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A nice segment from Ehime TV about JR West’s KIYA 141 Doctor West inspection train. Here, JR Shikoku is borrowing it for use on the Yosan Line in Ehime prefecture. It starts at Iyo-Ozu and proceeds north toward Matsuyama. Later, a Plasser & Theurer multiple tie tamper operating around Iyo-Komatsu.

A very fine front view video by HKASAMA, this is KIKUHA 32-502 and an unknown KIHA 185, possibly KIRO 185-26. RO would mean it has green class seating. There are two KIKUHA 32 cars, 501 and 502. They were new builds(?) by Niigata Engineering in 1997 and 2003, respectively. Whether or not the trucks, etc came from retired KIHA 32s, I can't exactly tell. The KIHA 32s themselves are interesting budget minded DMUs, at least in that they entered service in the last 3 weeks of JNR. My understanding is that the KIKUHA designation includes KI not because they have diesels (they're not powered) but because they're meant to be attached to a DMU. One site includes the word 付随気動車 fuzui kidousha. 気動車 is kidousha, a railcar with an internal combustion engine, the source of KI in KIHA. 付随 fuzui means attached, accompanying, etc. I don't recall seeing this before and I don't know if it's a standard term or just what that page's author calls it. I crossed this bridge many times, usually on the Marine Liner using a Seishun 18 ticket. Seto Ohashi Line is I guess a marketing name, but there are formal names for different parts of it, explained on this wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seto-Ōhashi_Line Points of interest: :15 - Kojima Station, Kurashiki City, Okayama 4:30 - beginning of Great Seto Bridge 18:20 - divergence of tracks, straight is southwest on to Utazu, the ramps turn east to Sakaide/Takamatsu 20:25 - Utazu Station, Town of Utazu (Kagawa Prefecture from here on) 24:50 - Marugame Station, Marugame City 30:35 - Tadotsu Station, Town of Tadotsu 35:35 - Dosan Line diverges from Yosan Line 41:10 - Zentsuji Station, Zentsuji City 49:15 - Kotohira Station, Town of Kotohira Google map centered on junction of Seto Ohashi Line and Yosan Line: https://www.google.com/maps/@34.3157152,133.8220375,17z Bonus: KIKUHA32-501 in its excellent Ao Yoshinogawa Torokko livery. Hi res image suitable for desktop wallpaper: https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ファイル:藍よしのがわトロッコ.jpg

Two 24 series cars have been moved to Kan-onji City, Kagawa Prefecture to be used as a hostel. It's the project of an udon shop owner who used crowdfunding to collect almost 17 million yen for their purchase and relocation. The hostel is to open in late 2021. They were retired in 2008 from Naha service (Shin-Osaka to Nishi Kagoshima), and were parked on a siding at Akune Station, Kagoshima. There they were operated there as lodging from January 2009 until October 2014. The cars are OHANEFU 25 206 and 2209. Both were built in 1976 by Fuji Heavy Industries. 2209 (originally 209) was modified in 1991 to have eleven 2-person "duet" rooms. KSB and the crowdfunding page indicate the cars were 1,000,000 yen each, currently around 9,250 USD. KSB doesn't mention transportation, but the crowdfunding page does; 7,500,000 yen or just short of 70,000 USD. The cars were moved from their original location to Usuki, Oita where they continued on a car ferry to Yawatahama, Ehime. There appear to be two different amounts shown for situating them at their new location, 500,000 and 6,000,000 yen on the crowdfunding and coolkagawa.jp sites, respectively. The former may just be the sections of track they're sitting on, although even that seems low. They are to be repainted, get connections for electricity and running water, and apparently have a green house sort of structure built over them. Protecting them from the elements sounds like a good idea but I wonder how this will work in summer. Figs and mangoes may be grown for guests to pick. Pictures at Akune, in better condition: http://c5557.photoland-aris.com/ohanehu252209.htm Crowdfunding pages: https://readyfor.jp/projects/bluetrain-naha and https://readyfor.jp/projects/bluetrain-naha-2020 Article with shelter illustration: https://www.coolkagawa.jp/news/entry-1345.html New location already marked on Google Map: https://goo.gl/maps/mGDWSEUrbATAm52K8 KSB Setonaikai Broadcasting The man himself, Suit Train, on location for their arrival at Yawatahama Port

Looks to be a Kiha 185 and will be on the Dosan Line.

Overshadowed no doubt by the news about JR East's new E235 series, here's JR Shikoku's new cruise train, the Iyo-nada Monogatari. Based on a two-car KIHA47 set, these have been redesignated KIRO, RO indicating Green Car, as far as I know. They're still numbered as 47s, 1400 subseries. Service will start July 26th. The livery is tasteful, I think, and I really like the interior and bentos :). http://railf.jp/news/2014/07/02/170000.html