Comment by NewJazz
12 days ago
Different soil? Different climate/weather patterns.
Japan having to build to earthquake standards, so being more robust overall? Or to specific failure modes, at least.
12 days ago
Different soil? Different climate/weather patterns.
Japan having to build to earthquake standards, so being more robust overall? Or to specific failure modes, at least.
Doctor Yellow.[1] Full rail inspection every ten days.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Yellow
At full speed!
Which matters, because Doctor Yellow inspection trains can be put into the schedule with the regular trains. There's no need to shut down traffic while a slow inspection car chugs along.
BART recently got a full-speed inspection car.[1] They needed a specially built one because BART has a non-standard track gauge.
The Federal Railroad Administration has track inspection cars, but only six of them for the whole country. One was seen on CALTRAIN track.[2]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHa1Si7CW8Q
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQcRHn9YiPg