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Kagoshima tram goes in two different directions


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marknewton

If you’re going to split the points, might as well make a thorough job of it. Been there, done that, got the accident report on my permanent record! 🙂

 

It would be interesting to know exactly what happened here. I’m assuming the turnout is motorised, so there’s a number of possibilities.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

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From memory of reading an article a couple of days back, the driver (25 or something, fairly new on the job) managed to change the point as the tram was passing over it.

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Most places that wouldn't get noticed apart from the delay to traffic. Does that TV station have a railway engineer on staff?

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15 hours ago, marknewton said:

If you’re going to split the points, might as well make a thorough job of it. Been there, done that, got the accident report on my permanent record! 🙂

 

It would be interesting to know exactly what happened here. I’m assuming the turnout is motorised, so there’s a number of possibilities.

 

The video says that the switch is set to guide to the right automatically.  I guess the driver chose left, but did so too late.  I thought switches were actuated by the CTC room, or does this vary between heavy rail, subway, streetcar, etc?  I also thought that switches must have some mechanism to prevent changing while a train is going through them, is this not the case?

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Many tram switches these days are radio controlled. Usually the turnout has a memory and will identify a path with the tram. If his tram was a change-off this could be a problem.

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ben_issacs

Folks, 

I think that on the Iyo tramway in Matsuyama, at a diversion the points normally  lie straight ahead and if the driver wants to continue in a straight line, he shuts off power at a certain point, and coasts over the points, but if he leaves the power on, the points change to the diverting route.

Not sure what sets the points back to straight through after a diversion, perhaps when the power is switched off, they will revert to straight ahead?

If the same system applies in Kagoshima, the driver could have put power back on too soon, and so split the points.

Maybe the other way round, but the first assumption is more likely.

Regards, 

Bill.

Melbourne.

 

 

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Nick_Burman
19 hours ago, miyakoji said:

 

The video says that the switch is set to guide to the right automatically.  I guess the driver chose left, but did so too late.  I thought switches were actuated by the CTC room, or does this vary between heavy rail, subway, streetcar, etc?  I also thought that switches must have some mechanism to prevent changing while a train is going through them, is this not the case?

 

Trams don't have CTC...not to move the points, at least (Hiroshima has a sort of CTC but it's used to keep trams on schedule). Trams set their own points as they go along. In Europe most tramways have moved over to a transponder-based system - before the tram moves out of the depot the motorman keys in the line in an on-board computer which beams a signal to receivers along the tracks which change the points as the cars approach. Strangely enough most (if not all) Japanese tramways still use wire contacts to move points.

 

Cheers Nicholas

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