Nikko area 1985

December 16, 2017

Hi all, this is a bit random and not sure what info i will get. Have been thinking about all the missed opportunities for photographing trains on my one and only visit to Japan in 1985.I have shared my limited photos taken at the time on the forum, but my wife and I did some trips on other trains during our holiday. thought it would be good to start collecting N scale versions of these. One trip was to Nikko park . we had to get from Shinjuku station to another station to catch the train up to Nikko. Was kind of hoping someone would have info/photo on the Nikko train of that time. There was another trip we did which ended at a dead end station , but i will have to check my photos to try and recall the area. sorry to be so vague! hope someone can help.

December 18, 2017

From Tokyo to the Natinal Park of Nikko there are two different ways:

One is using JR-East (in 1985 it still was JNR) via the Utsunomiya portion of the Tohoku Main Line, the other is via Tobu Railway's Nikko line.

My guess goes to the latter for a simple reason:

-In 1985 there was no JNR service to Nikko because it was replaced with the Tohoku Shinkansen in 1982, and brought back by JR East in 1988.

So my guess is that you got onto the Yamanote Line and changed at Asakusa for the Tobu Line limited express "Nikko" wich at the time was operated by the 1720 series (introduced 1960 - redired 1991)

https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/東武1720系電車

http://www.agui.net/tasya/tob/tob1720-1h-1380.jpg

The 1720 series was made by Microace, the full 6-car set costs around 225 NZ Dollars (160 USD - 134 €)

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10086776

Some 1980s commercials:

Edited December 20, 2017 by cteno4