Karikachi Test Line- derailing on purpose

[bikkuri bahn]

 

After the opening of the Shin Karikachi Tunnel on the Nemuro Main Line (Hokkaido) in 1966, a 27.9 km stretch of line was abandoned, including a portion with a switchback .  JNR then utilized the portion between Shinnai and Shintoku as a test track.  The most famous tests involved sending (unmanned) railcars down grades with sections of rough track to examine the effects on stability and points of derailment.  The above video documents these tests.

(Summary): First, stationary testing using a suya 11 (#2001) test car.  Rollers on the test bed simulate different grades of track and motion.  At slower speeds rolling occurs, as speed increases yawing is encountered, and at high speeds something called "dakkodo" or hunting oscillation is encountered suddenly, which is dangerous.  At 1:45 we are at the Karikachi test line.  At the top of a grade, the railcars are released and run down the line. Data from the tests are used towards research in increasing stability of railcars, vital in this age of increasing speeds (i.e.shinkansen).

[Bernard]

Amazing footage! The fact that they positioned the cameras in a place where they wouldn't be mangled after the derailment is surprising. I was also surprised the train made it through that passage of track the first time. 

[westfalen]

Some of our track in Brisbane is starting to look a bit like that, I better watch out for cameras and observation shacks full of engineers beside the track.

 

I've seen that section of track from Shintoku marked on some Japanese atlases. It would have been a cushy job for the crew on the diesel that towed the test train up the hill, they would have been stuck at the end of the line until the derailment was repaired.

[miyakoji]

Great vid, Bikkuri.  On the one hand, I'm impressed that such research was done, on the other, the Japanese take railway technology this seriously.

[Mudkip Orange]

Somewhere out there is a picture of what the conventional french railroad tracks that they used for the 50's-era world speed record looked like, post speed run.

 

The hunting of the locomotive was so severe that it completely destroyed the track in the process, which is one of the reasons why when the TGV was designed they used the hybrid tie design.