Kiha （キハ）and Kuha （クハ）etc.

[JR SV]

Hello everybody,

 

I have noticed that Japanese trains sometimes have two syllable designations such as Kiha （キハ）and Kuha （クハ）among others.  Does anyone know what these designations mean?  Is there an online resource (in English) that I can use to interpret them?  Are there other Japanese train designations that would be helpful for me to know?  Thank you.

 

[TheNicofabi]

I've digged arround a bit... and how ironic. I found this in on google wich is right here in the Forum lol

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/667-kuha-saha-moha-kiha-japanese-rail-car-nomenclature/

[POMU]

Here's a good reference site

 

http://sunny-life.net/train_symbol/trainsymbol.htm#ElectricLocomotives

[Welshbloke]

Once you recognise the Japanese characters you can work them out fairly easy.

 

My favourite is probably KuMoYuNi, which translates as having cabs (Ku), being powered (Mo), being a post van (Yu) and having luggage space (Ni). You'll also find a KuMoNi (same thing but no post), and a KuMoYa (a tractor unit used for transporting tools and parts around, or towing broken stock to and from works).

[JR SV]

Thank you all for your replies, which are very helpful.  I am going to review the designations more carefully.  It will certainly help me recognize different kinds of trains.  I think these designations actually appear on the train cars themselves sometimes.

[Welshbloke]

They do - hence the way you'll learn to recognise the characters.

 

Another oddity - you'll find MoHas with and without pantographs (as most Japanese EMUs are designed around pairs of power cars, sharing a pantograph and a compressor between them). To avoid confusion the pantograph-equipped MoHas will be given a different series number to those without - normally they're a digit below (MoHa 152s being the panto-fitted half of a 153 Series MoHa pair) but that's not always the case. For some reason it's the other way around on 103 Series units.

[JR 500系]

Thank you all for your replies, which are very helpful.  I am going to review the designations more carefully.  It will certainly help me recognize different kinds of trains.  I think these designations actually appear on the train cars themselves sometimes.

 

Yes they do:

 

 

Almost all the train carriages have their names printed on the middle or towards the end of the cars, near the doors....