JR Signal Boxes

[yakumo381]

Looking for pictures of any existing JR Signal Boxes or Signal Station or a website that features them.

Adding a Tomix one to my Niihama layout but have just realised I have no usefull pictures of any in my collection from visiting Japan.

Do they have the name of the junction or block they cover on the front (like a UK signal box) or what?

The closest picture I have is of the one in the marshalling yard at Shin-Osaka which I suspect may not be typical and which is only a side on view.

Realise they must presumably now be fairly rare, given all lines gone/going over to centralised control?, but looking at route maps for tracks I have been on, I see references to them but cannot actually remember seeing one on a main line close up. 

[gmat]

Is this what you are looking for in the background? I can look for more and shoot them when I get out.



Best wishes,
Grant

[yakumo381]

Grant,

It's the actual signal box or signal tower where they do the switching from that I looking for more details of rather than equipment boxes.

Searched the net using "japan signal box",  "japan signal station" & " "japan signal tower" but nothing usefull comes up.

Found this one in my collection of the signal box at Nagoya Station but again not helpfull as I think this is the back of it so do not know what, if anything, is written on the front.

[gmat]

Do you mean the whole building? I don't remember seeing anything like that. But I'll be going on the Hachiko Line one of these days, perhaps I'll see something.
Best wishes,
Grant

[KenS]

They're not common, but perhaps you can find some pictures by searching Japanese Wikipedia.  The hard part is figuring out what they'd be called (in Japanese).  I haven't had much luck there, although I did turn up a few things.

The Signal Station (信号場) page contains what appears to be a list of what I'd call "interlockings" in English.  Most of these have just electronics cabinets, or in some cases a one-story modern pre-fab structure to hold the electronics.  But in a quick check, I turned up one page that had photos of what was obviously an older structure still located there.

That was described in one caption as a "signal station building" (信号場建物), but googling on that turns up mostly photos of the more modern type.

I also found a Japanese wikipedia page using a slightly different set of Kanji for "Signal Station" (信号所) which appears to be more what you're looking for (the Google English translation is "signal" or "signal box"), but it's an international page, not about Japan railways. Note that the second photo on this page is a non-Japanese example from the UK and the wikimedia link shows a bunch of photos, only one of which (which also appears on the wikipedia page) is from Japan.

That photo is of Saginuma Signal Box, and shows a modern structure above a station.  This appears to be the kind more commonly seen, probably used by the Station Master (who exercises manual control over station entry and exit of trains in some places) and may never have been the "signal box" encountered elsewhere (I don't know though, perhaps it evolved from them).  You can see these kinds of station-based towers in other stations, such as the twin towers at Ochanomizu station in this photo.  I don't know of a specific Japanese name for them (other than the above-noted signal box which doesn't appear to be what the Japanese call them).

I did find this blog entry, which shows a model of what appears to be an older type of signal box. It appeared to be referred to as a "Signal Line Office" (信号所は線路), but googling that didn't turn up any other examples, so perhaps I didn't extract the right Kanji from the caption.

Perhaps more diligent searching than I've done would turn up something.  Or perhaps someone on the board knows more about them, including their real name.

[keitaro]

To my knowledge there is not many of these left. Since more and more lines in japan are using atc and have onboard cab signals.

I tried searching but it seems you need to know the name of the signal station you want to find. I even tried searching decomisioned signal stations but .........

anyway some are still there but in use ?? not sure.

I'd try looking older lines using older rolling stock. That are more than 2 lines in general too.

[westfalen]

In 2006 at least, the Sanyo Main Line east from Okayama still operated with local control of the signals at each station. While I was videoing trains at Mitsuishi one evening when a local terminating train was due the station master came up from the ticket office at street level and entered the building on the island platform where a signal panel was located, he called control to ask permission to 'cut in' and find out what trains were around, cut in the panel, had a chat to his counterparts at the next stations either side of him on the block phone, put his signals to danger and while he was waiting for the local to come along he got out a bundle of cancelled tickets to check off against his monthly returns. I was fascinated because I'd done the same things many times myself as a station master before such practices had disappeared back home many years earlier.

[yakumo381]

The picture Ken has turned up of Hirouchi Signal station - see below - looks exactly like what I am interested in finding more out about and appears to answer my original question in that it has no name board on the front.

However the picture then raises another question - what are the structures over the track down the line from the signal station for? Tunnels waiting for the hills to be built over them? 

[KenS]

I believe it's a a "snow shed".  I saw a comment about some part of the interlocking being protected by one on one of the other pages I was looking at that described interlockings, and the picture was the same.

[bikkuri bahn]

Yes, those are snow shelters, as this area receives prodigious amounts of snow with high winds in winter.  They are mainly placed over points to protect them from being clogged with snow and ice, though there are also sections over plain track, which may serve as refuges for short trains.  The signal box in the picture became an unmanned facility in 1971.  At least in Hokkaido, signal boxes are redundant, as most of the network is controlled by the PRC (programmed route control) center inside JR Hokkaido's HQ in Soen, Sapporo.

[bikkuri bahn]

Is this what you are looking for in the background? I can look for more and shoot them when I get out.



Best wishes,
Grant

BTW, that's a grade crossing optical obstruction detector, along with a video camera installation.

[gmat]

That was taken last Saturday on the Hachiko Line, two crossings south of Higashi-Fussa Station. I took a bunch like that when I started shooting detail shots, but all were lost when my computer died.

Best wishes,
Grant

[bikkuri bahn]

In 2006 at least, the Sanyo Main Line east from Okayama still operated with local control of the signals at each station.

I think it still is.  I've passed a few times through Mitsuishi, and that section is not under CTC control, being just outside the Kansai Urban Network which ends at Kamigori.  I don't know the reason why local control is kept, though perhaps the traffic (typically just one passenger train per hour in each direction off-peak) doesn't warrant the expense.

[keitaro]

could be also a job thing ? maybe govt supports some of the cost of having the staff in the more remote areas?

[bikkuri bahn]

could be also a job thing ? maybe govt supports some of the cost of having the staff in the more remote areas?

I doubt it.  JR West is a private company after all, they staff their stations as they see fit, though perhaps they keep staff as an expression of goodwill to the community.  BTW, this station is not hooked into the MARS reservation system, nor ICOCA.  One thing to keep in mind is there is an interchange with the Sanyo Expressway nearby Mitsuishi, and as such I think most residents rely on cars for their daily transport needs.

[westfalen]

Mitsuishi station and the best shot I could get of the signalling panel through the window. Aside from the crossover for the one terminating train per day (in at 1911, out at 1915) there was a loop siding on the down side for refuging freights, which by the rust on the rails didn't seem to get much use, and a couple of dead end sidings most likely used only for maintenance of way equipment. Quite possibly would have been a busier place before the Shinkansen took away the limited expresses and road transport the car load freight.

[bikkuri bahn]

Quite possibly would have been a busier place before the Shinkansen took away the limited expresses and road transport the car load freight.

Quite a few years back (early 20th century), there was even a switchback in this area.

[yakumo381]

Looking a bit harder at one of the other wikipedia pictures KenS found, I realise that I missed that the name is on the front:

 広内信号場建物 = Hirouchi Block Station.

Will now be adding to the Tomix version I have for my Niihama layout.

[westfalen]

That would be a great place to turn into a holiday home. Imagine sitting out on that balcony in a deck chair with a cold beverage or two.

[miyakoji]

Cold green tea? 

[yakumo381]

End result - Niihama Block Station as installed on my layout.