Smoke spreads under train car floor in Hokkaido

[gmat]

Smoke spreads under train car floor in Hokkaido

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/smoke-spreads-under-train-car-floor-in-hokkaido

 

Again, the only English Japan news site to carry news like this.

 

Best wishes,

Grant

[bikkuri bahn]

Again, the only English Japan news site to carry news like this.

 

That's because they have a subscription to Kyodo's wire service- cheap source to fill their website w/o employing expensive reporters.  BTW, JR Hokkaido said this incident has no connection with circumstances that led to the fire last month on the Sekisho Line.  However, the kiha 283 type really has been troubled lately- I wonder if there is a maintenance issue going on here.

[harukablue]

Surely other JR companies must use the same drive system as the 283?

[bikkuri bahn]

Surely other JR companies must use the same drive system as the 283?

 

I'm not 100% sure, but I think JR Shikoku or JR West may have similar types.  However, the services they run are not as intensive as JR Hokkaido's.  The 281 series used on the Super Hokuto service between Hakodate and Sapporo average 106km/h, which make them the fastest 1067mm service in Japan (diesel or electric) end point to end point.

 

*btw, for reference, Amtrak's Acela service averages 110km/h.

[gmat]

Thank you, Bikkuri Bahn. Now I understand better. It's like that hometown newspaper outsourcing to India.

 

Sorry,

Best wishes,

grant

[KenS]

That's one fast diesel-hydraulic train (145 km/h or 90 mph top speed).  A quick google for the drive system number listed on wikipedia didn't show any other pages with that system but there could be variations with different names. I think many (most/all?) DMUs in Japan are diesel-hydraulic based on what wikipedia says (and we know they're always right  ) so there are probably lots of similar systems out there, unless this was a novel design for some reason.

 

Since it's not a Diesel-electric design, either the motor caught fire, or there was some kind of lubrication problem in the transmission or axle/wheel/brake system that caused friction and overheating.  That does sound like a maintenance problem if it turns out to be the same cause as the one that caused the tunnel fire.

[miyakoji]

I'm not 100% sure, but I think JR Shikoku or JR West may have similar types.

 

I've been looking at wikipedia for a few minutes, but it's difficult to tell.  I never really thought about it, but as it turns out, JRW doesn't really have that many different types of active DMUs.  They've got loads of KIHA40s (iirc, they got more than any other JR Group company when JNR was split up), a bunch of KIHA120s, and then a bit of this and a bit of that.  The KIHA187 is a tilting DMU, but the engine and trucks are not the same types.  The Japanese Wikipedia is surprisingly light on information about the driveline.  Amongst JR Shikoku's fleet, the only thing that strikes me as similar is the 2000 series, but this appears to be a bit older than these JRH 283s.  Also, different engines/trucks.

 

And yeah, I'm wondering about maintenance too.

 

Also, these were built by Fuji Heavy when they were building railcars, let's see if their offices get raided next.

[bikkuri bahn]

Just surmising/conjecture here, but about the maintenance issue: the two incidents occured shortly after the beginning of the new fiscal year, so you can't help but wonder if this is a result of a revised maintenance schedule designed to cut costs.  The 281/283 series are complicated machines that I assume are maintenance intensive, what with 2 high power diesel engines per car, the tilt mechanism, and associated auxliaries.

[harukablue]

What about the Wide View Hida 85?

[bikkuri bahn]

I think the JR Shikoku types may be the closest in design to the JR Hokkaido types, but that's mainly in body shell design.  The 281/283 series were custom designed for Hokkaido conditions, with considerable design input from Naebo Rolling Stock Works in Sapporo (which has quite an engineering pedigree- it once built steam locomotives).  I think the mechanicals are unique to these types, and were designed for intensive use over long distances, and with rapid acceleration.  JR Hokkaido uses these types for trunk line clockface interval ltd. expresses ("L tokkyu" in JNR parlance), which in other parts of the country would be in the hands of EMU types.  In contrast, the DMU ltd. express types in use in other places are typically used on secondary or cross-country lines with less demanding performance requirements.

[bikkuri bahn]

The latest news reports attribute the smoke to a leaking oil line, with oil contacting a hot exhaust manifold, and subsequent smoke.

[marknewton]

Just surmising/conjecture here, but about the maintenance issue: the two incidents occured shortly after the beginning of the new fiscal year, so you can't help but wonder if this is a result of a revised maintenance schedule designed to cut costs...

 

Sounds reasonable, BB. I don't know anything about these particular DMUs, but if they're anything like the ones I used to look after, they'd be very unforgiving of poor or reduced maintenance. At one stage we had a string of final drive failures, which turned out to be caused by a slight change in the oil being used.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[bikkuri bahn]

According to the latest Nihon Keizai Shimbun report, JR Hokkaido has reported the fault was not leaking oil, but rather failed intake valves on the diesel engine cylinder heads.  Both intake valves (it's a 4 valve setup- 2 intake and 2 exhaust I assume) were broken, which caused faulty combustion.

[Guest ___]

Again, the only English Japan news site to carry news like this.

 

That's because they have a subscription to Kyodo's wire service- cheap source to fill their website w/o employing expensive reporters.  BTW, JR Hokkaido said this incident has no connection with circumstances that led to the fire last month on the Sekisho Line.  However, the kiha 283 type really has been troubled lately- I wonder if there is a maintenance issue going on here.

 

Subscriptions to them are not cheap. I let mine expire this year. Then again mine was complimentary as I was a contributing journalist to Kyodo. Sadly, since I did not renew or submit anything to them in the past six months, I went in to lapsed status. Kyodo wire good to work with and is pretty nice compared to AFT, AP, and Reuters, as Kyodo actually pay promptly, unlike Reuters where about a quarter of my invoices are unresolved or in dispute.

[westfalen]

I'm not up on the intricate technical details of the 281/283's but from experience riding them they seem to spend a lot of their time running flat out to keep time.

 

The cause of problems they are having could be the same as we have here, the elimination of preventative maintenance. When my brother worked at Mayne Electric Shed 20 years ago a unit coming in for a monthly inspection would have most components that could be, like airconditioners or traction motors, swapped out for overhauled ones and the ones taken from the unit overhauled and placed in stores for the next unit coming in, now things are left in service until they break down to save the costs of labour and parts inventory. The fact that there is no saving in the long run means nothing to the manager balancing his budget today. I wouldn't think the Japanese would do such things but I guess JR Hokkaido would be looking to save money as much as any other company.

[marknewton]

The cause of problems they are having could be the same as we have here, the elimination of preventative maintenance...now things are left in service until they break down to save the costs of labour and parts inventory. The fact that there is no saving in the long run means nothing to the manager balancing his budget today...

 

Why does that sound so familar? 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[angusmclean]

That's one fast diesel-hydraulic train (145 km/h or 90 mph top speed).  A quick google for the drive system number listed on wikipedia didn't show any other pages with that system but there could be variations with different names. I think many (most/all?) DMUs in Japan are diesel-hydraulic based on what wikipedia says (and we know they're always right  ) so there are probably lots of similar systems out there, unless this was a novel design for some reason.

 

Four-speed mechanical with some kind of hydraulic drive for starting. Reminds me of Wilson epiclyclic  gearbox changes. By far the best rides on all trains I rode on were on these two models. Like being a pillion on a motorcyle on the curves north of Hakodate, with enthusiastic gear-changing up and down the box on gradients and sharp low-speed curves. Left road traffic standing :))

 

Angus