Privately owned industrial switchers / shunters?

[Ken Ford]

I could have sworn I asked about this a few years ago, but I can’t find it.  So...

 

I’m planning a small HO shunting plank.  It’s probably going to be a brewery, or another single large industry that will receive grain in Hoki 2200s.  If it’s a brewery, packaging materials will come in Wamu 80000s.

 

My idea is that a DE10 will trundle in with cars for the plant and will swap them out with a string of empties and then leave.  What I’m hoping is that a small plant owned shunter can then switch out the plant.

 

Are small privately owned switchers common in Japan?  Are models available in HO?  A Trackmobile-type device would be perfect.

[bill937ca]

Your sources would probably be Tsugawa or World Kogei. From HS:

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=117&cat=train&state=&sold=0&sortid=0&searchkey=world

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=104&cat=&state=&sold=0&sortid=0&searchkey=Tsugawa&ItemSeries=Diesel+Locomotive&spage=1&Scale=1%2f87

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=104&cat=&state=&sold=0&sortid=0&searchkey=Tsugawa&spage=1&ItemSeries=Diesel+Locomotive

[kvp]

If you are ok with painting, then older and smaller JNR locomotives were also common as plant switchers. One good example is the DD13, which is available in H0 and there are several photos on the net when it's in use as a plant switcher. One example: http://puppuku.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2015-03-28

[Nick_Burman]

Ken, N or #16 gauge (HO)? Arumodel makes a nice kit for a Kato Works diesel: http://arumo.a.la9.jp/r0110.htm. Another possibility is their Mori Works loco: http://arumo.a.la9.jp/r0013.htm

 

Would you also be contemplating steam or electric traction? Various possibilities there...

 

Cheers NB

 

 

[marknewton]

12 hours ago, Ken Ford said:

Are small privately owned switchers common in Japan?  Are models available in HO?  A Trackmobile-type device would be perfect.

 

Yes Ken, small privately-owned switchers are common in Japan. I did have a link to a website that featured a lot of them, which I will try to find again and post. One interesting thing I noticed is that a lot of them seem to be owned and operated by Nippon Express. The photos in the link that KVP posted show DD1340 with Nippon Express logo and lettering. Although this loco is green, most Nippon Express locos I've seen are painted orange.

 

I haven't seen any Trackmobiles as such, but these little gadgets are also common:

 

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10450231

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

Edited November 1, 2017 by marknewton

[bill937ca]

Some photos here on the old Aono website.         http://dmh.sakura.ne.jp/photo/industry_english.html

[velotrain]

Bill - On the Ishihara Sangyo Kishu Kozan, that's clearly a battery mine engine hauling the cut of what look to be homegrown "excursion" cars.

It's hard to imagine that a mine run would have lengthy enough track to support a tourism operation, so I'm wondering if perhaps the engine came from some other operation?

[bill937ca]

No idea.

[marknewton]

Charles, I don't think they're excursion cars, but what's known in mines as mancarriers - cars used to transport miners to and from the working shafts.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

 

[velotrain]

That could certainly be what the cars were originally built for Mark, but I don't think manly miners would have needed an awning over the platform, and there's a newish building behind the engine in one of the photos - suggesting some sort of museum / tourism operation.

 

I tried searching on Ishihara Sangyo Kishu Kozan and all I get is a chemical conglomerate.

[velotrain]

Ken - Not what you were looking for, but I love this image of the Choshi Electric Railway with the Yamasa Soy Sauce plant behind it, and have thought it would make an amazing small layout, with enough detail to keep someone busy for many years. 

I suspect that a soy sauce plant also had Hoki 2200s inbound back in the day and in-plant traffic.

 

http://ikekannribu.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-311.html

 

BTW - I also remember your post on the brewery from several years ago.

 

 

Previous threads on the Choshi Electric Railway (from among very many):

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/11994-railway-adjacent-to-yamasa-miso-soy-sauce/?tab=comments#comment-143360

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/6909-choshi-electric-railway-togawa-choshi/?tab=comments#comment-77086 (video)

[kvp]

2 hours ago, velotrain said:

I tried searching on Ishihara Sangyo Kishu Kozan and all I get is a chemical conglomerate.

What i found is that the Kishu mine was a copper ore mine. The photos were probably made in a time where it was a museum operation. You can have a perfectly good mine museum with minimal outside trackage.

 

ps: There is a salt mine and museum in Hallstatt and they run a modified mining locomotive for the tourists on the old abandoned upper levels with passenger equipment built on mincart frames. The running one is battery electric, while there is an original one exhibited in the mine with a cart with the original overhead 3rd rail collector still installed. They probably removed it for tourist safety in the 1.6 meter high tunnel. The outside storage barn for the train looks just like the one on the pictures.

[Ken Ford]

Thank you all for the ideas!  That Ant would be perfect, but it might be hard to power.  Maybe if I try scratchbuilding something around a SPUD or Bullant.  It’s not critical, I can use the DE10 to shunt for now.

 

i just found the folder with my layout doodles, let’s see if I can get some traction this time.

[Ken Ford]

6 hours ago, velotrain said:

Ken - Not what you were looking for, but I love this image of the Choshi Electric Railway with the Yamasa Soy Sauce plant behind it, and have thought it would make an amazing small layout, with enough detail to keep someone busy for many years. 

I suspect that a soy sauce plant also had Hoki 2200s inbound back in the day and in-plant traffic.

 

http://ikekannribu.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-311.html

 

BTW - I also remember your post on the brewery from several years ago.

 

 

Previous threads on the Choshi Electric Railway (from among very many):

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/11994-railway-adjacent-to-yamasa-miso-soy-sauce/?tab=comments#comment-143360

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/community/topic/6909-choshi-electric-railway-togawa-choshi/?tab=comments#comment-77086 (video)

 

This bears more research - I’m not wedded to doing a brewery, a shoyu plant might be more manageable and modelable.  Great suggestion!

[velotrain]

Ken - When you posted this years ago I searched for photos of rail-served breweries, but had no success. 

Have you found images of Japanese breweries with rail access?  I'm sure the tracks disappeared many decades ago.

 

In the past, there have been models of beer branded Hoki 9800's in N-scale, but nothing in HO.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=104&cat=rail&state=&sold=0&sortid=0&searchkey=kirin

 

One benefit of HO here is a much wider assortment of available storage tanks, ladders, platforms and railings, etc. for a facility of this sort.

[Nick_Burman]

Ken, another alternative are the "critter" kits by Cosmic of Osaka - http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/search?typ1_c=117&cat=train&target=Make&searchkey=Cosmic

 

Cheers NB

[Ken Ford]

I seem to recall seeing a few brewery photos, but I’ll have to search again - the links and photos are on my old PC.  I may have found them looking for Hoki 2200 photos.

 

Nick, thanks for the suggestion of Cosmic!  I noticed these two which would probably work:

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10225348

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10280394

They use this Kato power truck for a drive:  http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10186721

I don’t know anything about these prototypes or if they’d be plausible for my use, but neither would most or all people looking at the layout at a show.  Lol. 

[kvp]

3 hours ago, Ken Ford said:

I don’t know anything about these prototypes or if they’d be plausible for my use, but neither would most or all people looking at the layout at a show.

The yellow one looks more like a maintenance of way tractor, while the gray one is more of a yard/industry shunter. I'm basing this on the visibility from the cab, which is usually very good for shunters.

[velotrain]

Not to mention that the gray one is a whole lot more attractive imho.