Oh-oh...

[Nick_Burman]

 

The crew must be ruing the moment they signed in...

 

 

Cheers NB

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Oh dear... Bearing in mind a fair few of these have now been withdrawn, perhaps we are seeing the death knell for EF65-1033...

[miyakoji]

I had always wondered what those things were before seeing this video.  Most private railway rolling stock seems to be without flares.  I think the JR companies are still building everything with them.

[stevenh]

miyakoji, what exactly are these 'flares'? They seem to be exhausting the fire?

Is there a fire inside that train? Or just overheating?

[David]

Most if not all of the smoke seems to be from the flairs. My guess is the engine has gone dead. The flairs are there to warn other trains/railway personal of its disabled nature. If they work anything like old US practice, one of guards has backtracked a mile or more and put flares on the track too to prevent another train from colliding with it in the event the ATS system has been compromised.

[stevenh]

Gotcha, makes sense... and that would explain why the headlight is still on... I would've assumed they'd drop the pantograph if there was a real problem internally?

[marknewton]

If they work anything like old US practice, one of guards has backtracked a mile or more and put flares on the track too to prevent another train from colliding with it in the event the ATS system has been compromised.

 

Interesting. My understanding of US practice was that flares or fusees were used to protect standing trains on non-signalled lines running under train orders or track warrants. I would tend to think that the line shown here would use track circuits and automatic signals, hence standing train protection would suffice. But I'll readily admit to not knowing much about Japanese signalling and safeworking, so the use of flares on a disabled train is new to me. I'd be fascinated to learn more about this practice.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[David]

I personally don't know the Japanese/JR practice, it's my personal assumption that the flares are the technology free backup - if the system has gone haywire and can't be depended on, have something idiot-proof to fall back on.

 

In the case of the US the flares get used because nobody wanted to invest in any of the safety systems. In the steam days, before automatic signaling flares were a smart way to notify following trains that the line was blocked (since most relied on watches to indicate if the next section of track should be clear). In the modern era it's just evidence of lazyness that they are used as the primary mechanism for safety at some points. Like where the track goes over a road, and instead of a gate, or even flashers, they try to save a nickle by having a guy jump out and drop flares on the same patch of road every single time. And yes, the outdatedness rubs me the wrong way.

[Guest ___]

If they work anything like old US practice, one of guards has backtracked a mile or more and put flares on the track too to prevent another train from colliding with it in the event the ATS system has been compromised.

 

Interesting. My understanding of US practice was that flares or fusees were used to protect standing trains on non-signalled lines running under train orders or track warrants. I would tend to think that the line shown here would use track circuits and automatic signals, hence standing train protection would suffice. But I'll readily admit to not knowing much about Japanese signalling and safeworking, so the use of flares on a disabled train is new to me. I'd be fascinated to learn more about this practice.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

As per CSX operating rules, all trains are to have flares and or torpedoes used to protect the front and rear of the train in the event the train is disabled even in signal territory. However in practivce it is not done.

[westfalen]

If you look inside the cab of a Japanese train, JR at least as someone said others may not use them, you will see a red handle hanging on a cord when you pull it the flare goes off. I've had Japanese railwaymen describe them to me (unfortunately I couldn't grasp the context in which they were to be used) but this is the first time I've seen them in use.

 

Now the question is, how can we model them?

 

When I was in the U.S. in 1991 we were returning from San Diego to L.A. when we came to a sudden stop in the middle of no where, one of the train crew pointed to a Santa Fe pickup parked across a field and said a supervisor had put a fusee on the track to test their compliance with the rules, we then had to wait until it went out and a required length of time afterward until we could proceed.

[The_Ghan]

No matter the problem, you can bet there was plenty of report writing, record checking and responsibility taking in the days that followed.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan