APPROACH FOR THE PREVENTION FAILURES OF SPECIAL LAY-OUT TURNOUTS IN EAST JAPAN RAILWAY COMPANY

Abstract

 Since special lay-out turnouts (movable DC, SSS and DSS) have many constituent members and a complex structure, they are particularly difficult to maintain among turnout management, and failures often occur. To prevent failures of these special lay-out turnouts, East Japan Railway company implemented structural strengthening measures for special turnouts, formulated management standards, investigated the causes of recent events, examined countermeasures, and took measures to prevent recurrence. As a result, the number of failures in our Tokyo area has decreased significantly by about 84% compared to about 20 years ago, and the failure rate of special lay-out turnouts decreased from about 49% about 20 years ago to about 10%.