Guard Fence at DD51 (and other diesels)

[al camino]

I hope this had not been discussed before. At least I wasn't able to find a thread about it by search function.

 

It is about the guard fences of the DD51.

I came across some detailling parts for DD51 on Hobby Search site.

Guard Fence by Treasure Town at Hobby Search

All my KATO DD51s (DD51-500 series) don't have this detail.

I have those fences on my DD54 (Zoukei Mura) and my DF50 by Tomix.

For the DD50 I had read the fence was installed to prevent operator to touch the vents near the door.

I can understand this but both the DD54 and the DD51 have these fences covering the lower part of the door, a window and the cab side below the window.

I m arked these fences in red.

I allso noticed that the DD51-1000 (the one with the higher doors below the cab floor (green marked) always has these fences (at least nealy always).

At least by the images I had seen  the DD51-500 often had no fences or less fences.

Is there a reason for this differrence? Or is it just my observation by the few images I had seen?

 

Another question is what is the blue marked hook for?

Grabbing a token to secure the operation on single track lines?

Might these fences be a security installation to make grabbing whatever with the hook safe for the surrounding area?

 

Thank you in advance, folks for any reply.

 

Have a nice Sunday evening!

[katoftw]

I thought it was to prevent snow build up.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10625470

Edited July 28 by katoftw

[lighthouse]

If I interpret the information gathered from the internet correctly, the red-marked protective grilles on the side of the driver's cab of DD51 were introduced because of their use in the "tablet" non-automatic track block system. These were intended to prevent damage to the driver's cab when swinging, after the inclusion of the blue-marked tablet catcher, metal disks called "tablets" or "tama". However, after this type of track block disappeared more and more, these protective grilles were mostly removed from the locomotives and/or replaced with a plate, marked in purple in your case. You have to remember that there were still a lot of routes with this type of track block when the J.N.R. group was transferred to the JR groups. In Japan, the last JR passenger line to use the train was the Tadami Line on 22. September 2012, and it is only used on a few lines in the third sector.

 

It was explained and illustrated very nicely here: https://kumanotaira.com/kokutetsu-22.html

brief overview of the DD51 (JNR-JR): https://www.kanorail.com/DD51/DD51.htm / https://www.kanorail.com/DD51/DD51_501.htm / https://www.kanorail.com/DD51/DD51_1001.htm / https://www.kanorail.com/DD51/DD51_801.htm

how it work: https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/閉塞_(鉄道) /

 

 

 

At minute 8:00 a missed catch:

 

The N-gauge Kato models 7008-7 & 7008-8 "DD51-500" received these protective devices, which look a bit clunky, from the manufacturer. Tomix has only hinted at these protective grilles on the current model No. 2250. To my knowledge, Microace has not yet released any models of the DD51 with this protective equipment. I am not aware of anything about it in H0 gauge due to my lack of background information on Japanese H0 gauge.

 

Regards,

 

Ulli

 

 

 

Edited July 29 by lighthouse

[marknewton]

Ulli is correct, the grilles protect the windows from being damaged by the token exchange process. It’s worth mentioning that JNR used both tablets and staffs as block tokens, the staffs being both large and heavy.

 

As for HO scale models, I have a number of locos that have these grilles included in the detail packs. They include the Tomix DF50, the Zoukei Mura DD54, the Tramway ED16 and the Tenshodo EF10.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited July 29 by marknewton

[Kamome]

I would assume that incidents occurred to necessitate these grills. Some nice images of the tablets here including some of the metal arm usage on the sides of the cabs. (kiha 28 in this case)

 

https://ameblo.jp/tetsudotabi/entry-12302491190.html

Edited July 29 by Kamome

[Kingmeow]

Is Google spying on me???  🤣  After reading this thread I just got an e-mail from Hobby Search with a link to the opposite end.

 

https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/11109764?utm_source=mkt&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20240730_900104_reserve01&utm_content=11109764_font_en

 

[cteno4]

Most likely! We are a fully open to public read forum so we are spidered a lot! We have a pretty high Google SEO ranking on a lot of Japanese train things. Vacuum, crosslink, repeat.
 

jeff

[al camino]

Thanks to you for pointing out what it is about.

Nice that you could confirm my thought about the token/tablet blocking system.

This also explains the 2/3 window covering fence.

 

THanks again!