Railway adjacent to Yamasa Miso & Soy Sauce

[velotrain]

Over the past couple of years I've run across several photos showing what looks like a light railway or tramline running in front of (behind?) large storage containers that were identified as the Yamada soy sauce company. I just tried to find this on a map to look at it in satellite view, partly to identify the railway line, which looks to have a small yard here. I found an indication that the company was at:[/size]

 

北区葛塚 3119 (Kita-ku, 3119 Kuzutsuka), Niigata-shi, Niigata, Japan 9503321

 

However, the location that Google Maps shows for this doesn't look anything like what I see in the photos. It's possible that the photos are old and the company has relocated? (many of the poles are shown as wood, which seems unusual - at best - for a contemporary line) Does anyone know about this railway line? They seem to have a policy of not painting any two pieces of equipment the same - unless it's already a double set of cars.

 

Has it ever been modeled? This would appear to be a great subject for a T-Trak module, with interesting track layout, equipment, and a tall industrial backdrop. Have models of any of the equipment been offered?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 26, 2016 by cteno4
Title edit for veltrain

[korat]

Looks like Chōshi Dentetsu Nakanochō depot.

 

http://goo.gl/maps/b75SKGqMJKu

 

It looks like a couple of these types were reporduced in Tetsudō Collection sets - (1), (2), (3). World Kogei (bunch of other variants, un- and pre-built) and "TGW (Tsugawa)", whom I've never heard of, also seem to have done the little DeKi 3 locomotive.

 

IIRC a lot of their stuff is second-hand from the bigger Kantō area companies, so may already exist in a different form.

Edited September 25, 2016 by korat

[ToniBabelony]

This is indeed Choshi Dentetsu, a small railroad in the easternmost point of Chiba prefecture, East of Tokyo. Very short, max. speeds of 35kph and bumpy tracks through cabbage patches. Very romantic in its entirety and runs on the profits of soft rice crackers (nure senbei).

[velotrain]

Thanks, korat - apparently the huge storage tanks are only a small part of a really sprawling plant.

 

I'll have to look into this line.

 

My experience is that TGW (Tsugawa) is not very good quality.

 

World Kogei, on the other hand, are very high quality - with prices to match  ;-)

[Sacto1985]

What you're seeing are tanks loaded with soy ingredients for Yamasa Corporation's main soy sauce manufacturing plant in Choshi, Chiba Prefecture, which is part of its corporate headquarters there.

[kvp]

This line has been a subject of several small layouts as the small trains and short line lend themselves to microlayouts.

 

My favourite car: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choshi_Electric_Railway_100_series

[bikkuri bahn]

One of the best HO scale layouts I have seen depicting this railway:

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/sihowme31/32941163.html

[velotrain]

bikkuri  - thanks for the link to the layout photos.  He's done a good job of modeling the station and compact yard, while the plant is suitably compressed.  It looks like he's using one of the yard tracks to service the plant - I found a reference that "In 1956, a private track was laid directly from Chōshi Station to the nearby Yamasa soy sauce factory, which virtually eliminated freight operations handled by the Chōshi Electric Railway."

 

I see that he has modeled the Yu 101 excursion car, which was taken out of service in  2004 due to safety regulations.

 

 

 

 

Basically the same colors - but without the wave motif, are used on the line's newest equipment - the 3000 series 2-car EMU (as of March 2016), former Iyo Railway 700 series (originally Keio 5000 series).  It doesn't look bad considering that it was over 50 years old when acquired.

 

 

 

 

I found an image of two DeHa 1000-series cars at Kasagami-Kurohae, the only station where trains can pass.  There have both been withdrawn over the past year and a half.  Sad to say that kvp's favorite car was scrapped in September 2009, after sitting unused (and uncared for) over a decade.

 

 

 

 

Here is an image of the AEG DeKi 3 - now an amazing 94 years old, in its former livery (original? is that a "new engine dealer sticker" in the window?), with the slightly less venerable 701 (former Ohmi MoHa 50 of 1942).

 

 

 

 

Tokawa (a hilly fishing village) still has two tracks, but it appears that only one is now in regular use - perhaps since the schedule went to only one train an hour vs. two in 2013.  Here is a stock photo of it in former times, although I gather the station building hasn't changed.  It's interesting to me that the rail top is brown even though in regular use - was a high ratio of iron used?

 

 

 

 

The Chōshi Electric Railway station at Chōshi (JR Sobu Line transfer) is a single track at the island platform with a "Dutch-style" shelter, and a static pseudo-windmill next to it.  Although one end has the Dutch facade, the balance of the structure is of handsome yellow brick.  The spur siding (beyond and just to the right of the dark blue and cream car) ends just in front of the yellow and black railing.

 

 

 

 

 

[westfalen]

Here is a stock photo of it in former times, although I gather the station building hasn't changed.  It's interesting to me that the rail top is brown even though in regular use - was a high ratio of iron used?

That is pretty much what it looked like in 2014.  I think the rails are rusty because the trains never go past the point where they always stop.  I think the car in the photo is out of use and an impromtu historical display, it was parked there during my last visit from memory.  There is only one platform at Tokawa, the siding would have only been used to store out of service cars or as a run around for the occasional work train.

[velotrain]

I found an old photo showing the DeKi at what is clearly a soy sauce loading track.  What confuses me is the prior implication that after 1952 only JNR had access to whatever factory track existed.  While it's possible, it's hard to imagine that this photo was taken before then.  This track is definitely gone from the current yard scene.

 

 

 

 

I saw images of several caricature-like small layouts, but also found a work in progress by a very serious modeler.  He's obviously scratchbuilt a number of factory structures, including the row with the loading docks behind the DeKi in the above proto photo.

 

 

 

 

Lastly, let me introduce Miss Bow Collector for September.  To keep things peaceable with the moderators, minimal epidermis is showing, and there will not be any others.  I'm guessing the wood fence in the background marks the boundary between the yard and the factory.

 

 

[ToniBabelony]

To keep things peaceable with the moderators, minimal epidermis is showing, and there will not be any others.

 

That underlying hostility and poking for an argument though...

[velotrain]

That underlying hostility and poking for an argument though...

 

You're imagining things.

[mrp]

If I'm reading it correctly, that layout was built by members of the Johoku High School Railway Club (JRC) as an entry in the JAM 2015 Diorama Exhibition.

 

There's an article about it in the school blog.  It says they build the entire railway end-to-end - including all stations - and were featured in RM Models and Hobby of Model Railroading magazines.

  

 

  

 

[Drunkenclam]

I wished my school had a model railway club :(

[mrp]

I wished my school had a model railway club :(

 

 

Japan does seem to do a good job of encouraging model railway clubs in schools.  I saw that this year over 150 schools competed in Japan's annual National High School Model Rail Contest (sponsored by KATO and supported by the Ministry of Education).

 

Top prize went to Hiroshima Johoku Junior & Senior High School for their model of the Lantern Ceremony at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial along with a section of the Hiroden streetcar line over the Aioi Bridge.  

 

This is the awards ceremony - video of the winning layout from about the 2:00 mark.  I think it says in the description that to get the effect they wanted they modelled the dome in clay and used fibre optics to light each individual lantern.

 

 

Here's a 2013 entry I liked from Shiraume Gakuen Seishi Junior High School based on "Spirited Away", with the train running through actual water!