Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review Vol. 52 No. 1 (March 2015)
61

Introduction of
the “Multipurpose Integrated Highly-Advanced
Railway Applications (MIHARA) Test Center”

L a n d Tr a n s p o r ta t i o n S y s t e m s D i v i s i o n
C o m m e r c i a l Av i a t i o n & Tr a n s p o r ta t i o n
S ystems

On October 2, 2014, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) opened the “Multipurpose
Integrated Highly-Advanced Railway Applications (MIHARA) Test Center,” which is located at
the Wadaoki Plant of MHI’s Mihara Machinery Works in Mihara City, Hiroshima Prefecture. It is
Japan’s first comprehensive railway transportation system test facility, and has a loop track ofapproximately 3.2 km.
The purpose of this center is to help Japanese firms to be more competitive against overseas
rivals and promote the export of urban transportation systems, which is a pillar of Japan’sinfrastructure export strategy. The center is intended to be open for use not only by MHI, but also
other companies and public/private organizations, and will serve as a powerful support tool foraccommodating international specifications and product development. We also expect the center tobe useful for the introduction of software – including maintenance and operation – which has been
widely acknowledged as the “Japan Model.”|1. Path to the construction of the center
Railway officials have been aware of the usefulness of railway test tracks for research,
product development, safety evaluation, etc., and at the Railway Group Meeting in June 2008, theCouncil of Transport Policy proposed the necessity of constructing such facilities. In response tothis proposal, the Japan Association of Rolling Stock Industries and related organizations discussed
the details of possible domestic test tracks and issued the report in December 2008, but nothingcame about.
Under such circumstances, the “Test Track Review Committee” was organized in April 2012
with members from academia, government, public agencies and railway companies/manufacturers,
to once again discuss feasible test tracks for the early materialization of such facilities. The topic
was set as the “Discussion on the Specifications and Operation of Urban Transportation Railway
Test Tracks” and thus, the details of the “MIHARA Test Center” and its intended purposes werelaid out.
It is Japan’s first full-scale railway test track for urban transportation systems. The committee
had the English acronym of the test center “MIHARA” coincide with the name of the city where
the test center is located (Mihara City, Hiroshima). They did so in the hope of the test center bornin this city becoming the “medium of conveying Japanese railway systems to the world,” being
cherished by the residents and continuing to grow.

|2. Facility overview of MIHARA Test CenterIn the MIHARA Test Center, the steel-rail test lines consist of a loop track of approximately
3,170 m, a lead track of approximately 360 m, and a small curve track of 260 m (Figure 1).
MHI’s Wadaoki Plant already had an approximately 1,270 m standard-gauge test line, which
was constructed between 2004 and 2007. For the MIHARA Test Center, this steel-rail test line wasdrastically expanded into a loop track and was equipped with various facilities for comprehensive
testing incorporating rolling stock, signals, communications and operational control. Thus, thenewly-completed steel-rail test loop has become ready for use.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review Vol. 52 No. 1 (March 2015)62Figure 1

The track layout of MIHARA Test Center

The loop track has a minimum curve radius of 120 m and a maximum cant Note 1 of 150 mm.
The rate of change of the cant Note 2 is set at 400. The longest straight section is roughly 1,050 m,
and the end of this straight section (geographically toward the east) forms a 50‰ upgrade slope.
After the summit is a 50‰ downgrade slope, on which a curved horizontal alignment with aminimum curve radius of 120 m was designed. As such, the obtained track layout attained acomplicated configuration containing both vertical and horizontal alignment elements, whichreflects urban geographical restrictions and the consequently-required difficult routes and slopes(Figure 2).
Currently available is a dual-gauge track for the standard/narrow gauges, and the test track
has a section with rail fasteners (where rails are fixed on sleepers) so as to also accommodate themeter gauge in the future.
In the overhead catenary system, the power supply voltage can be either DC750V or
DC1500V (Table 1). Thus, the MIHARA Test Center offers the facility with a DC1500V feeding
system Note 3, which is often the case with overseas urban transport system requirements.
The MIHARA Test Center has an operational control center (OCC) and an equipment room.
At OCC, a large-screen multi-display system enables the monitoring of the power supply status andCCTV footage, and the trains-on-rails status can be checked on the desktop screen (Figure 3).
Note 1: In a curved track, the outer rail is placed higher than the inner rail to reduce the influence ofcentrifugal force on a train running on it. The cant denotes such designs or differences in elevation.
Note 2: The rate of change of the cant is the degree of change in the cant gradient.
Note 3: Through the feeding system, trains can obtain necessary power to move on a track.

Table 1

Summary of the loop track facility at the MIHARA Test Center

Test track length
Track gauge

(mm)

Rail
Maximum grade
Vertical alignment

(‰)
(m)

Minimum curve radius(m)

Maximum cantRate of change of cant
Slack
Overhead line(mm)
Voltage
Type

Overhead line height
Track bed type(mm)

Turnout

Type

Loop track summary
Approx. 3.2 km
Standard gauge 1,435 mm + narrow gauge 1,067 mm(dual gauge)Long rail for EN54E1/ j ointed rail for JIS50N
501500120(Note: R100 m in the lead track)
150
400
16 mm (R120, R160)
DC1500V/DC750V/DC600V
OCS
Catenary wire: hard-drawn copper stranded conductor 150 mm2(PH 150 mm2), tensile strength 1,500 kgf
Trolley wire: GT-SN 110 mm2, tensile strength 1,000 kgf
5150
Ballast track and solid bed track
Standard gauge, simple turnout No. 6(Run-over type turnout for a dual gauge (narrow gauge))

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Technical Review Vol. 52 No. 1 (March 2015)
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Figure 2The 50‰ grade section

Figure 3

Operational control center|3. Center utilization and expected effects
The MIHARA Test Center is expected to be mainly utilized from the perspective of (1)technological development and safety evaluation, (2) specifications verification and (3) training
and practice.
Conducting a demonstration and safety evaluation under a condition similar to the actual
operation makes it possible to shorten the time necessary for testing and adjustment, as well as
facilitate the practical application of new technologies and new systems. In terms of systemvalidation, for example, data such as RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety)
and EMC (Electro-Magnetic Compatibility) can be obtained at the MIHARA Test Center and therelevant tests (i.e., durability testing, combination testing and integration testing) can also beperformed. The whole process may become shorter owing to the preliminary tests, which can be
conducted domestically before track construction is completed overseas.
It is also possible to collect the data in accordance with the standards and specifications givenby the client (i.e., an overseas railway company) and assess it accordingly, which may further
promote the export of Japanese railway technologies.
The MIHARA Test Center can provide foreign railway officials with opportunities to see theJapanese railway system, encouraging them to become familiarized with the system, understandhow it can be different from other countries and get a clear idea of our technological levels. We
hope that such occasions may result in an advantage for us when competing against overseas rivals.
We sincerely hope that the use of the center can benefit many stakeholders, making Japan
more competitive in the export of its railway infrastructure.