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Gotcha... A trio of DD51's showing three livery variations in Yokkaichi.

Yokkaichi is not a pretty place: it’s a port city where oil tankers offload, and seems to be largely composed of refineries. What it does have is a large yard where you are very likely to see DD51’s. I can see that this won’t make the tourists flock to the place, but I appreciate it. I had the time and realised that my Japan Railways pass was still valid, so middle son and I went off for an adventure. The station is surrounded by the yard, which forms the exchange point for the port freight, and an intermodal terminal for Japan Railfreight’s mini containers. It also has a wagon repair depot and a permanent way shed. Funnily enough it reminds me of Bescot Yard in the UK, where I spent many hours as an impressionable youth.

I got pictures of several DD51’s and a couple of DE10 C-B locomotives as well. Thank goodness for Digital cameras… I confess to getting a bit carried away, but I had been looking for these locos for a while and as we fly out tomorrow it was probably my last chance. The people on the platform seemed bewildered by me wandering up and down the platform taking pictures of grubby engines. The one thing I missed was a blue and white industrial shunter, probably from the Ise Railway, which had been hidden behind a train of tanks. I was at the other end of the platform when the train pulled out and just saw it disappearing under a distant bridge.

Never mind. I can always come back next time.

Mindful that most people don't share my affliction, I've only included two images from the mass I took. #1029 stands ready for its next duty.

An added bonus was a decent shot of c-b DE 10 #1512 showing the unusual wheel arrangement.
I wonder why JR don't name their engines?

The Takasaki Light Railway

In Takasaki we met with Matthew Foster his wife Hiromi-san and Rinka, his little girl. Matthew is the owner of the Takasaki Light Railway, the only 16mm gauge model railway in Japan. Matthew has used a heck of a lot of ingenuity in making the line as there are almost no parts or kits available locally. He built his railcars (like the one in the picture) from card and plywood with a motor from a radio controlled car kit. Unfortunately the railway is being rebuilt so a visit wasn’t possible but the family kindly invited us out for lunch instead.

To the hills…

Nagano is in the mountains and is known for skiing, a sort of Japanese Zermatt, or what Zermatt would look like if the locals decided to build skyscrapers and a Shinkansen terminal in the middle. Between there and Nagoya is a lot of forest and lumpy bits, cut by rivers in deep gorges with spindly bridges, and a railway.



This is a bit of the mountain section. The line which peels off into a tunnel on the right as we leave the station is actually a long loop, one of several in the mountains which I expect speeds things up as the line seems to be running near to capacity: about every second station we passed a passenger or freight train.
You can see the tilt capability clearly on the curves. The wobble caused by me holding one of the boys while filming. I really need to get a tripod. In this video the train accelerated to about 80kph, so I filmed the next one when we were on a straighter section and moving faster- about 120kph at the beginning...



It's as wide as a British coach, seats fifty in comfort, and rides like a dream, but honestly, this is a Narrow Gauge train...

More on the DD51 theme…

Nagoya region has lots of DD51’s. Unfortunately they were still being secretive last week, so all I got was the occasional glimpse: I saw two shoot past on a tank train and a red one was prowling behind wagons in Yokkaichi. Two more had taken cover under a bridge which made it impossible to photograph them, and I missed another on a freight in the hills. To cap it all I missed one in quite spectacular fashion in Nagoya: a kind conductor offered to take our picture: just as he returned the camera...

The Elusive DD51

Tomorrow we head off to the hills to visit some of my wife’s relatives. We’re going by train, naturally, so expect a few more pictures. In my continued quest for modern narrow gauge I’m hoping to get some shots of the tilting diesel and electric MUs that run into the mountains. I travelled on these last time I was here and they really are fantastic units, comfortable and spacious, and pretty fast. I’m also going to keep an eye out for the DE10 C-B units that I’ve seen briefly on previous visits.
However, I really would like to Photograph an example of a Japan Railfreight (JRF) DD51. This shouldn’t be too much of a problem in theory: they are one of JRF’s main locomotives and they infest the Yokkaichi/Nagoya region which we’ll be travelling through. The DD51 class were built in 1962 or 1972-77 (accounts vary) I originally thought they were B-B-B wheel arrangement but it turns out they are B-2-B, which seems a bit odd but there is some cunning method for changing the overall axle weight from 14-15 Tonnes by by altering the pressure on the springs, according to the Japan Modern Transport Museum. They aren’t exactly beautiful, but they do have a very impressive presence with their long hoods and big centre cab (they are in fact 18m long over buffers). I have some vague idea about making a B-B-B locomotive, based on the general design, for the KÖB’s steep diesel-only section between Dachsburg and Spitzenwald, the rationale being that the container and wood traffic needed a powerful locomotive in the 70's but an early C-C unit had tried to straighten out the curves. I know I could ask for pictures, and there are a few online (The one above is from this Wikimedia Gallery), but very few show the side of the locomotive (Which I think is the most impressive view) and it’s nice to have your own picture anyway.
The probem is that DD51’s seem to be shy. Last week I saw some skulking behind a billboard in Shio-Hama which gave a good view of their wheel arrangement but very little else. As we left the station two more disappeared under a bridge. Naturally after I put the camera away. However, we will be covering a lot of mileage on a Japan Railpass and most of it on the 3’6” system, so hopefully there will be some chance to finally get a good view of a DD51. I’ve got a fresh SD card for the camera, Just in case. I'll report on my success (or lack thereof) on Saturday…

Mystery Engine, and Where have all the pictures gone?

Firstly, I’d be interested to know the origins of this loco in the Kintetsu station at Shio-Hama (I think). All I’ve ever seen on the Kintetsu line is the endless procession of EMU’s so this got my attention. I suspect it’s an older loco retired into the depot to shunt EMU’s about, but any info is appreciated. I'm sure someone out there knows.
Secondly, I’ve realised the Blogger has started limiting the amount of space I have for pictures, so from now I’ll probably just have a small one like the one on this post, an it will be a link to my Flickr Gallery, unless the prototype is relevant for my own modelling purposes. However, I'm still taking loads of pictures: have a look here for more JR images and a set of shots of the standard Gauge Kintetsu line, with detail pictures of things like pantographs and overhead power supplies.

Sunset on the Crossing…

I told you there would be more pictures here… This crossing is a favourite location ever since I first wandered across it a few years ago. As an added plus the sun shines along the track as it sets. Here’s some first attempts at linesiding there. Funny how you see some things after the event: I didn't notice the utility pole behind the barrier until afterwards. Ah well...

View towards the station

Toba bound train passes. Notice that this is about the same width as a standard gauge "sprinter" in the UK. So much for "narrow gauge is small" I set this up to quickly and cropped the top of the "X"

Cars crossing the line showing the cramped nature of the site. Just after I took this picture another car turned up from behind the camera.

After the sun went down one of the more modern two-car units turned up. Of course.
(Anyone who has information to add on any of the pictures please feel free to comment)

Finally, pictures...

I’ve not had a lot of time and decent weather, but I was able to get a bit of linesiding in a couple of days ago before severe Jetlag kicked in.

There is a railway there: The black and yellow signs mark a crossing on the lump in the road. I like this location so there will be more pictures here.

Two railcars approach Ise Station from Toba on the 3’6” JR line

Ise is like a full-size model railway, with the sort of features that "Don't happen real life": 2 Track gauges, two big stations a train's length from each other. Railways climbing over each other on steep gradients and sharp corners, curling around a big railcar depot. which is accessed by a headshunt crossed by a busy level crossing. And it has a Junction.

Having dropped off the passengers the railcars pull forward over a crossing to the depot headshunt

Best picture so far- the railcars on the headshunt while the points are changed. The orange blur is a Kintetsu train passing behind. I'll post more Kintetsu images when I have time.

Back across the crossing into the depot. I think I may video this operation sometime as it doesn't really convey the atmosphere in still pictures.

The city is served by the Diesel operated 3'6" Japan Railways (JR) Line to Toba and the Standard Gauge, private Kintetsu line to Kashikojima. What it doesn't have is any kind of freight: Japan is a leader in passenger trains, but the rail freight tonnage is very low as a percentage of the total. We'll be travelling later this month and hopefully that will be a chance to get pictures of some of the impressive DD51 Co-Bo diesels and a few tilting trains into the bargin. I'll keep you posted and keep adding pictures. Anyone with more knowledge on Japanese Railways is more than welcome to throw in comments and corrections, and further info.

In Japan…

The ferry we used to get from the airport to the railway. A bit off topic, but I needed a picture and it's too wet to go and watch trains.

I’m over 9000km from my modelling bench, which slows down modelling a bit. I can’t even take the boys and do some line siding: monsoon was delayed this year and it’s walloping it down with rain. Even if I was prepared to get my camera wet, I doubt you’d see the results.

After we arrived in Japan we managed to use a ferry, bus, and train to get to Ise. The sea was a bit rough so the catamaran was thrown about somewhat, but once we were on land we were all fine again and walked from the railway station to my inlaws house. It’s very satisfying to finish a 9000km journey on foot, even if it was only 500m.

I was able to see the JR (Japanese Railways) station briefly as we arrived. It still has the same 2-car stainless steel DMU’s, which look like a Sprinter built by Budd, and the geriatric single car units that crawl around the coast. Alongside the JR system is the private standard gauge “Kintetsu” line. It’s a bit like an interurban line with a fairly extensive network running to the coast and into the hills, electrified at 600vDC or 1500V dc depending on which source you read. I hope they know the difference. It also runs 1067mm (3’6”) and 762mm (2’6”) lines. It's interesting that the lines were obviously built using imperial measurements, but pretty academic as I can’t get any pictures. Hopefully the weather should improve tomorrow...