Steam era coaches.

[Welshbloke]

Leading on from my unplanned C57, I've now picked up three Kato coaches to go with it. I'm not entirely sure which they are (no boxes!), but I've ended up with two numbered 35 1141 and one numbered 33 2555 if anyone can help identify them.

 

Now I'm wondering about realistic Japanese train formations for a C57, as these look good but could do with a baggage van at least. Did Japanese trains ever have restaurant cars or did everyone buy those nifty Bento boxes at the station?

 

Are the blue versions of the various coaches later repaints of the brown ones, or do they denote something like 1st class? Did they even have first class - all the brown stock seems to be unmarked aside from the characters denoting the type and the running number?

 

Would all the brown coaches Kato offer be essentially interchangeable, or are they from vastly different periods? I'm guessing the stock with clerestory roofs is for commuter/suburban services rather than long distance expresses?

Edited July 24, 2015 by Welshbloke

[kvp]

The 35-2555 is an oha 35 and the 33-2555 is an ohafu 35. A 3rd (later 2nd class) passenger car and the same with a guard compartement. This is just enough for a very short branchline passenger train (the guard's compartement goes at the end). Both are in the jnr 32 series. ( https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:JNR_32_series_passenger_cars ) 

 

There are various coaches available, but the brown ones are the oldest. Classes were indicated with colored stripes under the window line, the unmarked ones are usually 2nd class in the post war 2 class system. Some trains had diner cars, baggage cars, half baggage and the most prestigious ones even had observation cars at the end. Buying food at the station was usually done by the poorer travelers, who couldn't afford a 1st class ticket and a trip to the diner car (or their train had no diner or even 1st class). This was also common practice at the time in Europe. Many local trains that are now replaced by emu-s or dmu-s ran without diner cars and short distance ones didn't need a baggage car either.

 

There were repaints and rebuilds. Many post WWII cars are rebuilds/reconstructions of earlier cars, similar to the East and West German 'reko' and 'umbau' cars. Some of them got blue paint later. The oldest ones are the old window ones with old door shapes and usually a horizontal bar running under and/or above the windows. The newer ones have new style (usually metal) doors, even newer ones have more modern windows. Some of them got upgraded, while some of them were newly built. The last generation were the red colored all steel cars usually pulled by AC electrics, like a ED75 up until the end of the locomotive pulled passenger train era. In later years, they usually operated with a guard van equipped car on each end for a quick runaround with a two cab loco and normal cars between them, all 2nd class.

[POMU]

I have the old wooden style Takasaki coaches http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10146107  which I use with my C57, C58, and ED42's.  Makes for a nice train.

POMU

[Welshbloke]

Thanks for that - sounds like a baggage van and a 1st would round the train off nicely. Sounds as if I'll have to repair the broken coupler mount on one of the Ohas anyway as the Ohafu should be the last coach. I can't just swap the bogies as they're slightly different patterns.

 

Am I right in thinking that Kato don't actually make any restaurant cars to match their steam era stock? I only seem to be able to find plain coaches.

 

Umbauwagen I know about - they led to some fascinatingly varied and random train formations on DB for over thirty years, I have a set of three 4yg and a pair of 3yg in HO scale along with a mostly-finished conversion of a 3yg baggage/2nd into the sole 3yg cab car (3yg pairs were wired for push-pull working, but ran with cab cars of other types aside from this one).

[POMU]

Your welcome

  Don't know of any restaurant cars of the steam era.  The passenger trains were usually short because they didn't go very far.  Maybe some one else on the forum would have more knowledge.
POMU

[kvp]

Look for a sushi car... Actually i linked one above that belong to this series:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Susi28_301.JPG

(You can see the kitchen area on the right with the missing door, which is usually a good indication of either a sleeper or a restaurant car, but you can also see the vent from the kitchen on the roof. The car in the picture got a metal door upgrade sometimes during its lifetime, the original wooden door type is seen on the car behind it.)

 

Trains were as long as needed. The local ones that got replaced by 2 to 4 car emus/dmus were short, but long distance trains were rather long and often had multiple steam locomotives on the front and even needed banking ones on the back at steeper grades.

Edited July 25, 2015 by kvp

[Fenway Park]

Restaurant cars were rare in Japan in the steam era. Kato make the OSHI 17 (5065) while Micro Ace make the OSHI16 A9335. Both are from the 10 series which are made by Kato and Micro Ace. The Kato versions are reissued occasionally. 

 

Tomix also make the 61 series coaches which are steam era and in brown. I think these are steel panels over a wooden frame. 

 

Dont forget baggage cars, the Mani 60 is offered by Kato and others are available Mani 36/37 again from Kato. 

 

A lot of the steam era coaches were later converted to electric heat and painted in the blue livery.