KuMoYuNi and KuMoNi operations

[velotrain]

I've become quite interested in these cars, but only for the baggage function and not the mail (although I did have a grandfather who worked in a RPO car).  So far almost all of the photos I've seen appear to show them stopped at passenger platforms, so I take that to mean whatever they're picking up / unloading was usually handled via baggage carts from the station baggage rooms.  A few images show them adjacent to a metal structure with roll-up doors along the track, and this might be a baggage room at a larger station.

 

Did these ever stop at a private customer siding, or did everything need to be processed through station baggage areas?  Since I assume the baggage handled was often of the express sort, were there special locations just for the KuMoYuNi and KuMoNi service, separate from usual baggage handling - or was this indeed the usual baggage handling?  Were there any connections to airports for express shipments leaving the country?

 

Any links or suggested search terms (English or kanji) would be appreciated.

[kvp]

Many japanese stations had the unusual feature of having high platforms around the freight sidings, so if a passenger train is not attached to the car, it could be standing on a freight only stub track next to the station. Afaik baggage, mail and parcel handing was usually done at the stations as most small scale freight transshipping. By combining the passenger waiting rooms with the freight warehouses and station offices both passengers and freight could be loaded at the same platform, at the same time. You can carry standard freight, baggage and mail on the same passenger train as long as freight loading doesn't hold up the passenger operations.

 

Companies with larger amount of freight usually had their own boxcars or later containers on their own track. For some smaller railways, these cars were often towed by the baggage/mail/parcel motors, but afaik JNR had used locomotives for those more demanding jobs as motor cars could only pull a half or at most a single trailer at passenger train speeds. These self propelled freight motors had the benefit of running together with passenger emu-s and were mostly used for that task before being reused as mow/brake down/stock moving cars. Some of these freight motors (especially older ones) were combines, providing both passenger and freight space. Some of them were used on far out lines (like the iida line) well into the JNR era. The JNR era full freight motors are just that, full length freight cars for emu-s. You could see them running alone on a few photos, but usually not to private sidings. Later when they were used as work cars, they roamed more freely but not in revenue service.

 

ps: Not long ago there was a Tomytec series about these cars, usually in their post JNR usage, including baggage, mow, rolling stock tractor and even passenger carrying modifications. Their combine and full freight predecessors can be found among older stock and many were issued as Tomytec, Tomix and Kato sets. The JNR era variants are also popular as add ons to many suburban/interurban emu sets. There are a few diesel variants that ran together with JNR era diesel trains. The idea was usually to move a few carloads of freight together with a passenger train and not to slow it down with unpowered freight cars. (although the latter was popular with loco hauled trains, in the form of express baggage/mail/freight/parcel cars)

[velotrain]

Thanks for the information Viktor.

 

> Companies with larger amount of freight usually had their own boxcars or later containers on their own track.

 

I expected that, but thought these cars / services might be used if they ever needed a priority shipment.

 

> Not long ago there was a Tomytec series about these cars.

 

Do you mean as a Tomytec Collection series - I'm not aware of Tomytec having produced any actual complete trains.  I've ordered some Kato and Greenmax cars in the Shonan colors, but haven't run across any Tomix products of this type yet.

 

I may be too late to the party!

 

I would love to see a Kumoyuni 143 in that blue and orange scheme.

 

> You can carry standard freight, baggage and mail on the same passenger train

 

That is still done in some places, even with the very newest of trains!

 

I had ordered a Glacier Express add-on set to combine with my Allegra, but now see that I will also need to obtain some log carrying cars to be prototypical ;-)

 

 

[kvp]

 

Do you mean as a Tomytec Collection series - I'm not aware of Tomytec having produced any actual complete trains. 

Yes. You just put a motor unit under them and nicer pantographs on the roof and done.

 

I would love to see a Kumoyuni 143 in that blue and orange scheme.

This series only had it in green and orange colors. The rest of them are either work cars or passenger versions. The plain light blues were work cars (before that 101 series kumoha-s) and got rebuilt back into passenger cars and ran sandwitching a 103 series trailer. The only true baggage/parcel motor is the green and orange one. Previous series had iida line combine cars from the imho 72 series.

 

 

but now see that I will also need to obtain some log carrying cars to be prototypical 

Also a boxcar, a reefer car and a container flat or two. It's just whatever needs to be moved. Btw meanwhile the old passenger trailers have been replaced with panoramic coaches on many trains. The swiss narrow gauge practice differs from the japanese one that many swiss motor cars are designed as tractor rail motor coaches instead of being classic emu-s, meaning they can pull a whole train when needed. The RhB also uses locomotives and cab cars on some lines.

[bikkuri bahn]

Did these ever stop at a private customer siding, or did everything need to be processed through station baggage areas?  Since I assume the baggage handled was often of the express sort, were there special locations just for the KuMoYuNi and KuMoNi service, separate from usual baggage handling - or was this indeed the usual baggage handling?  Were there any connections to airports for express shipments leaving the country?

 

They were processed through a customer window at stations, both large and small.  There were also large yards that were originating/destination points for dedicated parcels trains, most notably the yards at Shinbashi and Sumidagawa in Tokyo.  This service was a station to station domestic service, international shipments used a separate channel AFAIK.

 

Terms you can use for google image search:

 

チッキ             (the colloquial term for baggage/small parcels service)

荷物列車　      (dedicated parcels train)

テルハ             (telpher gantry cranes used at bigger stations to transport parcels across platforms)

クモユニ昭和  (older pics of the kumoyuni in service, not the modern revival stuff)

Edited July 9, 2015 by bikkuri bahn

[velotrain]

> Btw meanwhile the old passenger trailers have been replaced with panoramic coaches on many trains.

 

That's good news, as I was just noticing that the (panoramic) Kato set I've ordered doesn't match the all-red cars in the proto photos I've found so far ;-)

 

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10202257

[velotrain]

Yes. You just put a motor unit under them and nicer pantographs on the roof and done.

 

 

 

Say - numbers 5 and 6 are very close to the one with the paint job that I like.  The only difference is that it looks like one window has been converted to a vent.

I'm guessing these are very hard / impossible to find now.

[kvp]

 

I'm guessing these are very hard / impossible to find now.

Or not:

http://www.modeltrainplus.net/collections/n-scale-tomytec-new

[velotrain]

Thanks, Viktor.

 

My fault for mostly looking at Tomytec structures.

[velotrain]

 

チッキ             (the colloquial term for baggage/small parcels service)

荷物列車　      (dedicated parcels train)

テルハ             (telpher gantry cranes used at bigger stations to transport parcels across platforms)

クモユニ昭和  (older pics of the kumoyuni in service, not the modern revival stuff)

 

Thanks for the links bikkuri.  

 

I particularly like the telpher cranes - I had seen them in photos and not understood what they were.  It looks like there is a strong minority of guys who model baggage trains / operations.  I found a number of scratchbuilt cranes.  Does anyone have experience with the Advance paper kit?

 

 

[Ronny]

The Glacier Express is not all red because is a jointventure between RhB and MGB, the red carriage of the train is the restaurant. The all red trains are those owned by RhB.

Edited July 9, 2015 by Ronny

[velotrain]

Interesting . . . I used to have a MGB that was in fact all red ;-)

[Sacto1985]

For those interested, YouTube member nimo5 filmed back in April 2014 a KuMoYa 145 parcel baggage/cab car belonging to JR West's Yonago division pulling three cars from a 381 Series EMU on the San'in Main Line, probably testing either modications to the trainset or a repaired cars of the 381 trainset:

 

[kvp]

The above video was taken when the cars were mostly used as rolling stock tractors and one of the freight doors and some of the windows are already modified. For paint, mostly the yokosuka (cream/blue) and shonan (orange/dark green) colors were used for the cars running as baggage/parcel/mail/freight, while the dark blue with yellow panel version is the mow/tractor color.

[Sacto1985]

kyp, I don't think any of the old JNR-era KuMoYa's still running around on various JR Group lines are serving as baggage/parcel package cars nowadays. They're mostly used as rolling stock tractors to move around EMU trainsets.

[velotrain]

I've posted this image in other topics, but does anyone know anything about this paint scheme?

 

Based on the colors, I'd guess it to be of the MOW/tractor type.

 

I don't see any text on it, so perhaps it was freshly painted and pressed into service without identifying marks?

 

It looks to be positioned in front of a yard / operations office.

 

 

[miyakoji]

It's KUMOYUNI 143-2, maybe at Tokyo Depot: https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%AB:%E3%82%AF%E3%83%A2%E3%83%A6%E3%83%8B143-2.JPG

 

Lots of hits if you search on クモユニ143-2

 

Also it looks like someone made their own model: http://wave.ap.teacup.com/japan-railroad/414.html

[velotrain]

Many thanks miyakoji.

 

Translating your first link confirms it as Tokyo:

 

Tokyo General vehicle center of west area input-over cars (original Kumoyuni 143-2)

Tokyo comprehensive vehicle center west area (photographed at the time of the general public)

 

 

 

Now I know what the paint on the pantograph end looks like ;-)

 

It looks to me that he just removed the glazing, and painted the whole car, then added his own white handrails.

 

 

Since MicroAce does the very similar 147, I'll try to find an avenue to ask them to issue this - I imagine it would be popular with the distinctive paint job.

 

 

There's even a shorty version:

 

 

 

 

[miyakoji]

I wonder too where they came up with that livery.  It kinda looks like the N in the JNR logo, if it was pulled apart. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_National_Railways#/media/File:Japanese_National_Railway_logo.svg

[bikkuri bahn]

Apparently it was an ex-Minobu Line piece of rolling stock.  It was used as a shunter until 2010, when it was scrapped.  I figure the paint job was a whimsy designed by the depot staff. Alot of these flashy diagonally lined paint schemes were popular in the early years of JR.

Edited July 11, 2015 by bikkuri bahn

[ayokoi]

Kumoyuni 143-1 and 115 series of Yokosuka livery was run between Nagano and Kamisuwa Station as a special train on 25 July 2015.

I posted a video of this train.

 

[velotrain]

ayokoi - very well filmed (and edited) - I don't know how you got to so many locations ;-)

[ScooterTheGreat]

Hello all,

 

I have only recently started my Japanese model railroad (although I have been a model railroad fan for many years) and I was wondering if anyone could explain to me the purpose of the KuMoNi and KuMoYuNi cars? I understand the designation system, I was just wondering what it meant in a practical sense.

 

Thanks,

Scooter

[katoftw]

Someone asked the same question recently.  If you use the search feature, you may find the thread.  Mail and banking was what they were for from memory.

[kvp]

They are baggage/parcel/mail motors and can be run together with passenger emu-s or alone. When running with a train, they can carry luggage like a non motorised luggage car and/or dispatch/collect mail and parcels on their way. When running separate or in sets of two, they can be used as small freight trains. In the past they were also used for newspaper delivery.

 

Many of these units were later rebuilt as maintenance of way and/or rolling stock tractor cars and some of these cars were originally modified older passenger emu cars.

 

Their predecessors were mostly combine emu-s, with a mixed passenger and baggage/mail space, that turned out to be inflexible as they couldn't be used separately from their sets. The solution was to make independent, self propelled, full length freight emu cars that can be added to any train that went the same way.

 

ps: There were similar, but mostly diesel cars in Europe too. My favourite was the MDmot series, that could be used as the propelling car of a larger push-pull set and as a smaller capacity freight locomotive, while being able to run as standalone freight motors too. They were used with a one passenger/one freight pattern, doing one return trip with a passenger train and then one trip with the locally dispatched freight cars. The push pull set had a control car with the head end power generator, so the disconnected passenger set kept its hvac power while waiting for the locomotive to return and the locomotive didn't have to lug around the head end power systems while running as a freight unit. The designation of MDmot stood for M as a diesel locomotive (usually followed by a class number) and Dmot as a baggage railcar. Their nickname was red riding hood. (it was painted red, running on country branchlines and mostly with perishable foodstuff as freight)