Mixed power ?

[velotrain]

The massive amount of Popondetta restocked items in today's HS News caused me to search for images of Showa era freight trains. 

I ran across this photo, and wondered if the diesel is possibly assisting, or just dead-heading.  The apparently open cab door suggests the latter - not to mention it being a relatively short train.

 

I've noticed that tank cars never seem to appear in mixed trains, so wondered if they ran exclusively in unit trains from an early date?

 

 

[Nick_Burman]

It looks as the DD13 is being taked dead for servicing. As for tank cars, I've seen pictures of trains containing them in the middle of their consists. However this depends a lot on when and where the pics were taken. If your image was taken in the inner Tokyo area in late 60's/early70's it might be that by then trains containing tank cars were being routed round the Musashino line.

 

Cheers NB

[SuRoNeFu 25-501]

Guessing from the location, it would be on the Shinagawa - Yokohama portion of Tokaido Line

 

Oh well... That EF10 (or EF15?) is surely a very old engine in its late days (yes, the electric locomotive in the picture is a 旧型電気機関車 a.k.a "old electric locomotive" in JNR's official classification from the 1960s onward) 

Edited February 13, 2016 by SuRoNeFu 25-501

[bikkuri bahn]

Re tank cars in mixed consists, they existed, but perhaps not as common as other types. This is due to the fact that most bulk freight including petroleum products goes by coastal shipping to distribution points. This was true in the Showa period as it is now. You did see some tank cars mixed in with other freight cars on general merchandise freights running on lines serving interior regions not accessible by port facilities. Some lines that fall into this category are the Chuo Line, the Kansai Main Line, the Sekihoku Line, the upper portion of the Muroran Main Line, and the various cross country lines serving the Chugoku region of western Japan.

Edited February 13, 2016 by bikkuri bahn

[velotrain]

Thanks much for the info guys.  I haven't looked at a ton of images yet, but what I've seen so far appeared to just have box cars and open gondolas - although I don't know what the last ~4 cars in this photo are, as they look to be an intermediate height.

[bikkuri bahn]

The last four cars appear to be hoki types. I think I may have found what this train is. It could be a local freight on the Tokaido Line in the Tokyo metro region, the dd13 is being hauled along to do shunting work at intermediate stations, as back then many mid size stations had small freight yards/freight sheds. The following is a very good photo series of such a train working the Kamata Station freight yard in the early 1970's, with the dd13 being dropped off to shunt the various wagons at this small (but very modeleable) facility.

http://d51791.com/pg24kamatael.html

[Guest Closed Account 1]

The open door suggests the train has stopped. Big penalties for traveling with open doors.

[velotrain]

Re tank cars in mixed consists, they existed, but perhaps not as common as other types. This is due to the fact that most bulk freight including petroleum products goes by coastal shipping to distribution points. This was true in the Showa period as it is now.

 

I've discovered it's all a matter of looking in the right places.  I found that one of the best image search tools is the "View More" box in the lower right corner of the 8 thumbnail images Google gives you after you select one to view.  It looks for more images close to the one you just selected, and this allows you to quickly drill down to the type of images you're looking for.  Selecting this on a screen with a B&W Showa photo will get you a result set of almost all B&W Showa photos.

 

 

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&tbs=rimg%3ACT56J4S-Bc-RIjjLKl59aL2NFsoKKt0akrKJ8nDUz9EY0FsstoPs5tToFpRNMpwBIah57xhgN9SI3jBBTKb8sjRBGSoSCcsqXn1ovY0WEYGPyHfnflcAKhIJygoq3RqSsokRf33AFHf4Kl8qEgnycNTP0RjQWxGdL2hhxyk-8SoSCSy2g-zm1OgWERWnwCBRoB76KhIJlE0ynAEhqHkR-ktq7H_1KEi0qEgnvGGA31IjeMBFCs8_1YnySlKioSCUFMpvyyNEEZEa9wW_1-Fv-8Z&q=kumoya%E3%83%88%E3%83%A9%E3%82%AF%E3%82%BF%E3%83%BC&ved=0ahUKEwjflMuj4frKAhVKbj4KHUkqDz8Q9C8ICQ&dpr=1&biw=1440&bih=783#imgrc=lE0ynAEhqHkOiM%3A

 

 

[katoftw]

Where is the facepalm smiley?

[marknewton]

Tank cars did run in mixed consists, though:

 

 

And even better, this train is at Nunohara. Go you good thing! :)

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited February 16, 2016 by marknewton

[ToniBabelony]

And even better, this train is at Nunohara. Go you good thing! :)

 

And even better better, it's being pushed by yet another DD51! :D

[Martijn Meerts]

Can never have enough DD51 :)

[SuRoNeFu 25-501]

And even better, this train is at Nunohara. Go you good thing! :)

And to get there, you must ride Geibi Line's DMUs, not Hakubi Line's EMUs 

 

It seems that EF64-1000s are out for another run, so they used two DD51s being operated as push-pull to climb the steep grades on Hakubi Line