Good places to see container trains around Tokyo?

[railsquid]

The weekend is coming up and the Squidlet recently expressed a desire to see some real ones. OK, he expressed it "Kontena mi ni iku? Squidlet, Daddy iku?" and has probably forgotten, but I am sure he will appreciate the experience :D

Edited December 1, 2017 by railsquid

[gmat]

Freight trains pulling containers? If so, Shin-Kawasaki station on a Saturday would be fine.

grant

[railsquid]

That's an idea, lots of locomotives too. And IIRC there's a sort of shopping facility opposite, which is helpful in terms of toilet facilities.

[gmat]

That area across the tracks has a supermarket and a coffee shop. On your side across the street the mall has more stores and restaurants. Even more if you take the 5 minute walk towards Kashimada Station.

grant

[gmat]

Railsquid, if you do go there, at about 14:30 an EF66 usually pulls a short consist with a few hopper cars, one or two tank cars and some flat cars going towards the Nambu Branch Line. Two weeks ago it had a DE10 dead heading. Sometimes very early in the morning, you can shoot an EF-200. I've shot the freight loco trifecta a few times, EF200, EH200, EF64, EF65, EF210 and EH500. If you can shoot an EF200, and the EF66 at 14:30, you can probably get all of the others in one day. 

I don't know how long you might plan to stay there, but in the morning, at about 7:19, 8:06, 8:55, and 10:04, you should probably see some 185s heading east on the far side. Best to watch them from the Kashimada Pedestrian Walkway that connects Shin-Kawasaki Station with the far side over the Shin-Tsurumi Depot. Sometimes 215s will replace the 185s. At about 9:50 the Super Odoriko from Shinjuku will pass the station heading towards Atami and beyond. There might be another an hour earlier. You hardly see the DE-10s or Hybrids moving on a Saturday, but sometimes, one would head West at about 14:30. 

You might also get an EH-200 and an EF210 riding together heading West between 12:00 and 14:00.

Sometimes you get lucky and get a lot of interesting things passing by and sometimes not. Good luck for tomorrow. 

grant

 

 

[railsquid]

Thanks for the info, timing will depend very much on the Squidlet, the weather and various as-yet unknown factors, could equally well end up being Sunday, or not at all.

 

Come to think of it, there's a container yard on the Musashino line close to Niiza station, looking at the map it looks cycleable from Chez Railsquid, must go and have a poke around one day.

[railsquid]

Well the closest we got was the bridge at Mitaka in the afternoon, though I suspect the Squidlet is getting bored with the same predictable trains, so we went to the zoo after about 20 minutes.

[Suica]

Another place to see container trains would be Sumidagawa freight terminal. 

Next to Minami-Senju station there's a bridge leading over the tracks. You can get a good look towards the freight terminal from there.

My timing wasn't so good though as I only saw the locos leaving after delivering their container trains.

[gmat]

Might I suggest taking a trip to Shimo-Takaido Station and tell him that you are waiting for the Cat train. You can stand by the crossing and watch the Keio Line trains.

Another good reason to visit the Shin-Kawasaki Station is that container consists will park east of the station waiting for the signal to proceed so Squidlet can see them while waiting for the trains to pass by. Saturday has more traffic than on a Sunday.

[railsquid]

47 minutes ago, gmat said:

Might I suggest taking a trip to Shimo-Takaido Station and tell him that you are waiting for the Cat train. You can stand by the crossing and watch the Keio Line trains.

 

What on earth is the cat train?

[gmat]

Posted before. Very Popular.

Grant

[railsquid]

Can't say that I was aware of it, though the Setagaya line would make a good trip. Anyway nary an container espied today, but we did end up in Yogoyi park where the Squidlet was intrigued by the sounds of trains coming from below, which was a good excuse to introduce him to the Chiyoda line, coming part of the way back on the "tuwam" (Toden Arakawa line), which pleased His Squidletnes muchly.

[defor]

On 12/2/2017 at 1:35 PM, Suica said:

Another place to see container trains would be Sumidagawa freight terminal. 

Next to Minami-Senju station there's a bridge leading over the tracks. You can get a good look towards the freight terminal from there.

My timing wasn't so good though as I only saw the locos leaving after delivering their container trains.

Nice color processing on that night shot!

 

I can definitely attest that you have a good chance of seeing a decent amount of shunting action happening from this viewpoint, as the footbridge is positioned right at the throat of the container yard, and is a good spot for watching. I've also seen a number of engines idling under the bridge, and you can get some good views of it from the south along the fence right by the elevator. 

I've seen HD300-4 idling there a number of times, and it seems to be a somewhat popular spot with local railfans as well to get views of the trains from both top and side.

I also suspect that specific HD300-4 is effectively stationed in Sumidagawa indefinitely as the only photos I've seen of this specific engine has been doing duty at this yard.

Sadly, the intermodal platforms are a little too far to be seen without some kind of magnification, but there's some decent photos around (in these forums even) of the forklifts and 12' containers. I also suspect that if you were to go around to the east side of the yard, you'd be able to get some decent photos of shorty container trucks coming and going. I've seen a few in "downtown" Miami-senjou coming to and from the yard, but the bulk of the traffic will likely be going north/south from the main yard entrance.

 

Edited March 13, 2018 by defor
Forgot Photo