International Railroad Discussion > A bad day when your geometry train derails

Every May the rented JR East inspection train visits the Watarase Keikyu railway. On May 22, 2017 it derailed southbound on a curve between the Hanawa and Mizunuma stations. The convenience store manager who let me shoot pictures from his office, said it caused a huge cloud of dust and noise. Came to rest partly blocking the highway 257 crossing in Mizunuma.

The Watarase Valley Railroad website reports bustitution and service not to resume until May 29th. Trains continue to run from Kiryu to Omama during the outage. Mizunuma is an Onsen destination on the Watarase.

The three car train is labelled Mzc-Mz-Tzc. Diesel hydraulic powered but the middle car, Mz, which derailed has pantographs for testing electrified lines. Tzc tests track geometry. Mzc tests the signal systems.

#1 Road closed due to the derailment. I parked at Mizunuma and hiked about a kilometer to the site today.

#2 Train came to rest partially blocking highway 257 crossing. An NHK video crew is in the background.

#3 Curve where the derail occurred.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/22/17 21:41 by Railpax71.

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#4 Truck lost a few parts

#5 Very close quarters to get equipment in. A railfan captured a video of the derailment which played on TV last night. I would be scared to be in the position where he was on the outside of the curve!

#6 Tracks across the road crossing.

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What's the third rail without spikes for? Is it for upcoming replacement work?

Ray

Screen shot from news at 7 showing the dust that the convenience store manager described. I made some prints for the manager to give tomorrow and see progress from his viewpoint.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/23/17 02:05 by Railpax71.

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Railpax71 Wrote:
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> #5 Very close quarters to get equipment in. A
> railfan captured a video of the derailment which
> played on TV last night. I would be scared to be
> in the position where he was on the outside of the
> curve!

Here's a link to the NHK report with the said video, a slow speed detailment:

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20170522/k10010990921000.html

Even though it's bad news, thanks for posting the timely report. I ran into a similar "East i" inspection train on the Chuo Line 2 years ago, while embarking on a jet lag-induced early morning trip. Couldn't document it because the inspection train was going track speed, and the train I was riding on was not a Shinkansen.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/shutoken-news/20170522/3610771.html

• Lack of tie plates
• Wide tie spacing
Can this be a recipe for mayhem?
...Lorenzo

The Watarase took a long intermission from the May 22nd derailment to resumption of train service on June 10. Service was bustituted except for Kiryu to Omama.

Tie plates? Neither the Jomo or Watarase seem to use them.