A MASSPRODUCTION COLUMN (06/16/98, 01/29/99 Revised)
I would like to express my regret over the death of victims at the accident of Deutsche Bahn InterCityExpress on 06/03/98. (Part 3)
Please refer to Part 1...
Please refer to Part 2...
I would like to express my regret thrice over the death of victims at the accident of Deutsche Bahn InterCityExpress on 06/03/98.
The German Authorities research the cause of the train derailment accident of Deutsche Bahn InterCityExpress at present.
In Japan, most of people believe the excellence and accuracy of Asahi Shimbun newspaper. However Asahi newspaper did not deal with the accident much this time. Asahi has large-scale Science Departments in Tokyo and Osaka. Asahi also has a lot of journalists specializing for science and technology. Perhaps they also research the cause and do not understand it.
Recently Asahi dealt with the cause at 06/10/98 issue (Tokyo), at last. They think Japanese New Trunk Line has run for 33 years. At first, Hikari Super express trains consisted of iron-made electric cars. Thereafter Hikari and Nozomi had to run faster than 1960s' Hikari trains did. Japanese train engineers "began to use" aluminum bodies. In short, the weight of New trunk Line trains was decreased.
On the other hand, ICE uses iron-made bodies at present. Before World War II, Japan and UK developed high speed railway systems using steam locomotives. Especially UK had a steam locomotive at a speed of 200 kilometers per hour then. That time, they recognized skidding appeared on trains at a speed of 200 kilometers per hours. They needed heavy body trains more and more.
60 years later, German railway engineers used heavy electric locomotives for high speed railway systems.
Asahi writers regard ICE iron-made locomotives as safer than Japanese New Trunk Line aluminum cars because iron-made body is stouter than aluminum body.
Many railway manias in Japan know the front shape both of ICE and New Trunk Line.
As I wrote, these two have the same gauge. However ICE train width is much narrower than New Trunk Line train width. Moreover the height of gravity center of ICE trains is higher than that of New Trunk Line trains. It means ICE trains are easy to turn sideways.
On the other hand, NHK (Nippon Housou Kyoukai, a national broadcasting station) dealt with the accident on 06/11/98.
They dealt with ICE wheels. As you know, the latter wheel unit of the carriage No. 2 got out of order on 06/03/98 at Eschede, Germany. One of wheel was destroyed and a derailment happened. However the ICE 884 ran along the dameged rail by 6 kilometers.
In 1991, Deutsche Bahn used simple wheels for high speed railways in ICE trains. However they did not have shock-absorbing spring for ICE then. That time ICE always swung and shook. Passengers blamed ICE for the shaking bodies. The next year Deutsche Bahn began to use tram car type wheels to level off the vibration.
As you know, German cities have new tram car networks called Light Rail Transit (LRT). Asahi newspaper dealt with the LRT on 12/13/97. LRT trains have tri-layer structure. The structure of the wheel consists of outer wheel (metal tire), shock-absorber (gum), and inner wheel (metal axis). They called the wheel "Elasticity Wheel." Many enginners regarded such wheels as dangerous. LRT is very famous for an ecological system.
As you know, LRT is a low-speed railway system. Tri-layer wheel structure is not for high-speed railway system. On 06/03/98, an outer wheel got detached from its proper axis. German Railway engineers thought ICE's outer wheel detachment would cause the stop of the train. Actually the ICE 884 ran 6 kilometers after the derailment.
Thereafter Asahi newspaper dealt with the Elasticity Wheel on 06/12/98.
On the other hand, Japanese New Trunk Line does not use such Elasticity Wheels. Elasticity Wheels are very expensive. Moreover they are truly dangerous.
Japanese citizen movements have often dealt with ecology. They love German ecological life style. They appreciated Freiburg ecological life. In Japan, a professor working at Kyoto University shows Japanese the Freiburg life style. Osaka Mainichi Broadcasting System (Osaka MBS) cooperated with the movement. They also appreciated Freiburg. Freiburg. Freiburg. Freiburg.
Osaka MBS broadcast loving-Freiburg programs every day in December 1997.
I went to Freiburg in November 1997. I saw the city. It was not very good. Please do not love Freiburg, Osaka people!
If Osaka people keep loving Freiburg, they will begin to use the "Elasticity Wheel" because it is ecological.
New Trunk Line would get worse then.
To be continued ...
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