Japan trip in March 2018 - places to photo locos & freights?

[yakumo381]

I have a trip to Japan confirmed for March next year and I will have free time (2 or 3 days) whilst I am staying near Omiya Station in Saitama.

 

As this is an area I have not been to for any significant amount of time, so apart from "The Railway Museum" at Omiya, has anyone any suggestions for good spots to go for photographing freight trains through stations and locos in depots?

 

As I will have quite a bit of free time, I am happy to make longer trips out to get to more interesting places so do not have to be just in or around Omiya.

[westfalen]

I have had good luck filming freight at Yono station, the stop south of Omiya on the Keihin Tohoku Line, during a couple of hours there a few years back I bagged about seven freights. You get tank car fuel trains as well as containers and as only the Keihin Tohoku Line has a single island platform you get good views of the freights and nonstop passenger trains.

 

If you want to get out in the country a bit anywhere on the Tohoku Main Line north of Omiya will see plenty of freight.

[katoftw]

A walk around the Takasaki depot would be nice.  Public street run through it, so you can get up closer than usual to locos etc.  Sorry, not really freight related.

 

http://www.usuitouge.com/bunkamura/

 

Might be to do both in one day???

Edited December 21, 2017 by katoftw

[EH500 (12)]

You already have a good spot at Omiya station.
Everytime Iam in Tokyo I go there for a few hours. You also have the Railway Museum there as you said, which is a VERY nice museum and you have Tomix World just 5 minutes of walking to the west side of the station.

Several trains and single locos pass through the station every hour and you have good spots to take pictures. If you are lucky you can even spot some locos going to or coming from the Omiya repair factory.

There are always a few japanese spotters you could ask about freight timetables or ask station staff. (if you can find someone who is willing to speak english  )

 

I posted some pictures taken at Omiya station here:

 

 

 

[westfalen]

The only problem with photographing trains at a big station like Omiya is that the station sometimes gets in the way of the trains if you know what I mean. At Yono you get a clear view of passing trains without leaving the Keihin Tohoku line platform. The only problem is when something passes while a northbound train is stopped there but setting up right at the end of the platform will mostly get around that.

[bikkuri bahn]

Nishi Urawa Station on the Musashino Line.

 

[yakumo381]

Thinking of going up to Kurosio on the Tohoku line where JRF change over from AC to DC locomotives.

 

Anyone know what the best time of day is to see a number of these changeovers taking place?

[railsquid]

I imagine they use dual voltage locos (EH500, EF510 etc) so no changeover needed? Mind you I know sod all about freight operatipns beyond what runs around Tachikawa/Hachioji so I could well be wrong...

[railsquid]

1 hour ago, railsquid said:

I imagine they use dual voltage locos (EH500, EF510 etc) so no changeover needed?

 

Aha, sometimes:

 

 

and sometimes not:

 

 

(though I imagine the chances of seeing an EF66 0-series there in 2018 are exceedingly low...)

[bikkuri bahn]

Gmat may have some good info about the action (or lack of if the case may be)at Kuroiso.  If going that far is an option, you may as well go the opposite direction and take the Tokaido Shinkansen to Nagoya, and catch the freight action at Kiyosu, which has more variety and frequency.

 

[miyakoji]

3 hours ago, bikkuri bahn said:

Gmat may have some good info about the action (or lack of if the case may be)at Kuroiso.  If going that far is an option, you may as well go the opposite direction and take the Tokaido Shinkansen to Nagoya, and catch the freight action at Kiyosu, which has more variety and frequency.

 

And just a few stops south is Kasadera where JRF and Nagoya Rinkai exchange cement cars (the same ones that will go north through Kiyosu?).  @yakumo381 could observe some yard scenes there, although I'm not sure about scheduling.  I never really got into freight when I lived in Japan (in Nagoya in fact, and used Kasadera occasionally).  Are their schedules fixed and available?

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@35.0954913,136.9258459,354m/data=!3m1!1e3

Edited January 6, 2018 by miyakoji

[railsquid]

There is a fixed freight timetable, but no idea about general availability of information; I've been able to google some specific workings.

 

(Googles) aha, here's the book: https://www.rfa.or.jp/timetable/sell_timetable.html

 

and here's a site where someone has helpfully transcribed at least some of the information:

 

http://tnk-ko.a.la9.jp/data/time_201703j.html

 

Omiya-Kuroiso:

 

http://tnk-ko.a.la9.jp/data/time_Tohoku_20170304v.html

[yakumo381]

Bikkuri, Miyakoji,

 

Thanks for the suggestions of Kiyosu and Kasadera but these are stations I have already spent many hours at photographing freights.

 

At the end of last year, I finally got round to cataloging my JR train photo collection (Shinkansen and Passenger as well as Freight totaling approx. 12000 prints in binders as not a fan of looking at them on a laptop) and found I have photographed over 500 individual JRF locos (this task somehow brought out my latent trainspotter so had to then record all the loco numbers), majority being on lines south of Omiya so my objective for free time this upcoming trip is to get those that usually run north of Omiya.

 

Railsquid,

 

Thanks for the links especially the site with the transcription. I've seen the JRF timetable in Japan bookstores before and considered getting a copy but never had a means to translate it. I may just buy one when I'm over in Japan as the MS translator app on my mobile does a reasonable job of translating via the camera image.

 

Pending that, it looks like I'll be spending quite a bit of my free time next week perusing the site with the transcription using Chrome to translate...

[railsquid]

On 1/8/2018 at 6:08 AM, yakumo381 said:

Railsquid,

 

Thanks for the links especially the site with the transcription. I've seen the JRF timetable in Japan bookstores before and considered getting a copy but never had a means to translate it. I may just buy one when I'm over in Japan as the MS translator app on my mobile does a reasonable job of translating via the camera image.

 

 

I don't recall ever seeing it in bookstores , probably not quite so much in demand as the passenger ones. Now my curiosity has been piqued I'll keep an active look out for it, I imagine it would be available in larger/specialist bookstores.

Edited January 9, 2018 by railsquid

[westfalen]

Shosen Book Tower in Akihabara is one place I know that stocks the freight timetable, there is also a book store in the department store above Nagoya station. Either one is usually one of my first ports of call when I arrive in Japan to pick up the latest timetables.

 

The timetables themselves can be worked out easily as there is a map with timetable numbers in the front the same as the passenger timetable. Not all stations are shown in the tables so if you are somewhere in between you need to make an educated guess as to when trains pass your location. I use my smart phone to translate things like what type of train it is or text telling what days of the week a train runs. The things like loco depot allocations, loco working diagrams and freight yard plans are pretty self explanatory.

[bikkuri bahn]

According to the publisher of the timetable, the Junkudo bookstore located on the 7th floor of the Omiya Takashimaya dept. store* sells the timetable.  There are seven locations in Tokyo that also sell copies.

https://www.rfa.or.jp/timetable/shoplist.html

 

*note the Takashimaya Dept. Store in on the east side of the station, not the somewhat more built-up (Shinkansen-side) west side.

Edited January 10, 2018 by bikkuri bahn

[EH500 (12)]

On 9.1.2018 at 1:24 AM, westfalen said:

Shosen Book Tower in Akihabara is one place I know that stocks the freight timetable

There I got the 2017 version.

Although I do not understand the timetables there are a few general information about trains and containers. What really made this book worth buying for me were the detailed plans of many JR freight yards!!