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Plastic bag stuck to overhead wire stops trains on Tobu Isesaki Line
A plastic bag stuck to an overhead wire on the Tobu Isesaki Line in Tokyo disrupted train services on Wednesday, the railway operator said.
At around 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the driver of a local train on the Isesaki Line found a plastic bag stuck to an overhead wire between Nishi-Arai and Takenotsuka stations, and applied the emergency brakes, Tobu Railway officials said.
Services on the line were partially suspended for 45 minutes while the bag was removed, inconveniencing about 10,000 passengers.
The killer plastic bag strikes again!!! :o
Seriously though, come on.
Well if the plastic bag had of got itself stuck in the pantograph, it may have caused some havoc and inconvenienced many more passengers.
And 10,000 passengers for 45 minutes! That would be moving 222 passengers every minute.
The bag would have just melted eventually from the friction and the heat.
Yeah but you don't want it to melt on a) The Overhead or b) The Pantograph as there can be dire consequences as they are both fragile and vital pieces of equipment on an EMU.
with plastic bags regarding the overhead in Wellington the trolley buses would play pass the plastic bag the pole would pick it up tke it to the next span then the trolley behind that would do the same and so on until one dewires or the bag blows off the wire
Well, that is for trolley buses, trains are not as lucky as they don't have poles and if a pantograph de wires it is a big problem :P If a bag is caught in the wires it could melt, leaving a big lump of plastic on either the wire or the pantograph. Hence the safety of getting it away from the wires as a just in case. Japan tends to play it safe.
The melted plastic would usually be spread out, particularly with high speed trains.
This would have been a local, so no. But would you really want melted plastic in your electrics? I certainly wouldn't. As I said, this is a Japan railway company who like to err on the side of caution, unlike others around the world who wouldn't give two hoots. It is better for the train to stop and it be removed for the 45 minutes then the train fail and be left there for over an hour creating huge delays.