Planning Aizu

[Pashina12]

4 hours ago, Kabutoni said:

 

If it's a Y tmaha DX-7 or Roland Juno 60 or similar, all is forgiven. : P

 

It was a Polivoks made In USSR. Already have a Juno 60 and love It to bits. :)

[Pashina12]

14 hours ago, kvp said:

I see some irregularities on the concrete face and on the top stones. My guess that there was a step there too, that was filled in. Also the bottom strip of the platform looks different, so imho the platform wasn't lengthened, but it was raised.

 

So imho the timeline is the following:

-the crossings were created for the low platforms

-the steps were added to all of them when the platforms were raised

-one of the steps got filled in for some reason

 

Reasons could include:

-it was unused (not really needed)

-a passenger vehicle door was usually positioned right at that location (and exiting into a stairwell is dangerous)

 

ps: If you look at the footpath on the left, the straight across direction would be through the closed crossing, while if you arrive from the direction of the other platform, the other one is better.

 

Counterpoint to this is that the nearer crossing looks in as good a condition as the farther one, and the wall of the platform seems old enough that the crosswalks would've undergone maintenance since the platform was raised?

[kvp]

2 hours ago, Pashina12 said:

Counterpoint to this is that the nearer crossing looks in as good a condition as the farther one, and the wall of the platform seems old enough that the crosswalks would've undergone maintenance since the platform was raised?

Imho the crossings seem a bit delerict to me and the raising of the platform probably happened way before the stair was removed. So there might have been quite some time when the stair was there before it got removed. Do you have any earlier or later photos that show this area?

[Pashina12]

22 minutes ago, kvp said:

Imho the crossings seem a bit delerict to me and the raising of the platform probably happened way before the stair was removed. So there might have been quite some time when the stair was there before it got removed. Do you have any earlier or later photos that show this area?

 

Unfortunately I don't, only a recent photo, by which time the crossings in question had been removed and the island platform shortened and modified (curved/tapered at the end) to accommodate the new switch installed between the Up1 and Up Main tracks.

[marknewton]

Is it actually a crossing/walkway, or a drain covered in planks?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Pashina12]

29 minutes ago, marknewton said:

Is it actually a crossing/walkway, or a drain covered in planks?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 Hmmm. Now that's an interesting thought...

[Pashina12]

And here's another such overlay sketch, this one for the terminus, Aizu-Takinohara. As you can see the track has changed much less than at Tajima - even the turntable is still present (and has actually been cleaned up and rotated since this image was taken). Unlike at Tajima, the station building at Takinohara is the same as before, though some modifications have been made to it. The arrangement of the track to the freight platform is inferred... hopefully once I get 蒸気の時代(69) in hand I'll have some more views to work with (the cover photo of the book is Takinohara, and still has the freight tracks and freight platform in place - clearly with a switch to the platform track also present at the station end of the yard, too).

 

Hm. I wonder where I could find out if there's some local history museum or local historian around there where I could find out what goods were shipped to/from here (and what else besides wood and pulp from Tajima)...

[Pashina12]

Here's a couple of interesting links I found:

 

https://ameblo.jp/nikko-utsunomiya/entry-12292317559.html = photo story about the delivery of C11 254 to Aizu-Tajima for display

http://ohkiphoto.jp/Sentimental/3rdLevel/04HukushimaAidu.html = fantastic series of "then and now" photos taken from the same positions.

 

And various interesting tidbits of info I've found:

 

* The Aizu Line received its current name in 1971; before that, it was called the Aizu-Takinohara Line.

* C11s pulled two round-trip freight trains every day on the 45.1 km between Aizu-Wakamatsu and Aizu-Tajima until 31 October 1974; after that, freight trains were hauled by DE10s

* Train 1391レ was the morning freight from Aizu-Wakamatsu to Tajima (1973).

 

*Agriculture:

 -- Mulberry fields between Nishi-Wakamatsu and Monden;

 -- rice fields around Monden, Kamimiyori, Aizu-Nagano;

 -- persimmons in crates were shipped by rail from Kamimiyori

* Most farmhouses in the area still had thatched roofs in the mid 1970s.
 

* Between Kuwabara and Funako the grade was 25‰ (rising towards Funako) - the #1 Ogawa Bridge also had a 25‰ grade; due to this the C11 could only pull 180 tons; for trains heavier than 180 tons a second C11 was added as a helper.

 

* Kuwabara Station was unmanned; freight trains bound for Tajima always stopped for water at Kuwabara.

 

* The curve in the track approaching Nakaarai station (today) suggests that the station may formerly have had a passing track.

* In the JNR period before 1986 there were 7 daily round trip passenger trains between Aizu-Wakamatsu and Takinohara. In August 1986, one of the scheduled passenger trains was Aizu Wakamatsu lv. 12:03 → Aizu Takinohara arr. 14:08. Passenger trains to Takinohara made up of C11-hauled carriages were discontinued by 1967; such trains were still in service on the Tadami Line in 1971.

* Freight trains still went to Takinohara in 1971 (On 4 December 1971 as an extra train leaving Aizu-Wakamatsu before 6 pm, arriving Takinohara at 10:30 pm)

* When Takinohara station was opened in 1953 (Tajima-Takinohara section; Wakamatsu-Tajima opened 1934), it handled freight from nearby copper mines, but in the latter half of the JNR era that had disappeared.

 

So, immediate deductions from these tidbits:

 

- if I set the time period of my layout at some time between 1967 and 1971, I can have the things I want - steam power and DMUs, and still have freight trains to Takinohara. And if I want, I can get a string of passenger cars for a loco-hauled train and call it a special (there is photographic evidence of such a train at Tajima in 1967, after regular loco+coach trains had been discontinued). And #2, visually and operationally little difference between 1970 and 1974 (except in terms of road vehicles, mainly?), so easy enough to occasionally have a DE10 pulling a freight train.

 

- Can put TsuMus at Kamimiyori to pick up shipments of persimmons and at Monden for mulberries, and WaMus at Monden, Kamimiyori and Tajima to pick up rice in sacks; find out when persimmons, mulberries, rice are harvested/shipped.

 

- So copper was a thing at Takinohara in the early days (1950s)... can assume this was discontinued in 1971 when freight service to/from there was stopped? How would such copper have been shipped? Ore dumped from trucks into ToRas? Already-processed copper in WaMus? The fact that there was a freight house of reasonable size on the freight platform suggests there was other cargo handled there, too. The one photo I've seen so far of freight cars at Takinohara shows only ToRas there (not 90000s) - perhaps the book I'm awaiting will shed further light on this.

[velotrain]

3 hours ago, marknewton said:

Is it actually a crossing/walkway, or a drain covered in planks?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

I had an alternate idea, but I like Mark's better, given that we can see an open ditch running along under the edge of the platform on the station side.

 

It looks to me that it's maintained to the same level as the other two, which suggests that it has a current function and isn't there by accident of history.  I had wondered if it might be used to communicate with crew (token?) in the cab of a train on the track away from the station.  The location would be about right for a train at the station; however, it wouldn't explain the planks continuing to the edge of the platform.

[Pashina12]

Here are some more tidbits... some of this isn't relevant to modelling, but it's nevertheless interesting.

 

* The Aizu Line (Aizu-Takinohara Line) was originally envisioned in the Meiji era to be part of a "Second Tohoku Main Line" (第二の東北本線) from Aizu-Wakamatsu to Tokyo. The Nishi-Wakamatsu - Kamimiyori section was opened in 1927, the Kamimiyori - Yunokami section in 1932, and the Yunokami - Aizu-Tajima section in 1934. Construction of the right of way from Tajima to Takinohara was finished by 1941, but construction was suspended during the Pacific War. The Tajima - Arakai section was completed in 1947, and the Arakai - Takinohara section was finally opened in 1953. The Sannougawa Bridge between Itozawa and Takinohara was built as a concrete arch bridge to minimise the use of iron.

 

* Minimum radius of curves on the Aizu Line is 200 m.

 

* Steam-hauled passenger trains were replaced by DMUs in July 1967.

 

* The Sumitomo Metal Mining Co (住友金属鉱山) bought the Yasou (八総) mine near Takinohara in 1949 and opened it as a copper mine in 1950 (it had been active as a lead mine since the Edo period). Ore was excavated at the mine and transported through a tunnel to the Tajima side. Copper, lead, zinc and iron sulphide concentrate were shipped to the smelter via Aizu Takinohara station. At its peak between 1956 and 1961 the mine shipped 161,257 tons annually. Said to have been one of the three largest copper mines in Japan, it was depleted in July 1970 (another source says end of 1969) and closed in September of that year.

 

* In the late 1960s/early 1970s, the National Highway 121 was being converted from a gravel road; the route followed an old road that had been opened in the 2nd year of Genroku (1689) after an earthquake in the 3rd year of Tenna (1683) had rendered the old road unusable. The old road bridge adjacent to the Kuragawa Bridge was concrete. The suspension bridge for the road next to the No. 1 Ogawa Bridge was mostly wood; load limit of 2 tons. Kuwabara was a village of about 14 houses, and the old route of NH 121 passed through here. NH 121 had been a prefectural road until being upgraded to 2nd Class National Highway 121 in 1952.

 

>> New task for the to-do list: find out what the road signs looked like in the 1960s.

 

* Funako Tunnel between Funako and Kuwabara was about 1 km long. After the No. 1 Ogawa bridge was the No. 1 Konumazaki Tunnel (第1小沼崎トンネル).  No. 3 Ogawa bridge was painted blue.

* Although downwards trains stopped for water at Kuwabara, upwards freight trains coming down the long slope didn't stop at Kuwabara, using their inertia to run up through the Funako Tunnel.

 

So, further deductions from this information:

 

The mine was definitely a thing, and the ore was definitely shipped out by train from Takinohara. So, if I set the layout sometime between 1967 and 1969, I can have freight trains from Takinohara to carry the ore, representing the last days of those outbound ore shipments. I haven't found out exactly how the ore was transported through that tunnel from the mine to the station, nor how it was loaded into the freight cars (which I assume were ToRas), but I don't want to dig further into the mine or else I'll likely spend the next several days lost down that shaft... so I'll just assume that it was done via dump truck - if you look at this picture, the gondola adjacent to the freight platform (at the left of the photo) seems to be at a height appropriate for such loading.

 

So, I'm learning that I've got a reasonable variety of outbound freight on the line: ore from Takinohara, wood chips and logs from Tajima, rice from Aizu-Nagano (*), Kamimiyori, and Monden, persimmons from Kamimiyori, mulberries from Monden. There are a couple of other stations on the line that had/have yards big enough to suggest that there was some freight activity there, I'll have to dig into those places to see if I can't find out what was at these places that required such large stations. 

 

* = Aizu-Nagano today is just a single track, but there clearly was a second track there in the past, judging from the arrangement; however, this was gone by 1974 - I have a photo of a C11-hauled freight train going through Nagano in which that second track is clearly gone, but there's still little overgrowth where the track had been, leading me to assume that that track was removed sometime around or just after 1970 - how does this track make sense if there wasn't more there before? That photo is from 1974. The view now from the opposite direction (what the driver of the SL in the previous photo would've seen... ish). And just for fun, a DE10 on a freight train at Aizu-Nagano.

 

I still have no concrete idea of what freight was arriving inbound.

 

* 1972 freight skeds:

貨1391レ    単363    貨1393レ    単367    station                     貨1390レ    貨1392レ
542             940        1304           ---          Aizu-Wakamatsu    1558           1948
601             1018      1321           ---          Nishi-Wakamatsu   1550           1939
630             (1028)   1359           ---          Monden                   1533           1917
709             (1037)   (1410)         1546     Kamimiyori             1516          (1859)
733             1058      1433           1607     Kuwabara               |                  |
816             (1110)   1451           1625      Yunokami              (1448)          1836
(831)          (1124)   (1507)        (1641)    Narahara               (1434)         (1801)
853             1145      1529           1702     Aizu-Tajima            1415            1741

 

So I can glean a few more tidbits about freight ops on the Aizu Line from this timetable. For one, the stations at which freight trains stopped. There was evidently not much freight activity at Narahara by 1972, if all the trains are only stopping there if necessary. Kamimiyori also seems to have had less demand for freight service than the bigger stations, since only the morning downbound and the afternoon upbound had planned stops there; similar for Yunokami, where both downbound trains had planned stops, but only the evening upbound did. Kuwabara as we know was just a stop for the downbound trains to take on water. What surprises me is that all the regular trains had planned stops at Monden - this is/was a much smaller station than Kamimiyori just down the line... why would this have been the case?

 

Secondly, I'm not entirely sure what 単 ("single") wants to mean... this is what I previously imagined was referring to a wayfreight.

 

I'm going to do a bit of a brain exercise with the timetable about locomotive movements...

 

0542: C11-1 leaves Wakamatsu with 1391 to Tajima.

0900: C11-1 is at Tajima.

0940: C11-2 leaves Wakamatsu with 363 to Tajima to pick up cars from intermediate stations for assembly into 1393.

1145: C11-1 and C11-2 are at Tajima.

1304: C11-3 leaves Wakamatsu with 1393 to Tajima.

1415: C11-1 leaves Tajima with 1390 to Wakamatsu.

1430: C11-2 is at Tajima. Assuming an hour travel time from Tajima to Kamimiyori, C11-2 leaves Tajima to run empty to Kamimiyori.

1530: C11-1 is at Wakamatsu, C11-2 is at Kamimiyori, C11-3 is at Tajima.

1546: C11-2 leaves Kamimiyori with 367 to pick up cars from intermediate stations for assembly into 1392.

1702: C11-2 and C11-3 are at Tajima.

1741: C11-2 leaves Tajima with 1392 to Wakamatsu.

2000: C11-1 and 2 are at Wakamatsu, C11-3 is at Tajima.

 

If we keep going like this, we'd eventually end up with Tajima getting the complete collection of C11s... so instead, the next day I imagine was like:

 

0542: C11-1 leaves Wakamatsu with 1391 to Tajima.

0730: Assuming two hour travel time from Tajima to Aizu-Wakamatsu, C11-3 leaves Tajima to run light to Wakamatsu.

0930: C11-1 is at Tajima, C11-3 is at Wakamatsu.

0940: C11-3 leaves Wakamatsu with 363 to Tajima to pick up cars from intermediate stations for assembly into 1393.

1145: C11-1 and 3 are at Tajima.

1304: C11-2 leaves Wakamatsu with 1393 to Tajima.

1415: C11-1 leaves Tajima with 1390 to Wakamatsu.

1430: C11-2 and 3 are at Tajima. Assuming an hour travel time from Tajima to Kamimiyori, C11-3 leaves Tajima to run light to Kamimiyori.

1530: C11-1 is at Wakamatsu, C11-2 is at Tajima, C11-3 is at Kamimiyori.

1546: C11-3 leaves Kamimiyori with 367 to pick up cars from intermediate stations for assembly into 1392.

1702: C11-1 is at Wakamatsu, C11-2 and 3 are at Tajima.

1741: C11-3 leaves Tajima with 1392 to Wakamatsu.

2000: C11-1 and 3 are at Wakamatsu, C11-2 is at Tajima.

 

I'm not sure if this seems reasonable to those of you who have a better understanding of railway ops, but per whatever capacity for logical deduction that I still have within me, this seems the simplest possible arrangement?

 

>> New task for the to-do list: find a freight timetable from the 1960s that includes trains to/from Takinohara.

 

* SL assignments to Aizu-Wakamatsu depot:

3/1972:
 --- D51 238, 435, 1108
 --- C58 6, 252, 354
 --- C57 46
 --- C12 60, 66
 --- C11 64, 178, 179, 199, 236, 244, 248, 256, 289, 312, 313, 323, 351, 366

 

3/1973:
 --- C58 16, 354
 --- C11 19, 178, 179, 199, 244, 248, 252, 289, 312, 315, 345, 366

 

In 1976 there were no diesel locomotives assigned to Aizu-Wakamatsu, but 3-4 engines from Koriyama were stationed there. 3/1976 assigned to Koriyama were DE10 6, 39, 41, 47, 49, 88, 89

 

Four snowploughs were assigned to Aizu-Wakamatsu in 1973: キ151、キ195、キ216、キ240, these were used on the Ban'etsu West, Tadami, Aizu, and Nitchuu Lines.

[Kiha66]

Thanks for the history Pashina!  Learning about this line is fascinating. 

[Pashina12]

I think so too! The more I learn about it, and about the surrounding area, the more interested I'm getting.

 

It just occurred to me that I know just about zero about any other railway line in Japan, though... XD

[Pashina12]

More freight timetable learnings.

 

Train 貨1391 returns as 貨1390. This return pair is 51仕業 ("Action 51" I guess?)
Train 単363 returns as 貨1390 - this train operated on an as-needed basis (54仕業)
By the October 1973 TT, 貨1393レ had become 臨貨8393 (Extra Freight) - nominally operated "as needed" but ran almost every day, and 単367 was no longer operated; 8393 returns as 臨貨8392 (56仕業).

 

As an aside, here's a list of 1973 SL Actions (仕業):
(混合 = mixed; 貨 = freight; 臨貨 = extra freight; 客 = passenger; 回客 = passenger)
入1仕業 - 混合621→混合622→混合244 (Aizu-Wakamatsu~Atsushio→Atsushio~Kitakata→Kitakata~Wakamatsu; Nitchuu Line)
51仕業 - 貨1391→貨1390 (Aizu-Wakamatsu~Tajima→Tajima~Wakamatsu; Aizu Line)
52仕業 - 臨貨8461→臨貨460 (Aizu-Wakamatsu~Tadami→Tadami~Wakamatsu; Tadami Line)
53仕業 - 貨1491→貨1492 (Aizu-Wakamatsu~Tadami→Tadami~Wakamatsu; Tadami Line)
54仕業 - 単363→貨1390 (Aizu-Wakamatsu~Tajima→Tajima~Wakamatsu; Aizu Line)
55仕業 - 貨1493→貨1490 (Aizu-Wakamatsu~Aizu-Bange→Bange~Wakamatsu; Tadami Line)
55-1仕業 - 客237→客234 (Aizu-Wakamatsu~Nozawa→Nozawa~Wakamatsu; Ban'etsu West Line)
入1仕業 - 単623→混合623→混合624→混合625→混合→626回客 (Aizu-Wakamatsu~Kitakata→Kitakata~Atsushio→Atsushio~Kitakata→Kitakata~Atsushio→Atsushio~Kitakata→Kitakata~Wakamatsu; Nitchuu Line)
臨時仕業 - 貨1493→臨単8463→臨貨460 (Aizu-Wakamatsu~Aizu-Bange→Aizu-Bange~Aizu-Kawaguchi→Bange~Wakamatsu)

 

The Nitchuu Line is a nifty little line, too... 11 km in length, nifty little stations, I'd say it'd also be a great subject for one wanting to model a nice JNR-era local railway.

 

From the 10/1973 TT, though, I have a bit more detail, namely arrive/depart times for each station:

貨         単          貨                                          貨         貨
1391    単363    8393      station                     1390    8392
05:22    09:20    13:03    Aizu-Wakamatsu     -           -
05:42    09:40    13:23    Aizu-Wakamatsu     15:58  19:50
05:51    09:49    13:32    Nishi-Wakamatsu    15:50  19:41
06:00    10:18    13:34    Nishi-Wakamatsu    15:43  19:27
06:12    10:28    13:44    Monden                   15:33  19:17
06:30       ↓        13:58    Monden                   15:26  19:08
06:42    10:48    14:10    Kamimiyori             15:16      ↑
07:09       ↓            ↓       Kamimiyori             15:13   18:59
07:27    10:58    14:27    Kuwabara                  ↑          ↑
07:32    11:03    14:31    Kuwabara              14:57   18:46
07:47    11:15    14:44    Yunokami                   ↑         ↑
08:13       ↓            ↓       Yunokami               14:47   18:33
08:30    11:32    15:06    Narahara                   ↑         ↑
    ↓           ↓           ↓       Narahara                14:30  18:15
08:53    11:56    15:29   Aizu-Tajima             14:17  17:53

 

Fairly similar to the 1972 TT, but with some timing differences. A few things I'm uncertain of. Does this mean that there was no longer any freight service at Narahara? This TT was for October 1973... perhaps Narahara's freight traffic was seasonal, and in the winter TT there was no demand for service?

 

Now we have an idea of travel times between stations, and how long the train stays at each station. But now I'm curious, looking at say 1391, why does it need to stay at Monden for 18 minutes, 27 minutes at Kamimiyori, 26 minutes at Yunokami? Did this train also pick up Wakamatsu-bound cars? Judging from the skeds for the upwards trains, those didn't stop anywhere really before Monden, which tells me they're taking complete trains - that any freight outbound from the intermediate stations had already been picked up and taken to Tajima, the train assembled, and then taken up to Wakamatsu... did *all* the upwards trains pick up cars loaded with outbound goods? Or was 1391 only dropping off goods inbound from Wakamatsu (or empty cars), and 363 was the one picking the outbound loads up?

 

I've also learned that in 1965 there was a 貨371 on the TT, too... still yet to find a TT from before 1970 though. Well, sorta - found one from the Tadami Line from 1968, and in the corner of that photo you can see Takinohara, with a 10:33 am arrival...

 

I've found some passenger timetables too... the 1965 TT is for C11-hauled trains - which, photos show, were sometimes mixed trains pulling freight cars, too - and the 1967 one for DCs; for 1967, I only have the upbound trains.

 

The 1965 TT for downwards trains is like this:

Station                   Train #
                               331  333  335  337  339  341
Aizu-Wakamatsu   534  754  1024 1423 1707 1904
Nanukamachi        538  758  1028 1427 1711 1908
Nishi-Wakamatsu  542  803  1037 1432 1716 1912
Monden                 551  812  1046 1441 1725 1921
Kamimiyori           602  826  1058 1452 1736 1937
Kuwabara             621  846  1118 1512 1756 1954
Yunokami              632  857  1129 1523 1807 2005
Yagoshima             644  908  1140 1534 1818 2016
Narahara              651  915  1147 1541 1825 2023
Aizu-Ochiai            700  925  1156 1550 1834 2032
Aizu-Nagano         705  930  1204 1555 1842 2037
Tabehara              712  936  1209 1600 1847 2042
Aizu-Tajima          723  948  1221 1612 1856 2047
Nakaarai               730  955  1229 1619 1903 ----
Arakai                   738  1003 1237 1627 1911 ----
Itozawa                 745  1010 1244 1634 1918 ----
Aizu-Takinohara  756  1021 1255 1645 1929 ----

 

Here are the upwards trains, compared. The 1967 TT adds an express train not present in 1965. In the "time" column, I put the *shortest* travel time between the stations:

 

1965                                        Time                            Time  1967
332  334  336  338   340   342   Min.  Station                 Min. 322D 2312D 324D 326D 328D 330D 332D
----    640  905  1116 1541 1750 0       Aizu-Takinohara  0      ----      ----       650    848   1118  1530 1840
----    649  913  1124 1549 1758 8       Itozawa                 7      ----      ----       657    855   1125  1537 1847
----    657  921  1132 1557 1806 8       Arakai                   7      ----      ----       704    902   1132  1544 1854
----    704  927  1138 1603 1812 6       Nakaarai              5       ----      ----       709    907   1137  1549 1859
548  718  943  1152 1622 1830 0~14 Aizu-Tajima         0~7   540   618      718    914   1145  1556  1909
553  723  949  1158 1628 1835 5       Tabehara             4       544     ↓        722    919   1149  1601  1913
559  729  956  1203 1634 1841 5       Aizu-Nagano        4       549   625      727    923   1154  1609  1918
604  734  1001 1209 1639 1846 5      Aizu-Ochiai          5        554    ↓         732    928   1159  1614  1923
612  742  1010 1217 1648 1854 8      Narahara             8       602   636      740    936   1210  1622  1931
619  749  1017 1224 1655 1901 7      Yagoshima           6       608     ↓         746    942   1216  1629 1937
633  800  1029 1235 1706 1912 11    Yunokami            9       625   649      755    955   1229  1641 1946
642  809  1039 1244 1715 1921 9      Kuwabara           8       633     ↓         804   1003  1237  1650 1955
658  825  1057 1259 1737 1939 15    Kamimiyori         14     648   707       824   1018  1252  1704 2010
708  835  1107 1309 1747 1949 10    Monden               9       658    ↓          833   1027  1301  1714 2019
718  845  1117 1319 1757 1958 9    Nishi-Wakamatsu  8       706  728       841   1035  1309  1721  2027
723  849  1121 1323 1801 2003 4    Nanukamachi        4      711     ↓         845   1039  1313  1725  2031
727  853  1125 1327 1805 2006 3    Aizu-Wakamatsu   3       715  735       848   1042  1316  1729  2034

 

As you can see, on average the DC trains were a minute faster between stations.

 

I've tried contacting the guy who posted the scan of the 1968 Tadami Line TT on his blog to see if he could provide me with a scan of the Aizu-Takinohara Line TT from the same page of the TT book. With that and the 1967 TT info above, I should be able to work out a more complete picture of all the (scheduled) train movements on the line.

 

[Pashina12]

Here's a third station - Kamimiyori (nowadays Ashinomaki Onsen). Like Takinohara, in a way not much has changed here, in another a fair bit is different. The platforms and the main buildings are the same as they were, though the platforms on both sides of the tracks are overgrown by grass a fair ways (the red outlines clarify this). There was a wooden crosswalk at the end of the down platform, though the crossing is I *think* just a little to the left of where I marked the two yellow lines.

 

The Up Freight track was still in place in 1971-74, but I'm not sure if it was in use anymore by then - though there was definitely still outbound freight in 1971 in the form of crated persimmons; I'm going to assume that that track was still in use, because loading all the crates in that picture would take more than a few minutes. Anyways, there's no trace of this track today, though.

 

The Down freight tracks are a different matter. #2 is still present, and often has some piece of MoW equipment sitting there; #1 is gone, but I've little clue as to when. #3 is something of a mystery... I've got no period photos looking in that direction (which fact in itself may suggest that there was no track there?), but the overhead photos clearly show evidence of a track having been there; what it may have been for, I have no idea.

 

In terms of a module, the track arrangement is fairly straightforward; the only big decision that needs to be made is whether to include that mysterious Down #3 track. My inclination is to omit it: that way, if eventually I find concrete proof no such track existed, sweet, it's still accurate; on the other hand, if evidence turns up that it was in fact there, well, compression of scenes is often a necessary evil...

[Pashina12]

A bit more timetable stuff... this picture and this picture show me that in 1968 there were two daily freight trains each way along the line - one Wakamatsu~Takinohara (the downbound arriving at Arakai at 10:09 and at Takinohara at 10:33 am; very hard to tell but *looks* like the upbound is at Nishi-Wakamatsu at 15:45), and one Wakamatsu~Tajima.

 

What I wouldn't do for a clear scan of the relevant section of that page...

[kvp]

Imho the 3rd photo on this page shows no trace of the top (up) freight track in 1974:

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~aj4s-ski/aizu9-2/newpage1.htm

But it's visible on this link in 1965:

http://kabutogoe.web.fc2.com/aidu/aidu.html#22

Also this seem to show the other end of the station with the approach of the down freight track(s) and i can't see any turnouts on it.

http://kabutogoe.web.fc2.com/aidu/aidu.html#23

(imho the turnout of the #1 down freight track if it was still in place might have been a bit closer to the end of the platform than on your drawing and there is no sign of a 3rd track even in 1965, but google maps indicates what looks to be a station access road in place of the 3rd track, roughly where the people walk on the picture, that was connected to the next road across the fields south)

 

I used this modern view for reference:

https://www.google.hu/maps/@37.3953073,139.9322615,2a,90y,175.72h,76.63t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sRdF5ezfNtUcAAAQqmW1oBA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

ps: I'm not entirely sure i got the right station, but it looks very similar...

[Pashina12]

11 minutes ago, kvp said:

Imho the 3rd photo on this page shows no trace of the top (up) freight track in 1974:

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~aj4s-ski/aizu9-2/newpage1.htm

But it's visible on this link in 1965:

http://kabutogoe.web.fc2.com/aidu/aidu.html#22

Also this seem to show the other end of the station with the approach of the down freight track(s) and i can't see any turnouts on it.

http://kabutogoe.web.fc2.com/aidu/aidu.html#23

(imho the turnout of the #1 down freight track if it was still in place might have been a bit closer to the end of the platform than on your drawing and there is no sign of a 3rd track even in 1965, but google maps indicates what looks to be a station access road in place of the 3rd track, roughly where the people walk on the picture, that was connected to the next road across the fields south)

 

I used this modern view for reference:

https://www.google.hu/maps/@37.3953073,139.9322615,2a,90y,175.72h,76.63t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sRdF5ezfNtUcAAAQqmW1oBA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

ps: I'm not entirely sure i got the right station, but it looks very similar...

 

You did get the right station.

 

In this photo from 1972 the Up freight track is visible just in front of the locomotive... but I'm not sure if there's a turnout still in place in that picture or not - comparing this view with the 1965 one you linked, I think it's a safe guess to say that the turnout had been removed by 1972... but it seems like it'd take a long time to load all those crates of persimmons (November 1971, per the caption) onto the train whilst blocking the line; the caption of the photo on the page doesn't say anything about the time or the train number, but judging from the light, based on the 1972 TT I'm going to guess that this train is 貨1390レ, at Kamimiyori at 15:15. Per the 1973 sked this train is at Kamimiyori for only 3 minutes... obvs nowhere near enough time to load all of that onto the train. I'm very curious now...

 

In November 1971 the Up freight track is still there, though very likely out of use for a while to judge from the overgrowth. How did they ship those crates out??

 

Down #3 as I said is mystifying me... if you look at this current overhead view ... the traces there seem to strongly suggest that such a track existed - the evidence/traces for it are almost stronger than the evidence for Down #1. Maybe that was even gone by 1965, by which time it was being used as a footpath... and maybe to this day people still walk that way?

[Pashina12]

More Aizu-Wakamatsu SL assignments:

* 10/1967:
>> 28649, 78639; C11 64, 110, 214 (scrapped 4/68), 235 (scrapped 12/68), 236, 239, 247, 248, 289, 312, 313, 323, 351; C12 231, 234, 252; D51 35, 238, 358, 435, 464, 563, 626, 752, 1073, 1136
* 3/1969:
>> C11 64, 235, 236, 244, 248, 256, 289, 312, 313, 323, 351, 366; C12 231, 252 (both xfer to Uwajima 4/69); C58 306 (scrapped 3/71), 307 (scrapped 2/70); D51 35, 238, 316, 417, 435, 563, 626, 854

 

Although only the C11s ran on the Aizu Line, this is kinda tempting me. Since given the discoveries of the past week regarding traffic on the line from Takinohara I'm looking at setting my time period in the 1967-1969 period, this discovery of these assignments is giving me further incentive to include Nishi-Wakamatsu in the Master Plan as more than just "off stage" staging yard - the 8620形 are absolutely beautiful, and having Nishi-Wakamatsu in the Master Plan would justify getting an 8620...

 

Though back to the "reality"... the above means C11 64, 236, 248, 289, 312, 323 and 351 were there the whole time between late 1967 and early 1969 - all of these were also still there in March 1972, and C11 248, 289 and 312 were still there in March 1973. Based on the daily operational schedule I worked out in a previous post, I need three C11s, so if I make those 248, 289, and 312, I can represent any given day on the Aizu Line between October 1967 and March 1973.

 

I've not yet found much detailed information on what DCs were assigned to Koriyama (which is where the ones used on the Aizu Line came from)... I can glean some running numbers from photos, and in addition to that, I've got some info on total numbers of classes assigned to Koriyama in 1974. That's not much to go on, but with that, together with the build years for each class, I can make myself a rough guide to what one could reasonably expect to see on the line in 1967-1969.

 

Assigned to Koriyama in 1974 were 15x KiHa58, 13x KiHa55, 9x KiHa28, 9x KiHa23, 5x KiHa51, 4x KiHa25, 3x KiHa45, 3x KiHa16, 1x KiHa22, and 1 KiHa18, along with 4x KiHaYuNi26 and 3x KiHaYuNi18. From photos I also know that KiHa10s also operated on the line.

 

Looking at those by build year, we see:

KiHa18 - 1x (built 1953-1954)
KiHa16 - 3x (built 1954-1955)
KiHa51 - 5x (built 1955-1956)

KiHa10 (built 1955-1956)
KiHa55 - 13x (built 1956-1958)
KiHa25 - 4x (25-0 built 1957; 25-200 built 1958-1961; 25-300 built 1962)
KiHa22 - 1x (built 1958-1965)
KiHa28 - 9x (built 1961-1968)

KiHa58 - 15x (built 1961-1969)

KiHa23 - 9x (23-0 built 1966-1969; 23-500 built 1967-1969)
KiHa45 - 3x (45-0 built 1966-1968; 45-500 built 1967-1969)

 

and

KiHaYuNi26 - 4x (built 1958-1964)

KiHaYuNi18 - 3x (built 1966-1967)

 

Photos of DC trains on the line suggest that trains were on average 2-3 cars in length. Going by the 1967 pax TT info I have, I'm going to guess those services were operated by four sets of DCs... whatevs I'll say a fleet of 10 cars will be enough to cover that. I've already got a KiHa23 which would be a sparkly new arrival to the line... make a KiHaYuNi26 the second of the ten (they show up occasionally in photos, though I have no idea on what sort of system - gonna take a wild guess and assume they were bringing inbound mail and taking outbound mail on the morning train...), and that leaves me eight more, which I think splitting as 3x KiHa55, 2x KiHa10/16/17/18, and one each KiHa22, KiHa25, and KiHa58, should give me a reasonable depiction of 1967-1969...

 

 

[kvp]

1 hour ago, Pashina12 said:

How did they ship those crates out??

My guess would be that they choose a time slot in the timetable, when there were no train crossings on the line at this station, so the platform could be used for loading the train. As long as there is at least one thrugh track is free, the station could be used as a simple stop by all trains. If they timed the loading/unloading between the morning and evening rush hours (if there were any), then it could be done for both up and down freight trains without using any sidings.

 

My other guess is that the 3rd track, if ever existed was not present by 1965, but nowdays even that path is mostly gone, although wheel marks are visible around both ends and the other end is probably still used as an access road for the fields south of the station. The question is what time period do you want to model? If it's between 1965 and 1971, then you can add the up freight 1 and the down freight 2 for sure, with down freight 1 having a high probability. After 1974, you'll have to remove the up freight 1 too and maybe even the down freight 1 too. (essentially using the current layout)

 

ps: I'm building a hungarian station at a very slow construction rate for two years now and even though i'm aiming at the 1980ies, i decided to keep the freight loading track that got fully removed by 1979 for operational reasons. This means the station won't be 100% correct but will be more playable by having a freight loading stub next to the (nowdays unsused and overgrown) warehouse and loading platform beside having two through passenger and one through freight track. If you want, you can choose to have the 1965 or earlier track arrangements with trains that ran after 1974.

[Pashina12]

54 minutes ago, kvp said:

My guess would be that they choose a time slot in the timetable, when there were no train crossings on the line at this station, so the platform could be used for loading the train. As long as there is at least one thrugh track is free, the station could be used as a simple stop by all trains. If they timed the loading/unloading between the morning and evening rush hours (if there were any), then it could be done for both up and down freight trains without using any sidings.

 

My other guess is that the 3rd track, if ever existed was not present by 1965, but nowdays even that path is mostly gone, although wheel marks are visible around both ends and the other end is probably still used as an access road for the fields south of the station. The question is what time period do you want to model? If it's between 1965 and 1971, then you can add the up freight 1 and the down freight 2 for sure, with down freight 1 having a high probability. After 1974, you'll have to remove the up freight 1 too and maybe even the down freight 1 too. (essentially using the current layout)

 

ps: I'm building a hungarian station at a very slow construction rate for two years now and even though i'm aiming at the 1980ies, i decided to keep the freight loading track that got fully removed by 1979 for operational reasons. This means the station won't be 100% correct but will be more playable by having a freight loading stub next to the (nowdays unsused and overgrown) warehouse and loading platform beside having two through passenger and one through freight track. If you want, you can choose to have the 1965 or earlier track arrangements with trains that ran after 1974.

 

That (re the loading) seems reasonable... but my puzzlement about that is that according to the timetable, the train is only scheduled to be stopped at the station for 3 minutes... conversely, has there been any place or time in history that trains trains that aren't high-priority trains have operated exactly to the schedule?

 

As things stand with the information I have available, I'm planning to model the 1967-1969 period... so I think going with including Up 1 as well as Down 1 and Down 2 would be the safest option in terms of realism, whilst also providing enough options for operational possibilities to make this module interesting.

 

Re the PS: which station are you building?

[Pashina12]

Excuse me a while... 蒸気の時代 has arrived. I'll be in my bunk... :D

[Pashina12]

So a quick initial review... the pictures in the book are on the whole fantastic - enough so that it's not at all disappointing that only about a quarter of the Aizu coverage is of the Takinohara line (another quarter is the Nitchuu Line, whilst about half is the Tadami Line). Most of the Takinohara line photos are of the bridges (which is entirely understandable, they're extremely photogenic and seem to have been the main attraction of the line for railfans) - the bulk of the colour shots in the book are in the "Autumn on the Aizu Line" section, which is entirely photos taken in 1973 of a number of the Ogawa bridges between Kuwabara and Narahara). There are also a couple other pictures that reveal some new information about the area around Takinohara (in 1968 - the cover picture I linked previously being one of them) and Yunokami stations (giving me a better idea of the buildings next to the rail line just down the line from the station). Another important thing that I've learned from these is that even in the late 60s, the station areas were kept quite immaculate - no weeds around the tracks, even on the far side of the turntable... this seems to have been less the case as the years approached the mid-1970s, though.

 

Some of the scenes on the Tadami Line make me *almost* wish I had discovered that line before I settled on the Takinohara Line! All three of these Aizu branchlines - the Takinohara line, the Tadami line and the Nitchuu line - are lovely, and I think any of the three would make fantastic subjects for modelling. If variety of rolling equipment is the goal, though, the Tadami line would be the winner; the flipside of that though is that it's also the biggest of the three lines by a fair degree, with more "big" stations and more "big" scenes. In terms of size, the Nitchuu line is 11-ish km so is the smallest by far, and with only like 5 or so stations on the line, with the modular approach one could model the entire line; I have no idea about what sort of traffic it had, though. If I were starting out now with this information I might well end up opting for one of the other lines, but I'm quite content with the Takinohara line as my subject - a few of the scenes that I plan to model, including Takinohara itself, are scenes I haven't found elsewhere.

 

Also, I know it shouldn't be surprising at all, but I found myself surprising myself a bit when looking at some of the Takinohara line pictures and instantly thinking "this is just down the line from Yunokami" or somesuch, even though the only reference points are the mountains or other rock features... and then reading the caption and realising I'm right. :)

[kvp]

1 hour ago, Pashina12 said:

 

That (re the loading) seems reasonable... but my puzzlement about that is that according to the timetable, the train is only scheduled to be stopped at the station for 3 minutes...

 

Re the PS: which station are you building?

I have an idea for this: The train could drop off cars in one direction and back onto them to pick them up in the other direction. This works as long as the cars are placed at a passing track and allows a scatter/gather operation without station shunters and with minimal movements. Now the question is which direction the cargo was going?

 

For the hungarian station, it's Balatonakali-Dorgicse on the lake Balaton north shore line towards Tapolca. A single track secondary mainline with direct tourist trains from all over the country and back in the days even as far as East Germany. The station is at the lakeshore with two plages and a camping site on the shore side and the village main square on the other. The station is framed by two railway crossings. The current look of the station was set by the 1964 reconstruction and new station building. It's a nice place where you can sit on a bench and watch the trains and the lake. http://www.vasutallomasok.hu/allomas.php?az=blak

[Pashina12]

3 minutes ago, kvp said:

I have an idea for this: The train could drop off cars in one direction and back onto them to pick them up in the other direction. This works as long as the cars are placed at a passing track and allows a scatter/gather operation without station shunters and with minimal movements. Now the question is which direction the cargo was going?

 

For the hungarian station, it's Balatonakali-Dorgicse on the lake Balaton north shore line towards Tapolca. A single track secondary mainline with direct tourist trains from all over the country and back in the days even as far as East Germany. The station is at the lakeshore with two plages and a camping site on the shore side and the village main square on the other. The station is framed by two railway crossings. The current look of the station was set by the 1964 reconstruction and new station building. It's a nice place where you can sit on a bench and watch the trains and the lake. http://www.vasutallomasok.hu/allomas.php?az=blak

 

The persimmons and rice grown in the area seem to me to in all likelihood have been bound for Wakamatsu - "up" the line. If that Up 1 track didn't go all the way through to reconnect to the Up Main at the other end of the platform, then it could only have had cars pushed in from or pulled out onto the Up Main. Let me brain-exercise here... so if it's the downwards trains that are setting out and picking up cars... the only way I can see a downwards train servicing the Up 1 track is like...

 

1: train stops at the platform on Down main;

2: engine drops any cars (from the front of the string, behind the van) onto Down 1/Down 2;

3: engine runs down the line to switch over onto Up Main;

4: engine backs along Up Main, picks up any outbound cars from Up 1;

5: engine backs up Up Main again, switches over to Down Main, picks up any cars to be set out at Up 1 from the end of the string, shunts those onto Up 1 (whilst still carrying the cars outbound from Up 1);

6: engine attaches outbound cars to end of the train;

7: engine moves back to front of the train by running wrong-way on Up Main, continues on its way Down the line.

 

Since according to the timetables the Upwards trains didn't seem to give more than a few minutes' stopping time at any station, I have to conclude that all freight headed to Wakamatsu was first taken to Tajima before being brought back out...

 

I have a premonition that I'm going to be spending some time trying to figure out how strings of cars would be assembled to allow for several operations such as I've described above to happen... but perhaps that's the reason for the extra downbound train on the schedule, to deal with anything the first train was unable to handle.

 

Re: Akali - interesting! I've never been on the north side of the Balaton, though my dad's family used to have a summer house at Sóstó. Is your model going to have the original station building, or the newer one?

[Khaul]

There are some crates in the platform in this Aizu line video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eN8wzIs00Y. They go into a passenger train. I wonder if persimmon crates could be loaded in a brake van or a small WAMU in the same way.