September 2017

[railsquid]

Now there's a station which will never make a profit, or come even close to recouping just the running costs.

 

Interesting there's only one through-track.

[Densha]

Really nice pics! Not having been north of Tokyo at all myself, you're making we want to go there as well!

Edited October 14, 2017 by Densha

[miyakoji]

Great pics West, thank you.

[Kiha66]

Thanks for sharing!  I like the variety of rolling stock in Hokkaido, although empty platforms and deadline of 485s is a bit sad.  Was that the last place they ran?  Interesting how the Kiha 48 has an interior door as well, probably to keep out the cold of the Hokkaido winters.  Great pictures, I enjoyed seeing the urban decay as well.

[westfalen]

17 hours ago, railsquid said:

Now there's a station which will never make a profit, or come even close to recouping just the running costs.

 

Interesting there's only one through-track.

I thought it was interesting too, the through track was connected to the northbound track, they must have more overtaking going that way. There are two narrow gauge tracks around each side of the station for freights to bypass the station or be held for Shinkansen to overtake, the northbound Shinkansen overtook a freight but it was too dark to get any photos.

 

Until a second passenger showed up to catch my train I had a whole Shinkansen station to myself and the two station staff, no wonder JR Hokkaido don't make money.

[Densha]

11 hours ago, Kiha66 said:

Thanks for sharing!  I like the variety of rolling stock in Hokkaido, although empty platforms and deadline of 485s is a bit sad.  Was that the last place they ran?  Interesting how the Kiha 48 has an interior door as well, probably to keep out the cold of the Hokkaido winters.  Great pictures, I enjoyed seeing the urban decay as well.

Not entirely correct. These pics were not taken on Hokkaido, but in Aomori prefecture on Honshu. JR Hokkaido also withdrew their KiHa 48s already years ago by the way.

[westfalen]

Densha is correct, I didn't venture onto Hokkaido this trip although the Shinkansen north of Shin-Aomori is technically JR Hokkaido and Okutsugaru-Imabetsu station is operated by them.

[westfalen]

On Day 7 and my final day in Japan I ventured north on the Joban Line to Izumi to get some video of the freight only Fukushima Seaside Railway.

 

DD 561 arrived dead on time as train No.52 with the Toho Zinc ore loads for handing over to a JR Freight EH500 for onward movement to Annaka near Takasaki.

 

 

DD 561 then returned as train No.53 light engine to Onahama to collect the day's outward container train. The light engine, like everything else I saw that day, left dead on time to the second as an indication of how Japan runs its freight trains.

 

 

Train No.54 outwards containers.

 

 

The driver of EH500-32 receives instructions from the ground staff before shunting the inwards containers into the yard.

 

 

Train No.55 heads back to Onahama with the inwards containers.

 

 

A few odd shots around Izumi between trains.

Got an old anchor lying around from your ship modelling days?

 

 

An old set of scales left to rust in the weeds in part of the freight yard now turned into a car park for commuters.

 

 

An old wamu in use as a storage shed.

 

[JR 500系]

wow these pictures are really nice! It's like being there! Thanks for sharing them West!

[westfalen]

After the freight action was over I headed north to Iwaki take the Banetsu-East Line to Koriyama, the last section of the Banetsu Line I had to ride.

 

Kiha 110 and Kiha 111/112 railcars provide the services on the line.

 

 

This was beside the track at Ogawago.

 

 

The line struck me as having more trackage and sidings left in place than most JR branchlines, as here at Kawamae.

 

 

Every station needs one of these things.

 

 

If you don't have much room to model a platform then Kanameta is the place for you.

 

 

Crossing the Abukuma River on the outskirts of Koriyama.

 

 

Koriyama fuel depot is about 1 km out along the branch and HD300-11 that had dropped some tank cars off followed my train into the yard.

 

 

For the last shot EH500-42 was just sitting there waiting for me to take its photo.

 

 

The next morning I flew out of Haneda, the first time I had used that airport, for my first visit to Bangkok and a couple of days checking out Thailand's railways on the way home.

Edited October 16, 2017 by westfalen

[Densha]

Really nice photo report, westfalen! Are you planning on posting your Thailand photos as well?

[serotta1972]

Wonderful pictures, westfalen.  Thank you for sharing them.  What would say was the ratio of riding trains and rail fanning?  The extent of my rail fanning was spending extra time at the platforms.  Next time I would love to leave the stations and wander off somewhere and watch trains in a natural environment.  I will most definitely hit you up when I do go back to Japan and learn about those areas you went to. :)

[cteno4]

Thanks west, great photos and great ideas!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[westfalen]

On ‎16‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 1:22 PM, Densha said:

Really nice photo report, westfalen! Are you planning on posting your Thailand photos as well?

I may post some in the non-Japan forum, and edit up some video of my trip onto YouTube to post as well.

On ‎16‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 1:44 PM, serotta1972 said:

Wonderful pictures, westfalen.  Thank you for sharing them.  What would say was the ratio of riding trains and rail fanning?  The extent of my rail fanning was spending extra time at the platforms.  Next time I would love to leave the stations and wander off somewhere and watch trains in a natural environment.  I will most definitely hit you up when I do go back to Japan and learn about those areas you went to. :)

I'd say about half and half. I am spending more time in recent trips railfanning than riding. I don't spend as much time visiting hobby shops either unless they are on my way somewhere, apart from the Shosen Book Tower to pick up the latest timetables I didn't go near a single one this trip. I figure that seeing I can get everything on line my time in Japan is better spent riding and seeing real trains.

 

It used to be the opposite because I am a bit of a mileage collector, I've ridden every line on Hokkaido and Shikoku and coming close to filling in Kyushu, so I guess as I get less new lines to do I'm more willing to spend time in one place. For example I spent almost four hours at Ishibashi filming trains on the Tokkaido Line bridge because that was the time between buses from Odawara.

 

Google Earth, Google Maps and street view have been very useful in finding photo locations and how to get to them, something only in science fiction when I did my first Japanese trip in 1990, back then you often had no idea where you were going and what you would see when you got there.

 

 

[Densha]

isn't Ishibashi actually walkeable from Hayakawa and Nebukawa stations?

Edited October 17, 2017 by Densha

[westfalen]

12 hours ago, Densha said:

isn't Ishibashi actually walkeable from Hayakawa and Nebukawa stations?

Yes, it's about 2km from Hayakawa or 3km from Nebukawa to the vantage point above the bridge but the bus from Odawara only cost 290 yen and I could use my Suica card so I though why walk and saved my legs for the climb up from the main road to the bridge.

 

There is also a bridge near Nebukawa station that I have seen in many photos but it now has fences along the side and it doesn't look as photogenic as it used to so I went for Ishibashi.