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Hankai Tramway, Osaka – May, 2025

I'd been alerted that the oldest operational vehicle in Japan would be operating over Golden Week on the Hankai Tramway in Osaka. It's a Mo161 couldn't resist checking it out as they usually don't run during summer due to a lack of air-con...

I arrived at Shin-Imamiya-Ekimae via the Osaka Loop Line and didn't have to wait long for a south-bound service.

My goal was to get Abikomichi Station and view the tram depot. The Mo161 tour would start from there.

I tell you what, it was quite a ride! Definitely hold on if you're standing up. The fans were already starting to linger around Abikomichi Station, so I just loitered, watching the services pass as we waited for the star of the show to appear.

It was interesting to watch the terminating trams enter the depot and run around. Drivers would swap and the vehicles would re-enter service.

And ... well ... did I take too many photos?

My A6000 bit the dust at that point... I tried everything... but it felt like the shutter was sticking and it was all over. So I had to switch to my phone for the rest. Right as the star appeared!

And that was it... I was so pissed off at my camera that I went home and cried.

Osaka – May, 2025

Staying in the usual spot in Shin-Osaka, I ventured to the usual places... plus a few extras! First off, the usual shot from the balcony of the apartment of a now-common double-ended freight train.

They've started running them with banker engines now, thanks to the dip on both sides of the new "ume-kita" platforms at Osaka Station.

Shin-Osaka station was next... and, of-note, was a Haruka service with two different types of vehicles.

Next up, thanks to Osaka Expo, there's a direct shuttle to Sakurajima from Shin-Osaka operated by 323-series sets.

The set above had just finished it's run and was running-around near Higashi-Yodogawa station to come back into Shin-Osaka for the next service. I exited the station to check out the level crossing on the northern side of Shin-Osaka Station. This is only used for freight and the odd dead-head movement.

A service was also running into Ajikawaguchi via the main lines...

But yeah, back to the freight line...

Osaka Higashi Line

Although I'm sad you can't cross the bridge on-foot anymore, I'm happy for the line and being able to travel on it! I got up at sparrows-fart to do a Hard-off tour and that allowed me to see the morning services on the line.

Hilariously, I managed to catch the next train to Hidara Station to see the same freight consist shunting around.

But then... I was off on something new!

Kashiwara Station And Surrounds

There's a hard-off just to the west of Kashiwara Station, and I had gotten there too early... so... instead? Train-spotting!

The Kintetsu Domyoji Line terminates here, so there's a lot of action as the shorter EMUs run in and out in the morning peak. The line runs south across a picturesque bridge before getting buried in the Kintetsu network. Thanks to having a bit of time, I dawdled around, enjoying the morning sunlight.

It was meant to be an un-eventful stroll to the riverside, but was quickly interrupted by a weird 'sloshing' sound coming from one of the canals...

I wonder how often these guys get fed? They were hunnnnnngry!

I was too distracted by the fish to realise there were cool shots behind me...

But anyway, I continued to the river.

Ok yup. This was the right decision.

Kashiwara-Minamiguchi Station is perched above the roadway, right before the river bank.

Perfectly model-able! From there... more wildlife...

And then hard-off... treasure.

Limited Express Mahoroba

There's a new limited express through to Nara from Osaka Station, operating via the Osaka Higashi Line!

That's all... oh, and some freight in the same place...

Oh... and the tea train!

There was also then a test-run afterwards... which I missed. I should've loitered with the other tecchan who wasn't moving!

Osaka Metro Chuo Line 400 Series

This 400-series star-wars-ian EMU has been introduced to take people over to the Expo amongst the man-made islands. Fortunately, at the other end of the line there's a beautiful station before the beautiful mountain range.

If you look close enough, you can see a Kintetsu train climbing the mountain.

Oigawa Railway, Shizuoka – May, 2025

Apologies, this is going to be a long post. It's been a while since I've been back to this model-railway-in-real-life-paradise and I've missed it! Although the line suffered damage from a landside back in 2022 and has been truncated to Kawane-Onsen Sasamado Station, Oigawa Railway is still operating services in the area where they can and have plans to repair the line to full operation again in the future.

They are also still very active with their vehicle preservation and restoration, working on EMUs, electric locomotives and steam engines. You can find their vehicles over here, but it's better to just go and visit the railway! Recently, they've re-painted one of their electric locomotives in the Japanese Blue Train (Night Train) style and it looks superb. It's been given the nickname (as with everything in Japan) "Chibi-Blue" where "chibi" translates loosely to "Tiny" with hints of "cute" and "little".

The goal was to see this new livery in action and to check out all of the usual awesomeness that is Oigawa. To get there from Shin-Osaka, I took a not-too-early shinkansen, but thankfully my friend hinted to an exact service to check out... being the Wonderful Dreams Livery!

It's plastered in Disney characters and determined to cart you to Tokyo where you can end up at Tokyo Disney... It only took me to Hamamatsu. From here it was a transfer to a local train, otherwise I'd shoot straight over Kanaya Station where the Oigawa Junction is.

The transfers were made and we wandered up to the pedestrian overpass just east of the station for a spectacular view.

You know you're in Shizuoka when Mt Fuji loiters in every photo. And when you see the beautiful cream of their EMU sets.

And freight trains... even though it was Golden Week, we had freight! The Oigawa service (of which we intended to also ride on!) was due into Kanaya Station and we got in position.

CHIBI BLUE! Straight away! A good omen.

The platform for Oigawa at Kanaya Station is a terminus, so the front loco becomes the rear... with the Steamer now on point. Were people here for the C11 or Chibi Blue?

A bit of both... and before-long we were off to Shin-Kanaya. The usual suspects were waiting in the yard, entertaining the children.

We rode through to Ieyama where we had a short photo-stop whilst waiting for the opposing train.

Once on the platform, whilst most ran to the front of the train...

I was more interested in chibi-blue.

Such a good looking loco and a stellar paint job to match!

We continued on to the temporary terminus Kawane-onsen sasamado.

It's such a picturesque location! You can get some really good photos from the river-bed, and so we got into position.

With time on our side, we checked out the goods at the station, returning to the other side of the bridge for the next service.

Always happy to see us, Thomas is.

A stock-livery E500 was on the rear and would soon depart back across the bridge. The lighting to the north was too harsh, especially for the darker locomotive, so I returned to the south-side for the final pass.

As much as I love Thomas, I'm always here to see the other relics that the Oigawa Railway preserves and operates.

Waiting for us at Kawane-onsen Sasamado Station was the Kintetsu 16000. We actually only ended up riding it back to Ieyama, so that we could check out Chibi-Blue once more.

We arrived at Ieyama and alighted the train. The stationmaster received the staff and the EMU was off. We loitered to inspect Percy.

How perfectly hilarious. I love that they've actually painted the middle driving wheelset black to make Percy a proper 0-4-0.

The station precinct was inspected... and then the next SL service came through.

And the service stopped... but had no reason to as the path was clear to the terminus? Oh... watering!

It gave me a good chance to check out Chibi-Blue again!

The SL was reconnnected and they were outta there.

But not for long...

And then we joined and returned to Shin-Kanaya.

Next, we actually took a taxi to the bridge where I took a photo a decade-or-so-ago... to try and reproduce it. Unfortunately the trees weren't as leafy as they were, and may have actually been removed... I couldn't work out exactly where I'd stood in the past. Photos were still taken!

And then we wandered back to the yard around the back of the station, next to the river. This is where the factories were, back in the day, that also used the railway line.

Bits of trains everywhere...

And then it was back to Shin-Kanaya Station for a few final shots, before a service to Kanaya to return home.

The 16000 class took us all back.

Thank you again, Oigawa Railway (...and Hayato-San for organising)!

Randen, Kyoto – April, 2025

I'd seen concept art for a new vehicle on this railway and had decided that I should visit it this trip since, well, it's been about a decade! I'm always preferring the trip-up-the-hill with the Eizan Dentetsu rather than the stroll-through-the-suburbs with Keifuku Electric Railroad (Randen)... but I couldn't resist seeing this new unit in the flesh.

The trip started off from Shin-Osaka, riding the Hankyu Kyoto Line through to Saiin Station. This location provides a direct transfer to the Sai Station on the Randen line, towards the eastern end of the Arashiyama Line.

The station is actually split across a major road, with the depot being located on the western side. I was there for 5 minutes and had vehicles shunting in and out continuously.

The line also has a high operating frequency as it carries tourists out to Arashiyama.

Before-long my westbound service came through to take me to Katabiranotsuji Station, where the Kitano Line branches off.

Katabiranotsuji is a two-platform covered station with the major Arashiyama Line passing through the middle. The Kitano line is a terminated to two docks on the northern side of platform 1. This allows one service to arrive as another is readying to depart, very much like Demachiyanagi Station on the Eiden.

Still no hints of the new vehicle, was it even running today? I decided to travel a few stops up the Kitano Line to Narutaki Station where the Kitano Line reduces to single-track.

And then it appeared!

I had to be on the wrong platform to get a good photo, but fortunately made it onto the train for the ride back into Katabiranotsuji.

It's such an amazing design... it nearly has the Metropolis 2001 Anime Art Deco styling about it with those chrome-trimmed headlights. It's beautiful. As that it was turning to run back up the Kitano Line, I wandered to the next station up the Kitano Line to get some final photos.

Other services passed first... and then the work of art...

It was a pleasure.

Kurashiki, Okayama – April, 2025

I'd spent the night in Hiroshima, but was off early the next morning I shot off to Kurashiki, just in time to get to a Hard-Off at opening-o-clock. Check this thing that was on the shelf?

A Yamaha floppy-disk based MIDI jukebox!? Record your songs from your Piano to one of those Roland disk-based units and then play them back here! Or just have CANYON.MID on repeat. Anyway... back to the trains. I really do have a soft spot for the mustard-yellow 113/115/117s that run in the Setouchi area.

As for the new Yakumo... I like it, but I loved the retro colours more.

I was in-time for the next freight service...

Part Fukuyama Rail Express, part Super Rail Cargo, part Kuro Neko Yamato, part Air ... a bit of everything!

Mizushima Rinkai Railway

This cute little third-sector railway runs from Kurashiki Station down to Muzushima Station and beyond to the freight yards. It still exists thanks to the freight component and the requirement to transfer Mitsubishi Heavy Industries staff to their factories. Of course, normal passengers use the line too, but it's heavily subsidised. Thanks to Golden Week, there were no freight services operating when I visited.

I got on at Kurashiki City Station (it has its own name as it's not JR) and travelled to Yayoi Station to find a local Hard Off. It was a hefty walk in sub-par weather! Nothing to be found either.... well, nothing that would fit in my suitcase.

Instead, I just admired the variety of liveries operating on the line and then returned to Kurashiki Station to check into APA Hotel Kurashiki-Ekimae. This turned out to be one of the best afternoons of the trip!

I then realised that you could totally open the window!

And the photos from here on were fantastic.

Or I thought so anyway... Not much freight, again thanks to Golden Week, but a great array of West JR services.

And then it happened... I was distracted by a Yakumo and hadn't realised the freight chasing it.

I bolted downstairs to catch it waiting in the station yard for departure!

Yeeeeeeey! I hadn't expected this to run on the holidays! The earlier service was a no-show. As that I was already outside, I went over to the pedestrian bridge to check out the Mizushima Rinkai in the afternoon sunshine.

Very cute. Even funnier is the hotel...

Perfectly visible from the bridge... and... whoops... I left the window open?

I seem to be the only railfan in residence right now. I returned to the hotel to have a beer and enjoy the view.

The weather was pretty feral around lunch time, but as the clouds came and went things got better...

The room provided an amazing view of the railway to the west.

The Mizushima Rinkai services came and went like clockwork as they had no other trains to compete with...

Many trains came and went, along with picturesque weather...

And then something special!...

A HD300 Hybrid off the Mizushima Rinkai Line! Even this was operating today? But at dusk-o-clock. Again, I ran downstairs.

And in terrible lighting I got to see the rolling rectangle up-close.

The night ended with a Sunrise Express passing through.

The morning saw more liveries on the Mizushima Rinkai and the Sunrise on its return voyage.

Also a lonely Fukuyama Rail Express not caring for public holidays.

I decided to go down track-side one final time as I was still a few hours away from check-out.

No freight, but lots of interesting passenger movements. Of course, it wasn't until I returned upstairs that another freight passed!

And that was that... I checked out and rode Kitty-chan home!

Next up was a day at USJ, but we don't need to discuss an ABSOLUTELY AMAZINGLY AWESOME theme park on this site, do we?

Hiroshima – April, 2025

After visiting Satsuma-Sendai, I took the 7am Sakura straight through to Hiroshima, arriving around 10am. I hadn't been back to the area in years and wanted to both check out the progress on the station and ride some Trams. I also wanted to try and see banker locomotives in action over the pass to Saijo.

After visiting a few Hard-Offs, I travelled over the hills to Saijo and had the Fukuyama Rail Express pass me en-route. No photo of that. It was also the first day of Golden Week, meaning that there were no other freight services operating!

Back to Hiroshima it was! I travelled on the Geibi Line north one stop to Yaga Station to have a look at the Shinkansen Yard and saw a consist getting a scrub.

The dual gauge line was also of interest...

The overbridge also allows great photos of the Geibi Line DMUs... but somehow I waited until wandering down lineside to take a photo...

And then I wasn't disappointed with double vermillion at the station on the way back.

I actually left the station and walked to Aeon mall for dinner... finding a C11 stuffed-and-mounted out the front!

Poor old thing.

Finally I checked into my APA Hotel Stadium-Mae and failed to receive a railway view. Instead... I loitered at the crossing at night watching trains. I don't seem to have taken any actual photos!

I did love the level crossing informational signals. The crossing crossed 6 lines and the technicians seemed to think the pedestrians and cars needed this much detail? Great for railfans!