Details of Technology of Gauge Changing for Mini Shinkansen

[Sacto1985]

I still think the FGT technology--once they figure out how to make it work reliably--could be used on another service: Kanazawa to Niigata, where from Kanazawa to Jōetsumyōkō Stations it travels on the Hokuriku Shinkansen line, then the train transitions to the Myōkō Haneuma Line and Shin'etsu Main Line for the final trip to Niigata.

[bikkuri bahn]

Why is cape gauge always frowned upon by Americans?

 

B/c it's not used in America, ergo, it's inferior.

 

It is used with great success all across the globe.

 

Not invented here. Therefore doesn't exist.

 

*/sarcasm

[railsquid]

I wonder why North America doesn't use a much broader gauge...

 

Anyway, the main use-case for GCT is the proposed Nagasaki Shinkansen:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinkansen#Nagasaki_Shinkansen

[railsquid]

B/c it's not used in America, ergo, it's inferior.

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_foot_six_inch_gauge_railways_in_the_United_States

[bikkuri bahn]

There's no particular advantage to cape gauge, but also no disadvantage - it would be pointless converting it.

 

This.  Really no difference at the speeds most services are run- 130km/h and under.  I also find this pre-occupation among some (not referring to the OP) about 1067mm gauge and the implied inferiority of it odd.  Perhaps it's the preconceived image of narrow gauge as being something archaic, "toonerville", or colonial, juxtaposed on the witnessed ultra-modern, heavy, high frequency operations you find in Japan on 1067mm lines....maybe it just_does_not_compute...

[Densha]

Standard gauge is better for higher speeds above 160 km/h (which is the max speed used with 1067mm gauge) and has a wider loading gauge. Cape gauge has the advantage of allowing narrower curves, which proves useful in mountainous areas. Choosing a gauge for a new railway probably depends on the needs at a certain location (speed, loading gauge, geography) and the gauge of surrounding already existing infrastructure (for interoperability).
 
More interesting may actually be why some private companies in Japan decided to go with 1435mm gauge while the rest of Japan was already using 1067mm gauge. That doesn't make sense to me at all because it's not for speed nor geographical reasons. I don't know about loading gauge, but I doubt that was a very big issue with companies like Kintetsu, Keihan, etc.

[kvp]

 

More interesting may actually be why some private companies in Japan decided to go with 1435mm gauge while the rest of Japan was already using 1067mm gauge. That doesn't make sense to me at all because it's not for speed nor geographical reasons.

 

Some companies used standard gauge from the start, like the Ginza line and the Hakone Tozan line. They did this, way before any national system was established. Some companies converted the tracks multiple times before settling on one, like Keikyu. Before the JGR, there was a large chance of Tokyo standardizing on standard gauge for all rail lines. Some lines like Keio still use the 1372 mm gauge used for street running trams. A few companies without freight interchange contracts choose standard gauge after the 2nd world war to be able to run faster services with off the shelf european technology, while some chose to develop new and faster technologies for cape gauge (like Tokyu), which scaled up to even faster speeds on standard gauge and allowed the development of the shinkansens. The various technologies are very similar to the two (50/60 Hz) mains frequencies. One end of Japan used american, while the other used european technologies and they never managed to standardize. (the reason for 60 Hz was that Tesla wanted to synchronize the network with the natual frequencies of Earth for easier earth loop propagation, while 50 Hz was choosen by the former collegues of Tesla in the hungarian Ganz factory /he worked there before he went to the usa/ to be off this natual beat to avoid any possible interference with the planet's natual field) The only reason cape gauge became a 'japanese' standard is that the JGR choose this for cost/performance reasons and it became the japanese freight and long distance passenger standard. If they selected standard gauge or 1372 mm, then we would call that the japanese standard.

 

Now compare this to for example Hungarian practice, where national standards were estabilshed from the start, so every little tram or horse car company had to be able to interchange freight cars with the rest of Europe, so the old street running tram loading gauge standard is the same as the prussian freight interchange standard (see: G10 cars) and the new one is the current international one, so freight trains or even mainline passenger trains can be routed through paved streets if needed. As the last remaining legacy, one very old suburban route from the city to the old royal summer palace is still left hand running like in the UK or Japan, but it's connected to the mainlines at two points and any trains following the old standards can travel on it. The new standard allowed mainline diesel trainsets to use the suburban electric network as a diversion route during bridge reconstruction or heavy freight to be delivered on tram tracks. Some of these freight connections are still in daily use where you can see a 3 car pcc interurban, a 6 section low floor articulated tram, a boxcab freight tram and sometimes even a diesel road switcher with modern freight cars stand in line at a street light. This interoperability makes it much easier to move stuff around. When i see the different gauge, loading gauge and traction standards used on the Tokyo networks, i still wonder why didn't they at least try to standardize or at least refrain from inventing new, incompatible ones (like the Toei Oedo line).

 

ps: There is a narrow gauge standard in Hungary too, which was mostly used for ballastless field railways (agricultural railways) but in Bosnia (then part of the Hungarian kingdom) a whole regional train network was built using it, since it was the most effective technology in the mountains. The big difference to Japan is that this is really narrow, only 760 mm, so the difference to standard gauge is much larger compared to cape gauge.

[ToniBabelony]

I think some private companies chose 1,435mm (standard gauge) over 1,067 (Cape gauge), because that was the technology their own (foreign) engineers supported.

 

Keisei was one of the last companies to get a complete gauge conversion. Keisei was using 1,372mm (Scottish gauge) until they got connected to the standard gauge Keikyū network via the Asakusa line subway in 1959. The initial plan was to connect Keisei to Keio, which also has Scottish gauge, via the Shinjuku line subway, so no gauge conversion was needed. However, the gauge conversion was chosen, since Keisei wanted to upgrade their network and was in dire need of new rolling stock as well anyway. Gauge conversion of the entire network was done within the span of a few months. Keiō actually also considered the same to be able to interconnect with Keisei via the Shinjuku line subway, but this proved too expensive for the less financially blessed Keiō and would disrupt operations (which suddenly increased at the time) too much. If this would have persisted, Tokyo would have had a massive standard gauge network with interchanges (Keisei, Keikyū, Shin-Keisei, Hokusō, Shibayama, etc.) and competing standards, like in the Kansai (Hankyū, Kintetsu, Hanshin, Sanyō, etc.).