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18Oct/170

Tokyo International Container Terminal – July, 2017

The initial plan was to get to the Tokyo City Flea Markets. Who can resist a good bargain? And I've seen photos of stalls with railway memorabilia! Unfortunately, a little bit of drizzle CANCELLED THE ENTIRE MARKET. Funnily enough, we weren't the only people disappointed; quite a few locals walked past and shared our agony when they read the 'we are closed' sign.

Anyway... I had an ulterior motive... There's a shinkansen yard and freight terminal to the east, not a 20 minute walk away, that I wanted to check out and, fortunately, my comrades obliged when they had nothing else to do in such a remote location of Tokyo!

The map above shows you a terrible walking route from the Markets (M) to the Freight/Shinkansen Yards (Y). It's around a 20 minute walk and it drizzled the whole way! Fortunately there is some tree cover on the east side of the river.

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The yard happens to be huge and there's always a consist being built up or broken down.

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The M250 Super Rail Cargo was sleeping in the yard... it actually looks like these units had been put in storage? They weren't looking as top-notch as the regular runners?

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Of course, Shinkansen are staged here too...

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And then it happened...

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Doctor Yellow has a home here! I thought it always returned to Hamamatsu, but here it was, happily resting before its next duty! Shooting through the railings proved a challenge, but it was great to see the unit in the flesh.

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From there it was another dreary walk back to the Monorail Station at ŌiKeibajō-Mae Station which is part of the Tokyo Monorail.

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Note that you can see horsies from the station if you look out the windows towards the race track!

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So, it was a sad trip thanks to a cancelled flea-market... but, all's well that ends well when Doctor Yellow makes an appearance!

25Sep/170

Shin-Osaka Webcam – Doctor Yellow!

Here's a webcam north of Shin-Osaka Station with a beautiful view of the tracks between Higashi-Yodogawa Station and Shin-Osaka itself. You also get to see the Shinkansen in the background.

I just happened to be randomly viewing this when I stumbled upon Doctor Yellow!

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This would have to be the first time I've ever seen this train moving... Sure, I'm a few thousand kilometres away... but... I'm declaring this a success!

Turns out that this arrival is spot on to the timetable from 2014! I wonder if it'll depart at 1623? I'll update if so.

Update: I previously completely forgot to check at 1623... but I've just caught a return service at 14:14:12 on 11th October 2017:

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Here it is again on the 20th of October 2017:

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And after quite a hiatus, it's been seen again!

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And it didn't continue west... instead turning around and departing east again at 14:28...

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Very cool to watch!