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Kumamoto – May 2019

Thanks to the Kyushu Shinkansen, it's now really easy to make a stop-over at Kumamoto when on the way further south. The travel times are as good as getting to Tokyo and it's always nice to ride on the Tsubame class! I've also wanted to check out the Kumaden for a long time... and realised there was a Hard-Off nearby, so it was time to visit!

The morning started with a spirited run to Shin-Osaka Station to get the first westbound Shinkansen. Being that I hadn't eaten yet, I utilised the facilities on the platform!

It was then a very non-eventful trip on the Sakura to Kumamoto, the service itself continuing south to Kagoshima.

Kumamoto Station is one of the few where the Shinkansen hasn't caused a 'Shin-' station to be built. Therefore it's a very quick transfer to get down to the local lines below. One goal for this Kyushu trip was to see all three colours of the 200DC diesel series. I was straight away presented with a perfect specimen in red.

I used it to transfer through to Kami-Kumamoto Station, slightly north-east of the main Kumamoto station. Here you will also find the terminus of Kumamoto Electric Railway's Kikuchi Line.

Thanks to the careful consideration given to transferring between trains in Japan, the timetables often line up perfectly and a short stroll gets you to the Kumaden with a train waiting to depart within minutes.

As with most private railways, Kumaden also uses hand-me-downs from other railways. This one just happened to be a Kumaden 200 Series EMU which is really a recycled Nankai 22000 Series. The unit was in good condition for its age. As you'll see later, Kumaden is constantly working on their vehicles, so I'm sure this one gets TLC!

I rode two stops through to Ikeda Station. This is a cute little single-platform station with a perfect view of the first tunnel.

From here, it was a hike up the hill to Hard-Off where much junk was bought. They had a great 'Junk Corner' here where I found random old ISA Sound Cards and even a Roland SC-88!

The view of the station as you're coming back down is lovely... especially when it stops raining. I wanted to stay and take a picture with a train in it, but my timetable actually demanded that I ride that same train.

And in short time it came back through the tunnel. This actually happened to be the return service of the one I'd caught to the area.

Patronage was light-on, but consistent. The interiors where of a 'local service' bench-seat style and very clean and tidy! For those people without an electronic ticket, you would take a paper ticket from the dispenser next to the entrance. You then give this to the driver at your destination and he'll calculate your fare. The machine in front of the driver also gives change from notes and 500yen coins.

Trams! - KamiKumamotoEkiMae Station

Sorry, that capitalisation above is all mine... it's in an effort to help you understand what that name means. Kami-Kumamoto is the area, "Eki" means station and "Mae" means in-front-of. Pretty self-explanatory actually! This is the name of the tram stop out the front of the JR KamiKumamoto Station.

That last poster is hilarious... they must really have issues with zombies using their "smart"-phones and getting in the way of railway vehicles. I'm not surprised... I'm still to be found on the footpaths shoulder-barging people who can't be bothered to look up or keep-left.

The station also has an engine-shed associated and there were quite a few trams, of assorted models, either resting or under repair. I ended up riding the one pictured, through to town for lunch.. with a new objective! I wanted to go and see the green frog! But, back to the tram... from the outside, you can get a hunch that it's also a private railway in need of more love. The inside was just as ... romantic.

Beautiful velour seats (Hankyu-esque?), wooden floors and cable ties! The mechanical side was fantastic though; that tram purred it's way down the center of the streets with zero effort.

From here it was back to Kumaden once more. The 'green frog' that I eluded to above is none other than Aogaeru, the famous ex-Nankai Zoom Car that Kumaden (used to) run. I say used-to as I expected it to be running when I was there... I was sorely mistaken to hear that they'd taken it out of service 2 years earlier! Now it's all bloody Kumamon!

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, I'd transferred from the Tram back to Kumaden and faced off with Kumamon on the railcar. Instead of running in fear, I negotiated the ticket system and rode through to Kita-Kumamoto (North Kumamoto for those playing at home) and was presented with a beautiful station, something akin to an Oigawa Railway scene!

I spent quite a lot of time at this station... Once Kumamon was out of the picture, the colour-tones of the rail vehicles settled back into a normal palette... all except one, really...

There you are! Aogaeru! Wait... The 'Aoi' part of 'Aogaeru' means 'Blue'... it's green. But that's a-whole-other fight to be had with the Japanese language. And what? There's only half the train there. Turns out the other half is in Shibuya, Tokyo! I've even seen it there and didn't think that it was half of this set! Anyway... there was much more to see around the yard.

There was a miriad of different company railway cars under all phases of restoration. That's a Tokyo Metro EMU right there, in pieces. It was even being driven back and forth single-car style! I would have thought that it'd have some kind of fail-safe tech to stop it working without further cars attached, but they obviously managed to override those sensors?

Oh ... Kumamon really does pop-up everywhere... Of course, it's the #1 advertising element of Kumamoto City, so I suppose I can forgive them.

Numerous services came and went before I took the Kikuchi Line back to Kami-Kumamoto. It was an easier transfer to the Shinkansen at Kumamoto station and I wanted to check out the full length of the line.

Not that it's a long line... or branch. From the map above, Kita-Kumamoto is at the junction down below where the branch joins. This poor 200 series was destined, all day?, to run back and forth between 5 stops.

I was then off to South Kagoshima... but I'll save that for another post!

Biwako-Hamaotsu Station – May 2019

I'd seen a lot of photos and videos of this location, but had never been there to see it myself. Biwako-Hamaotsu Station, owned by theKeihan Railway Company, is located in down-town Otsu is the junction of the Keihan-Ishiyamasakamoto and Keihan-Keishin railway lines. Due to space limitations, the railway lines actually run down the middle of standard roads, working in perfect concert with the traffic light signals.

I arrived via JR Otsu Station after watching the last run of the 700 Series on the Ohmi Railway. It's a fair walk down to the Keihan Station, but you can interect either Keihan line to make it more interesting. I chose the Keihan-Ishiyamasakamoto Line just before Shimanoseki Station, heading downhill down Chuo Doori,

Once you hit the level crossing, you'll see a few services as the frequency on the line is quite high. You then get to traverse an elevated pedestrian bridge through to the main station. From here you can view the line into the rear of the station.

You can also view the boat race arena across the bay!

If you look closely enough in that photo above, you'll see 5 boats taking their second corner, closest to the camera. They were non-stop whilst I was there.

The Main Intersection

At the end of the pedestrian bridge is the part I ventured here for...

The intersection forms a railway junction between both lines and the tracks are actually quite wide apart. I can't tell if this is to avoid possible trappings of road vehicles, if any were to get in the way, or simply because the station is an island-platform design and requires the tracks to be wider apart. They could have just as easily created side platforms.

The two tracks here venture off in differing directions. From the station, the Keihan-Keishin Line heads uphill to the left and the Keihan-Ishiyamasakamoto Line heads straight ahead before snaking along the roadway.

Before long, there were trains traversing the intersection in all directions.

One of the Keihan-Ishiyamasakamoto Line wore headmarks, but they differed on each side of the train. Heisei in one direction and Reiwa in the other to mark the change of Emperor!

I started to feel a little envious over the local photographers' equipment... but was happy enough with the photos I managed to take.

Meanwhile, there's quite a nice assortment of liveries...

After a good hour of watching everything pass by (and digging in to some 7-chiki and coffee from the local konbini), I was off again back to Osaka. I highly recommend this area to anyone interested in street-running!

Ohmi Railway 700 Series Last Run – May 2019

For the first time, a real Last Run event happened whilst I was visiting Japan. It was a total co-incidence and I was more than happy to participate. Well, I was more than happy to ride Ohmi Tetsudou's other trains as the actual Last Run tickets were all sold out.

Last Runs are quite an event in Japan. Most residents or railfans build real attachments to railway vehicles and are very sad to see them taken out of service. This time around it was the 700 Series "あかね号" (Akane-Go) which was to run a final trip down all lines before lowering its pantograph one final time.

Getting there

As I was staying in Shin-Osaka, the first step was to jump on a JR Special Rapid from Shin-Osaka to Ohmi-Hachiman. This was a relatively quick trip and I was actually surprised that the suggestion wasn't to take a Shinkansen to Maibara and bounce back. Once at Ohmi-Hachiman, you'll be presented with your first taste of the Ohmi Railway.

The station is external to JR; there's no transfer facility. Once you're out of the JR station, you can turn right and head down to the ticket gates of Ohmi. Here you can purchase single tickets, but they also have a 'Smile Ticket' which provides 1-day unlimited travel... exactly what we needed!

Once on-board, it was a spirited run through to Yokaichi. (Not to be confused with Yokkaichi!) Being a private railway, you wont often find welded rail, so the ride was endearing. The sound of the wheels hitting the joints in the rail at quite a high speed was fantastic, especially with an older vehicle that isn't quite sound-proof. Of course, it's also recommended to sit down, or hold on, as the joints often offer quite a jolt.

The railway crosses under the Tokaido Shinkansen between Yokaichi and Ohmi-Hachiman and I often actually wondered which railway this was when viewing from the Hikari between Kyoto and Maibara. I was really hoping to catch a glimpse of a Shikansen passing from the Ohmi Train, but no such luck in either direction.

Yokaichi Station

This was where the action started to increase. There was signage everywhere and a lot of interest in anything that moved. The station offers a pedestrian overbridge with windows that can be opened. These were already packed with people holding onto their vantage points. There was also a colourful selection of rolling stock hanging around the station. There's a central road to store consists when not in use.

You'll note the netting above. They used it to prevent a build-up of humans at the bottom of the stairs which would then block the overpass. Of course, it prevented nice angles, but safety always comes first!

A film crew started setting up down the end, as the Last-Run was actually about 20 minutes from approaching this station. We chose not to hang around for that and to take that pink EMU west to get a scenic country shot. The target was Daigakuen-Mae station.

Daigakuen-Mae

This is a tiny single-platform station which provides access to the local university.

We quickly wandered to the eastern side of the university to check the view...

It wasn't bad. We had also followed a few people through to this location and they then continue further in amongst the rice paddies... but I had a better idea... a spot to the west of the university that I'd discovered on Google Maps previously...

Seems, even here, that others thought it was a good spot too. There was also a farmer ploughing a rice paddy.. a nice touch and nice sounds as I'd only ever seen such a practice from a train window.

In no time the level crossing activated just after the station and the consist came through.

It dawdled through the scene as it was a tourist service and no on the regular schedule. Regardless, it was good to see it running this leg of the company railway for the last time!

Make sure you switch the quality up to 720p60... it was the first time testing with a friends GoPro and didn't realise it would have such a wide field-of-view!

Back to Yokkaichi

A quick wander back to the platform got us onto the next east-bound service. This time a blue EMU. I only needed to ride one cream and one green to cover all liveries!

From Yokaichi station, we walked into the local Shoutengai to see the 'market' that had been set up with memorabilia of the railway and 700-series.

Unfortunately it was all already gone and there was really only a queue to buy tickets for the next let of the Last-Run tour. I didn't really want to ride the consist, so we just had a quick lunch and continued on.

Back at the station there was anticipation for the 700-series to return from the west. A lot more people were hanging out to see it. The news crew was also in-position...

Meanwhile, the Oi Ocha sponsored dark-green livery was in full-view.

We wanted to take the next service back to Ohmi-Hachiman and so waited on the platform where the 700-series was to arrive.

There was a little mayhem as everyone got the right angles for their photos and then we were off, in front of the 700-series, northbound. The next photo location was to be at Ichinobe Station... and it provided a fantastic scene.

The graveyard was sort-of ironic... being that the fate of the 700-series was already decided. A southbound service passed through before the 700-series arrived.

Loitering was then carried-out at the station, waiting for the next timetabled northbound service.

Once on-board, we passed the 700-series on its last southbound run from Ohmi-Hachiman...

Good Bye 700!

Seibu Train Announcement Mishap

This is something that doesn't happen often. Soranews reported that a passenger had recorded an announcement mishap and I thought maybe they just added an extra station.

A gift that just keeps giving! :) Actually... here's another one, for any Hokkaido fans...

It seems that there's no 'script' and the auto-reader is just running through the list from top to bottom. I assume they usually queue up snippets to make up the announcement, but this time (maybe when the list is empty?) it just goes for gold!

Shin-Osaka Webcam: DD51s

I'll be in Japan again shortly, so have been monitoring the Shin-Osaka Webcam to see if there aren't regular movements that aren't well-known or scheduled. There are slots in the timetable, that I've mentioned before, which are for ad-hoc movements. So sometimes you can guess the timing... but other times the movements are just random... like this one!

A DD51 towing a DE10. Nice.

JR West – Osaka Higashi Line Update!

I've mentioned this line before and have been eagerly awaiting its completion. Recently, JR West advised that the new year (2019) would see the opening of the line. 4 days ago, JR West announced the line would be fully open on the 16th of March 2019. Awesome!

So I went looking at the Shin-Osaka Webcam and it didn't take long to see the following!

And back again...

I don't know if they're revenue services or not... but the line is active!

Japanese Railway Freight Timetables

These are the freight watchers guide to Japan. They include both JR Freight and private companies. I've previously used them to chase The Gakunan Railway, the Seino Railway (Minoakasaka) and the Chichubu Railway. Oh! Also the M250 Super Rail Cargo run by Sagawa Transport! (also see here) .. I recently picked up the latest copy...

Anyway, I looked at my shelf recently and realised I've got the collection from 2010 through to 2018! All of these have either been ordered from Shosen Books in Akihabara, or direct from the author website.

In each of them, if bought brand new, you get a calendar and the run diagrams. These diagonally plotted timetables show you the train paths and their layovers. It's really handy to find the places with the most crosses. Actually, I used the same mechanism when chasing The Southern Spirit here in Australia.

Note to the left is the main freight timetable from 1964 when the railways made the huge final switch from Steam to Electric/Diesel. It's known as yon-san-tou... (4,3,10) which translates to: October 1968, i.e. the 10th month of the 43rd year of Showa. At some point I want to actually compare large chunks of the timetables to see if there's any interesting correlations.

Until then, the goal is to just chase more freight in Japan! If you need a hand with information that might be available in these timetables, then drop a comment below.

Osaka Higashi Line

I've been a fan of the Yodogawa Bridge in NE Osaka for a long time. I stumbled across it during a bicycle ride back in 2007, but have been back to it every time I visit Japan. It used to be a single-tracked bridge, with a pedestrian path on one side, connecting Suita to Kudara (Hirano) for freight movements.

I took the above photos back in 2010. Here's an album with more angles. Note that it is also used for dead-heading passenger trains down to the Tennoji area.

Anyway, back on topic! Recently JR West has ripped up the pedestrian path and installed a second track to facilitate the Osaka Higashi Line. This is all well under-way, as I saw when I was there in 2016. This will see a passenger service from Umeda/Shin-Osaka Station through to Kyuhoji in East Osaka.

Further south, a lot of the duplication is already complete. The stations are also nearing completion. The main area that still needs work is the junction at the Shin-Osaka end. From what I understand, the junction used to exist, but was disused and ripped up. Land was then (illegally?) used by regular humans and had to be re-acquired.

The freight line from Suita intersects the Tokaido Main Line at the wrong angle, so a wye is currently being built just north-east of Higashi-Yodogawa Station. This will allow trains to proceed from Shin-Osaka straight onto the new line and across the Yodogawa towards Kyuhoji. This has required one new bridge and, as previously mentioned, the adjustment of other bridges. Thanks to the glory of Google Maps, we can follow the construction... albeit with a little bit of a delay. It turns out they've half-built the new north bridge and it looks quite amazing in the 3D view!

Here's the link to the view on Google Maps. The curved bridge construction infrastructure is amazing. I can't quite work out if they've custom-built the curved crane, or if it's flexible enough to fit the curve and be used elsewhere afterwards. Either way you can see the next pillar already in the river.

I'll update this post as I find out more information on this new line.