Tokaido Line train takes a wrong turn

[miyakoji]

On the morning of May 23 (JST), an inbound Tokaido line train was incorrectly routed onto the Tokaido Freight Line at a signal southwest of Ofuna.  Apparently the decision was made not to reverse but to continue on.  As a result, four stations were missed before the train arrived at Musashi-Kosugi.  If I'm reading maps correctly, it was the Tokaido Freight Line for most of the distance, but also the southeastern freight-only portion of the Musashino Line from around Tsurumi to Musashi-Kosugi.  JR East yards will be thoroughly weeded for months to come.

 

I imagine that the driver would have been surprised at the signal routing the train onto the freight line.  I also imagine the railroads having a procedure for everything.  Was it to follow the routing, even if it was not what he expected?

 

A handy explanatory video was made by Ayokoi.  If you enable Japanese subtitles in the video, you can then set it to autotranslate to the language of your choice (I did this on the desktop site, not in an app).

 

 

[Jimbo]

I'm sorry  Sir no one wanted to ride my train today!! oh my!

[miyakoji]

I was wondering how far the train had proceeded across the switch.  Unbelievably, there is some video:

 

 

I have centered this Google map on the switch that I think was incorrectly set: https://www.google.com/maps/@35.3473089,139.524489,173m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en&entry=ttu

 

You can go northeast of that location to see the next set of switches, visible in the video thumbnail.  It's difficult to perceive in the video, but it looks like it would be quite a few cars.

 

[bill937ca]

A train is moving too fast for the engineer to read the turnouts the way tram drivers are required to do.  But signals should advise the driver of the path ahead. Could be human error by the dispatching center, a undetected computer programming bug, or maybe set manually during the night by a track maintenance crew. With trains the crew definitely does not go back set the switch back to main line like many tram systems require after passing through.

[miyakoji]

3 hours ago, bill937ca said:

human error by the dispatching center, a undetected computer programming bug, or maybe set manually during the night by a track maintenance crew

When I made the original post, I was reading about the ATOS system.  The Wikipedia page below says it controls both the freight and passenger Tokaido lines, and further, JR East owns the Tokaido Freight Line, so it wasn't a JR Freight problem.  This was entirely under JR East's management.  I saw some comments about a work train having been through there earlier, but I can't find it now, I'm not sure if there was anything to that.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATOS

[katoftw]

Of course central control centre error.

 

Wrong route was set and driver didn't question it or notice the irregular single.

 

If the turnout interlocking failed, control would have got an error message and called the driver to stop.

 

In the end. No one was hurt. No property was damaged. And a good learning tool for everyone to learn from.

[bikkuri bahn]

13 hours ago, miyakoji said:

When I made the original post, I was reading about the ATOS system.  The Wikipedia page below says it controls both the freight and passenger Tokaido lines, and further, JR East owns the Tokaido Freight Line, so it wasn't a JR Freight problem.  This was entirely under JR East's management.  I saw some comments about a work train having been through there earlier, but I can't find it now, I'm not sure if there was anything to that.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATOS

Yeah, there is some speculation that a rinji ballast or rail train originating in Hiratsuka bound for Hazawa Freight terminal preceded the passenger train, and somehow ATOS either hadn't been reset fast enough after that train passed the points in question (or the reset was mishandled), plus coupled with the passenger train driver not noticing the signal had been set for the diverging freight line, not the main passenger line.  Of course, still hearsay at this moment. However the signal itself and ATS worked as designed, so there was no risk of collision.