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Towing Locos for Shinkansen Emergency?


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Maybe this question is stupid. I started to ask myself about when I modeled the additional coupler on my E6 set so I can "play" the delivery of the set to Akita. I mean, of course we all know Shinkansens are by design perfectly failsafe and will never undergo any problems in daily service. But what if? Do the JR companies have any Plan B for the (unlikely) case something goes wrong? Are there any towing locos to rescue a Shinkansen from a possible emergency? If so, which ones?

 

I'm a commuter for 8 years now and I have one time seen this here in Germany. The Deutsche Bahn has a double BR 218 diesel with an adaptor for ICE's Scharfenberg coupler. They towed the broken ICE to the next railyard.

Found a photo from a similar situation on Wikimedia Commons: -

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abschleppen#/media/File:Abschleppen_ICE3.jpg

... just to illustrate what I'm talking about.

 

Something like this in Japan?

Edited by medusa
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Where these locos built as new 4ft 8 and a half or converted from older 3ft 6 to to the job?

The 911 were built as standard gauge, I think there were some DD51s converted to DD18s by changing the wheel sets from cape to standard to plow the Yamagata Shinkansen.

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The 912s were also purpose built and some were used in tandem to provide enough traction.

 

ps: imho the 911 really looks cool, especially with its 3 bogie inspection car

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Aaah, thanks so much for this. The 911 looks indeed like "power".

 

So, - DD51s are the cape gauge sisters of the DD13 or DD18 towing locos?

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So, - DD51s are the cape gauge sisters of the DD13 or DD18 towing locos?

 

All of them were converted from cape to standard gauge. (Except the 911 series)

 

DD13-42, -48, -68, -69, -54, -51, -76, -56, -57, -73, -44, -45, -47, -111, -132 & -183 converted to 912-1 to -16

DD51-796, -742 & -783 converted to DD18-1 to -3

Edited by Suica
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The 912s were also purpose built and some were used in tandem to provide enough traction.

 

ps: imho the 911 really looks cool, especially with its 3 bogie inspection car

 

every 911s are cool.

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