Kicking cars at Shimonita

[Nick_Burman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEnnCl0rybE

 

Once upon a time when beasts spoke and many Japanese private rural railways still carried some measure of freight one of Joshin Tetsudo's elderly AEG steeplecabs kicks cars at Shimonita yard. The surprising thing for me is how much "fly switching" the crew employs on moving the cars around. Also notice how the crew uses the main line to switch cars (the yard has no lead) - on what authority is the crew permitted to pass the starting (home) signals in the yard? Notice that at one moment the loco stops to wait for an arriving passenger train but it is on a track with no signal.

 

Cheers NB

[Guest ___]

I'll say one thing, try to do that in the US, and the FRA starts throwing around fines, and citations left and right. We had an entire get fired up at the Gettysburg freight line for kicking just past the new plant on the main. Railfan was taping and posted it on an line fan site a few years back where the FRA found it. I was in while I was working in PAX-Ops for the tourist side that day when the fines came down. The COO back in Peoria was all over the staff via a teleconference for two hours.

[westfalen]

I'll say one thing, try to do that in the US, and the FRA starts throwing around fines, and citations left and right. We had an entire get fired up at the Gettysburg freight line for kicking just past the new plant on the main. Railfan was taping and posted it on an line fan site a few years back where the FRA found it. I was in while I was working in PAX-Ops for the tourist side that day when the fines came down. The COO back in Peoria was all over the staff via a teleconference for two hours.

Same here in Australia, same for jumping on and off moving rolling stock, I can remember hanging on the side of cars jumping up and down on the handbrake lever like one of the guys in the video is doing but these days we have to be entirely inside the car when it's moving, even standing on the end platform of a diesel is against the rules you have to be inside the cab when its moving.

 

Back to the video, I can't see any auxiliary shunting signals, there would probably be an outer home signal further out to protect them against approaching trains but they must have some sort authority to run out as far as a limit of shunt board or something similar. Maybe the outer home signal is released by a key that has to be in the possession of the shunt engine's driver when they run out onto the main line and gives them the run of the place while they have it in their possession. But that's just speculation, railway safeworking has as many variations as there are railways.

[Guest JRF-1935]

An interesting point I forgot to mention is this "kicking" operation has long been outlawed in the US and Japan - but Japan still continues the practice, as evident from the video.  Hope they don't get caught by the "Amtrack Police" 

[bikkuri bahn]

I'll say one thing, try to do that in the US, and the FRA starts throwing around fines

 

One comment: I'm glad the FRA is in the U.S., and stays there.  I realize their policies are to insure safety, but their freight RR bias really has hobbled the development of modern railway passenger stock in N.A.

[Guest JRF-1935]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEnnCl0rybE

 

Once upon a time when beasts spoke and many Japanese private rural railways still carried some measure of freight one of Joshin Tetsudo's elderly AEG steeplecabs kicks cars at Shimonita yard. The surprising thing for me is how much "fly switching" the crew employs on moving the cars around. Also notice how the crew uses the main line to switch cars (the yard has no lead) - on what authority is the crew permitted to pass the starting (home) signals in the yard? Notice that at one moment the loco stops to wait for an arriving passenger train but it is on a track with no signal.

 

Cheers NB

Nick - Great Video !!  Thanks

Rich C

[marknewton]

Same here in Australia, same for jumping on and off moving rolling stock, I can remember hanging on the side of cars jumping up and down on the handbrake lever like one of the guys in the video is doing but these days we have to be entirely inside the car when it's moving, even standing on the end platform of a diesel is against the rules you have to be inside the cab when its moving.

 

I have similar fond memories from my days at Darling Harbour and Enfield. The sad thing is that the current rules seem to be no more than a knee-jerk reaction by ITSRR to a couple of incidents that wouldn't have happened on the railway of old. And to be honest, after dealing with some of their representatives, I don't think ITSRR has much credibility anyway.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.