Maintenance and Hamamatsu

After breakfast on Wednesday, we met up with some employees from the Rail Center and Track Maintenance Department. We had a very special opportunity to see the rail lines up close and personal during normal operating hours. With trains traveling at 270km/hr, they are obviously very concerned with keeping people far away. We were two feet away:



After watching trains and learning about the tracks we had lunch and then learned about how the rail lines are maintained every night. There is a lot of crazy heavy duty equipment and many hours of work involved. We then went to the rail yard, which is where they make precision welds to create flawless 200m long sections of track. The rail yard was flying an American flag for us when we arrived. Below is a picture of it, as well as me working in the yard and a sample of what a stack of rail looks like.



For dinner that night we went out to a local restaurant called Boss Burger, which had big screen TVs and country music blaring over the speakers. The burger was good, but I don't think it was big enough to be called The Boss.

The next morning we had free time, as we would not be going to work until late at night. We checked out of the hotel and explored town. Below is a picture of Hamamatsu Castle. It was first built around 400 years ago, and was the site of many battles. I also made my way to an air base and museum where I got to see a lot of cool planes flying and on display.

At night we got a chance to see track maintenance firsthand. The shift starts at 11PM with a briefing on the night's work. By midnight the trains are done running, and the crew heads out to the tracks. We got to see the process for replacing ballast, the rocks underneath the tracks. As many trains pass over the ballast slowly gets crushed and must be replaced to ensure a smooth and even ride. Work goes until just before trains start running again at 6am, but we only stayed out until 3.