Train service continues even with snow piled up as high as the train itself

[Densha]

 

Many railway companies (especially the Dutch railways) can learn from this.

[Martijn Meerts]

The Dutch railways stop working when there's even only a chance of snow 

[200系]

Images like these always makes me appreciate the engineering effort needed to design and operate a railway network in the cold weather areas of Northern Japan (Hokkaidō, Tōhoku and prefectures like Nagano and Niigate etc). Both in terms of equipment (Despite being a newer design, and build with newer materials (aluminum vs steel body construction) a 200系 formation is roughly as heavy per car as a 0系 formation, all due to snow proofing measures. I imagine the same to hold true for conventional equipment (113系 vs 115系 etc)), as well as the investments in infrastructure. I have to tip my hat to JR East and JR Hokkaidō staff, having to work in those challenging conditions every year, as well.

 

Thanks for the video, Densha. I had this channel bookmarked for some time, precisely because of the great winter footage.

 

I like this one from the same author as well:

 

 

And to show that even in Japan they have trouble with snow from time to time:

 

 

Some JR East Shinkansen stuff (first video is Jōetsu (by ISO8, shame he hasn't been active on the forum for some time), seccond the Tōhoku).

 

 

Even in the warmer regions they have to content with snow once in a while, Sanyō Shinkansen (100系 P and V formations)

 

 

-Sander

[bikkuri bahn]

Operational flexibility/adaptability also arises out of the fact that Japan has a multitude of climate zones which railways operate in, from sub tropical in the south to taiga in the north.  Throw in the extremes that mother nature subjects the archipelago to (both meteorological and geological) and you have a situation where railways have lots of experience dealing with outside of the norm operational conditions.

 

Regarding rolling stock, there is a difference even between those used in Tohoku and Hokkaido.  485 series limited express stock was used for a period in Hokkaido in the 1970's, but was ill-suited for the conditions there, and were transferred back to Tohoku.  One of the culprits was the very fine dry snow found up in Hokkaido, which tends to work itself into electrical equipment and cabinets, causing malfunctions.  The 711 series was custom designed for Hokkaido, and as such had its underfloor electrical equipment further shielded and sealed than the norm.  As a consequence, they tend to be very quiet, as the electrical equipment noise is muffled.

[Densha]

The dry snow problem is probably the main cause for malfunction of most trains of the Dutch railways. The older trains have better shielding thus work better, they want to save money by making cheaper trains but eventually it doesn't packs out as good as they would have it did.

Even though we're a small country we still have differences in weather; the west almost doesn't have snow but the (north-)east does. Japan is even more extreme of course.

[Mr Frosty]

Our railway system gives up long before the snow arrives. Usually the wet leaves at autumn time is enough to cause chaos.

[westfalen]

Queensland Rail goes into meltdown when it rains.

[Jcarlton]

Metro north has wet leaf issues too.  They built special wire brush hi rail trucks to deal with it.  Snow was a big issue when we had avery dry powder and it got around the filters on older M2s, causing motor failures.

As for JR east, do they run trains on Shinkansen all night to keep the snow clear or run a plow in the early morning?  I don't remember seeing plows, but I have to believe they musst do something.

[JR 500系]

Our Metro gives up even WITHOUT the need of nature's help....

[bikkuri bahn]

As for JR east, do they run trains on Shinkansen all night to keep the snow clear or run a plow in the early morning?  I don't remember seeing plows, but I have to believe they musst do something.

 

No, they run snowplows at night, after the last services end.  There is no pathing available during the day to run a slow-moving snowplow on the mainline.  As it's done past midnight, that's why you haven't seen them.

 

Even JR Tokai runs snowplows on the Tokaido Shinkansen in the Sekigahara area.  They use a russell type plow as well as a rotary brush vehicle:

http://jr-central.co.jp/news/release/_pdf/000009612.pdf