Tomix substation

[velotrain]

I was wondering about this kit in relationship to typical Japanese installations.

 

In particular, I find the fencing rather casual for such a facility.

 

Scanning the net, a chain-link fence with barbed wire at the top seems more typical.

 

It's also unclear if there is any reason to fence in the structure.

 

I'll attach three images, one which apparently shows the proto structure.

 

Interestingly, only part of the electrical equipment is fenced in, and not with a particularly high fence.

Of course, we can't tell if there is a more secure fence around the entire facility.

 

I'm also curious about what corresponding equipment might be at/near trackside - the last image gives one example of this.

 

 

 

[kvp]

The simple fencing is enough, it's just to keep kids away and mark the unsafe area. The small fence (cage) inside is used as a safety perimeter mark for service personel, since there the insulators are low enough that a normal standing human could get electrocuted. On the rest of the equipment, the isolators are high enough that operators can walk under them and safely operate the control boxes. Also, there are high and low voltage parts in each substation, and higher voltages need higher safety distances and larger isolators. For the low voltage DC wires that go to the contact wires or to the 3rd rail, you only need a safety distance of a few inches, like on many 3rd rail systems. The biggest threats to such stations are usually kids, small animals and metal thiefs. There are compact substations, that contain a single container with the high voltage isolators mounted on top, the transformer inside with cooling fins and control boxes mounted on the outside. With this type, fencing is actually optional but usually they are fenced in.

 

Apart from substations like this, you usually see feed wires on poles or buried cables, feed masts with lightning and short circuit protection equipment and on AC lines, small booster transformers mounted either trackside or on the masts. Some newer DC powered lines have similar transformer/rectifier boxes that look mostly like AC transformers.

Edited September 11, 2014 by kvp