Twilight Express Mizukaze – Virtual Railfan

1Dec/210

Twilight Express Mizukaze – Virtual Railfan

Whilst still stuck on the wrong side of the globe, having to watch borders closing again thanks to new variants, I decided I'd make the most of the plethora of live cameras popping up in Japan to chase the Twilight Express Mizukaze on one of it's current round-trips. It's actually really sad to think that I first virtually chased this in 2017, saw it in 2019 and then haven't been able to go back since!

But enough of the whining, we're here to chase it virtually. The official journey starts at Shin-Osaka Station, but since the consist is stored in the yards just south-west, there is no direct route to the platform it's meant to pick up passengers on. Instead, it runs a huge loop via Osaka Station! This is a bonus for us as it means it passes more cameras.

Shin-Osaka: Dead-head to Kyoto

As mentioned, the train has already done a loop via Osaka Station and can be first seen exiting Shin-Osaka Station at 0933, heading north on the Shin-Osaka Webcam.

Mukomachi: Dead-head to Kyoto

Instead of turning at Suita, or even at Mukomachi?, they run the service all the way to Kyoto! Is this some kind of shake-out? It passed the Mukomachi camera at 0952 heading north.

Kyoto Station: Dead-head back and forth

Thanks to the Kyoto camera just to the east of the station, it's easy to watch it bounce back and forth. Here it is passing at 1010...

And then back again at 1023...

Mukomachi: Dead-head to Shin-Osaka Station

The goal is to arrive at Shin-Osaka at 1114, for a 1147 departure. The train is seen passing back past the Mukomachi camera at 1032.

Arriving at Shin-Osaka for departure

Finally, the train is seen on the Shin-Osaka Webcam one more, arriving back in to Shin-Osaka Station at 1113 on the correct platform.

Nishinomiya

Another user has set up a webcam in Nishinomiya and the train can be seen passing at 1202.

Base of the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge

There's some amazing cameras mounted on one of the supporting piers of the bridge to Shikoku. At least one of these point towards the railway and the train is seen passing at 1225.

Okayama (x3)

The train's route is quite random this time around... it passes Okayama to Nakashou, goes back to Seto via Okayama, then westbound once more to Kurashiki. It therefore passes the Niwase webcam three times! Here it is on the way to Nakasho at 1432...

And then back to Seto @ 1550...

And then back to Kurashiki @ 1733...

Unfortunately the Okayama Freight Terminal webcam is offline. There was also the meant to be a camera overlooking construction at Hiroshima Station, but that's now changed to a view over Kure Port and Pachinko Parlours.

Amarube Viaduct

I haven't been able to find any other webcams for the train's western leg, so its Day Two journey around Matsue and Shinji will be if-a-tree-falls-in-the-woods style. Fortunately, on Day 3 it passes the Amarube Viaduct at around lunch time. The viaduct's camera is some kind of older security camera and only produces singular frames. Fortunately it does refresh relatively quickly! I wrote a bit of code to continuously poll the image, check if there's a difference and then save the files. From here, I then filtered out the boring parts and turned the rest into an animated gif.

Above you'll see some beautifully-orange KIHA 40s running the local services, tour buses delivering hoards of ants, KIHA 189s running the Hamakaze and then finally the KIHA 87 Twilight Express Mizukaze bolting through, heading east.

Back via Kyoto

After meandering back through Fukuchiyama and Funaoka, the train passes the Kyoto Railway Museum and arrived into Kyoto Station. Thanks to the Kyoto Camera, we get it heading in...