TOKYO — A power outage that disrupted train service on the Japanese island of Kyushu was caused by a slug. The mollusk was electrocuted when it made its way into a trackside device, an investigation has concluded.
The rail operator on Japan’s southernmost island, JR Kyushu, announced the findings on Sunday. The company had to cancel 26 trains and had other service disrupted, delaying about 12,000 passengers, when the outage occurred on May 30, according to an Agence France-Presse report.
A spokesman for the company was not sure if the event was a first but called it rare.
“We often have trouble with deer colliding with trains but not a problem with slugs,” he said.
Can’t blame Godzilla for this one.
How does a slug get to where it’s not supposed to be? Who knows? We had a neighborhood here lose it’s electric power when a squirrel manged to get itself fried in a transformer, blowing the same in the process.
That’s not supposed to happen either.
A trackside device implies that this was a signal and/or control item and not a power system failure. Most trackside equipment has seals and/or screens around openings so I wonder how the slug was able to get to live wire terminals or contacts,
Any of you guys seen the slugs up at Moosehead Lake ME? Jeez, those things are the size of White Owl “New Yorkers.”
I might have tried one as bait for lake trout, but I didn’t want to touch the nasty things!
And they will climb quite high, I’ve seen them 1/2 way up trees. Weirdest thing I’ve come across , lizards in ceiling light fittings . No idea how they got there.
You guys must have been brought up sheltered. A slug can crawl, slither, or squeeze thru almost any crack big enough to admit air.