Modern JRF Coal Trains

[KenS]

Now here's something I didn't know existed, JR Freight unit coal trains.

 

I stumbled across this looking through Google Maps. Just past Ogimachi station on one of the artificial islands of Kawasaki, just south of Tokyo, is what appears to be a coal dock, and not a new one as Google Earth has imagery back to 2004 of it.  The current image shows a string of some kind of hopper cars with a center-cab loco on the dock, and another string parked just past Ogimachi station. Here's a photo of them, and here's another.

 

I also found a video showing the train pulling out (below), which identified the cars as "HoKi" type (and the numbers on the side are 10000 series). Wikipedia's entry on the HoKi 10000 seems to say use for coal has been discontinued, but that would appear to be disproven by the facts.

 

Here's a page listing the HoKi 10000 series (including 10227, the first car after the loco in the video) as owned by Pacific Ocean Cement, and used for coal transport. It notes these are assigned to "武州原谷", which Google can't translate but lists phonetically as "Bushūharaya". The photo of 10227 from that page is captioned as being at Ogimachi station.

 

 

BTW, the video identifies the loco as a DE10, but that's no DE10.  From the video, it appears to be a "DE11" numbered 2001, and the Japanese wikipedia page for DE11 notes that a couple of the 2000 series are assigned to Yokohama for use on the Tokaido Freight Line, which suggests a possible direction for the train. And here's a photo of 2001 at Yokohama.

 

And here's a 2008 photo showing an EF65 pulling a string of similar HoKi's, although the logo on the side appears different. However the same logo appears on the older photo of 10227, so it's probably the same set of cars and the company just change the marking in the past three years.

 

I know Japan is a coal-importer (largely, but not only, from Australia), mostly for thermal coal (heating, power).  But does anyone know anything more about this facility, or where the trains would go from here? Is this a captive train for a Pacific Cement-owned power plant, or something else?

 

BTW, some of the older Google Earth photos of the coal dock appear to show piles of sand on part of it, which argues for the dock being owned/used by Pacific Cement (sand for cement).

 

BTW, Kawai makes a bunch of HoKi 10000 models, one of which is still in stock at HS.  Nobody makes a DE11-2000 model that I'm aware of, although Micro Ace makes a couple of DE11 models that look more like DE10's.

[keitaro]

i'm assuming these would be the same ones they use to transport to their coal fired plants ? I thought that all train coal transportation was stopped the below link being the last or one of the last railway services.

 

http://www.hcn.zaq.ne.jp/cadzy500/HP1/chinsya-htm/taiheiyou_de601/taiheiyou_de601.htm

 

here is another link about  what Kens posted

 

http://hanano-kaori.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2007/08/index.html

[KenS]

When the government stopped subsidizing coal production c. 2001, the Japanese coal mines mostly shut down (we had a thread earlier this year about one that remains in operation, largely for training purposes).  From what I've read, Japan's domestic coal seams are considered to be low-quality, and can't compete with overseas mines.

 

I saw a mention somewhere that about 10% of imported coal in Japan travels by train (most is delivered straight to the place it is used) but I can't substantiate that and it could be an outdated figure.

 

From that blog entry, it sounds like this is a captive train to "a cement factory in Kumagaya", and there's mention of the Yamanote Freight Line, which makes sense as a way to reach the Takasaki line to Kumagaya. A coal train through Shinjuku station would be something to see.

[keitaro]

a lot have private ports is all i could come up with and seem to be near the coast so i guess the lack of train requirements would show why little information on the subject.

[bill937ca]

The shift to coal is in the wake of Fukushima.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/20/business/energy-environment/quake-in-japan-is-causing-a-costly-shift-to-fossil-fuels.html

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/commentary/jeff-rubins-smaller-world/setsuden-poised-to-replace-nuclear-power-in-japan/article2117071/

[Nick_Burman]

When the government stopped subsidizing coal production c. 2001, the Japanese coal mines mostly shut down (we had a thread earlier this year about one that remains in operation, largely for training purposes).  From what I've read, Japan's domestic coal seams are considered to be low-quality, and can't compete with overseas mines.

 

I saw a mention somewhere that about 10% of imported coal in Japan travels by train (most is delivered straight to the place it is used) but I can't substantiate that and it could be an outdated figure.

 

From that blog entry, it sounds like this is a captive train to "a cement factory in Kumagaya", and there's mention of the Yamanote Freight Line, which makes sense as a way to reach the Takasaki line to Kumagaya. A coal train through Shinjuku station would be something to see.

 

 

Gents, AFAIK the destination of this train is the Chichibu-Onoda plant in Saitama Prefecture. Again AFAIK the train is taken from Ogimachi to Kumagaya where the Chichibu Railway takes over for the haul to the plant.

 

It seems that Taiheiyo (or whoever operates the dock) decided to take over switching as a previous Google Earth image showed what looked like a Nihon Tsuun centercab in charge. Incidentally, while in Google Earth try the historic image command, you'll be able to see some interesting stuff...

 

Cheers NB

[westfalen]

i'm assuming these would be the same ones they use to transport to their coal fired plants ? I thought that all train coal transportation was stopped the below link being the last or one of the last railway services.

 

http://www.hcn.zaq.ne.jp/cadzy500/HP1/chinsya-htm/taiheiyou_de601/taiheiyou_de601.htm

 

 

For those who might have come along since I posted these I got video of the above operation in Hokkaido last year.

 

 

And towards the end of this video from 1996 at about 5:40 I captured one of the trains of this thread heading empty through Shitte.

 

[ToniBabelony]

@1st video: that's some awesome train. It doesn't deliver a Japanese feeling at all. It's something like Taiwan IMHO.

@2nd video: it's actually a cement train from Chichibu Cement.

[Nick_Burman]

@1st video: that's some awesome train. It doesn't deliver a Japanese feeling at all. It's something like Taiwan IMHO.

@2nd video: it's actually a cement train from Chichibu Cement.

 

The train which passes at 3:55 on the second video is an empty (I assume Alvin was riding south to north) Chichibu coal train, on its way back to Hamakawasaki and Ogimachi.

 

 

Cheers NB

[keitaro]

http://www.geolocation.ws/v/W/4d5f68e38786567cb5008f20/the-pacific-ocean-coal-sales/en

[KenS]

Following some of those links and putting the bits together, here's what I get:

 

The HoKi 10000 cars were produced in two sets, 10000 - 10249 for Chichibu Cement Co. (which also owned the Chichibu Railway, now owned by Pacific Ocean Cement, see Chichibu Railway Japanese wikipedia) and 10250 - 10271 for Denki Kagaku Kogyo, the latter series was scrapped in 1996. A related series the HoKi 7600 were built for Japan Oil Transport and also carried coal (as well as limestone, using some kind of liner to keep the two from contaminating each other). The JOT HoKi's were transferred to JR Freight and scrapped in 1999.  Chichibu merged with Onoda Cement in 1998 to form Taiheiyo Cement, now Japan's largest cement producer.   From the beginning, the Chichibu HoKi's operated between Kawasaki and Kumagaya (one page says Mikajiri Station, which lines up with the fact that one set of the Kawai models is described as "Mikajiri standing").

 

Pacific Ocean Transport (Japanese wikipedia), now a subsidiary of Taiheiyo, operates the Kushiro Port Railway (Japanese Wikipedia) and the captive train between the Kushiro Coal Mine and the port. It's probably a matter of convenience to have the HoKi's owned by Pacific Ocean Cement as described on the page noted earlier, but it doesn't appear POC actually operates the Kawasaki train (except possibly at the Kumagaya end via their subsidiary the Chichibu Railway).

 

The Kawasaki-Kumagaya train is described on the blog linked earlier as Japan's last mainline coal train (which doesn't conflict with the existence of the captive-service Kushiro train since that's a private line, not mainline). This suggests that there aren't any other HoKi's full of coal out there.  I've seen two references to the use of EF65 locomotives to pull this train on the electrified mainline (and DE10's used on the Ogimachi end, although we have the video showing a DE11, but that's probably a "DE10" to some people even if the 2000 series does look fairly different).

 

So you could have a prototypical Tokyo-area or Takasaki-line coal train with a JRF EF65 and up to twenty (both the first video and the GE photos of the dock show 20 cars) HOKIs lettered for Taiheiyo (post-1998) as the Kawai sets are.  I think there's a coal train in my future.

[bikkuri bahn]

Said coal train passing through Fuchu-Honmachi:

[Guest JRF-1935]

Said coal train passing through Fuchu-Honmachi:

Great videos bikkuri bahn

Thanks

Rich C

[ToniBabelony]

@2nd video: it's actually a cement train from Chichibu Cement.

The train which passes at 3:55 on the second video is an empty (I assume Alvin was riding south to north) Chichibu coal train, on its way back to Hamakawasaki and Ogimachi.

 

If you look closely, they have the large yellow logo of Chichibu Cement on the side. Okay, it could be the JOT logo (implying a coal train), but since it's so blurry you can't really see it very clearly, but I really think it's a Chichibu Cement train (both the one at 3:55 and the one at the end).

[westfalen]

@2nd video: it's actually a cement train from Chichibu Cement.

The train which passes at 3:55 on the second video is an empty (I assume Alvin was riding south to north) Chichibu coal train, on its way back to Hamakawasaki and Ogimachi.

 

If you look closely, they have the large yellow logo of Chichibu Cement on the side. Okay, it could be the JOT logo (implying a coal train), but since it's so blurry you can't really see it very clearly, but I really think it's a Chichibu Cement train (both the one at 3:55 and the one at the end).

The train near the end was heading towards the port area and was empty but the cars were used for carrying coal as some was still visible on the tops of the car sides. I'm pretty sure cement wouldn't be carried in open top hopper cars because if it rained you'd have a hard time emptying them. Maybe Chichibu Cement owns/owned cars to supply coal to their plant.

[Mudkip Orange]

If Japan does make a long-term shift to coal, I'd expect to see a lot more drags through Bellingham and Prince Rupert.

 

IIRC the coal dock at Tsawwassen is one of the largest in the world.

[KenS]

@2nd video: it's actually a cement train from Chichibu Cement.

The train which passes at 3:55 on the second video is an empty (I assume Alvin was riding south to north) Chichibu coal train, on its way back to Hamakawasaki and Ogimachi.

 

If you look closely, they have the large yellow logo of Chichibu Cement on the side. Okay, it could be the JOT logo (implying a coal train), but since it's so blurry you can't really see it very clearly, but I really think it's a Chichibu Cement train (both the one at 3:55 and the one at the end).

 

Sorry, I should have been clearer.  The HoKi 10000 were built to carry coal to the Chichibu Cement plant (or plants) per its Japanese wikipedia page and are still in that service (now for Taiheiyo's subsidiary Pacific Ocean Cement) per the roster page linked.  The cars bore the Chichibu logo until some time after the 1998 merger that created Taiheiyo, after which they were (sometime) re-done with the Taiheiyo logo.  Per the roster page, a few of the cars are used for a limestone service (a component of cement), but most are still used for coal.

 

If wikipedia is to be believed, JOT used the similar-looking HoKi 7600 for both coal and limestone, but never owned any 10000's.

[bikkuri bahn]

More coal train views.  First, leaving Omiya Station:

 

A return empties working (train #5764) leaving Kumagaya Freight terminal (after coming off the Chichibu Rlwy), bound for Ogimachi in Kawasaki City:

[Nick_Burman]

On the Chichibu:

 

 

This is an easy train to model - MA has just announced a rerun of the Chichibu electrics and Kawaii makes the hopper cars. If it weren't for the Chichibu's ghastly bad taste in choosing passenger equipment I would model the whole railroad.

 

Cheers NB

[westfalen]

MA has just announced a rerun of the Chichibu electrics

 

Cheers NB

I hadn't noticed that, I got one the last time round, I'd love a pair.

[Nick_Burman]

Run then! HS had them open for reservation sometime ago, in both the brown and blue versions.

 

 

Cheers NB

[westfalen]

Run then! HS had them open for reservation sometime ago, in both the brown and blue versions.

 

 

Cheers NB

Reserved one of each.

[miyakoji]

Here's a thread at Ompuchaneru with large, clear pictures of HOKI 2000-1, brand new.

 

http://rail-uploader.khz-net.com/index.php?id=1003052