means not only KHI in Kyogo have to start construction again, but also will need another company to build them (Hitachi in the Shunan area maybe?).

In the video the transportation journalist said it would take 6 to 12 months to build new trains, absolute minimum.  After seeing the water level in the video, I don't see these coming back into service.  It would be interesting to see if another manufacturer can tool up to accelerate the process.

[railsquid]

Was just heading out of Shinjuku on the Yamanote Line and was bemused to see a rake of TaKis passing by, highly unusual and presumably a diversion from the Musashino line.

[railsquid]

53 minutes ago, railsquid said:

Was just heading out of Shinjuku on the Yamanote Line and was bemused to see a rake of TaKis passing by, highly unusual and presumably a diversion from the Musashino line.

 

Here's a photo of a similar working on the 16th between Ebisu and Shibuya: https://2nd-train.net/topics/article/25214/

[Socimi]

On 10/18/2019 at 3:55 PM, railsquid said:

Manual crossing operation for the Takao-Ostuki shuttle service in single line operation:

 

This is the crossing immediately to the west of Takao station (street view), in the video the crossing booms appear to be missing, interestingly in the street view version the ones on the left hand side of the road are red and white, instead of the usual yellow/black.

 

Interesting, as far as i know, E233-0s do not regularly run past Takao, as that section of line is 211 series territory.

 

The withe and red crossing barrier are also interesting. Does Japanese Road Law specify wich colour the gates must be?

Here in Italy, the law is quite strict (and lenghty) :  the gates must not be longer than 8 meters, must not be higher than 1.30m above the surface of the road, must be painted only red and white in equally long 15cm sections with a 45° diagonal transition...

 

I wonder if there are other similar red and white crossings in Japan...

[railsquid]

Just now, Socimi said:

Interesting, as far as i know, E233-0s do not regularly run past Takao, as that section of line is 211 series territory.

 

They run regularly as far as Otsuki:

 

 

and sometimes as far as Kawaguchiko on the Fujikyu line:

 

 

and occasionally much further west: