There is a prototype for everything... (Japan Rail)

[kvp]

22 minutes ago, Densha said:

If those baggage/mail compartments were meant for fish they would have called them fish compartments...

They were cargo compartments, so pretty much good for anything. Mail, newspapers, packages, milk, fresh vegetables and even fish and small live animals. This even allowed people to bring their produce to the market and bring home any purchased products. The widespread use of trucks eliminated the need for such service so the only use that remain is for bikes and for tourists with too many baggages for normal trains.

[railsquid]

8 hours ago, kvp said:

They were cargo compartments, so pretty much good for anything. Mail, newspapers, packages, milk, fresh vegetables and even fish and small live animals. This even allowed people to bring their produce to the market and bring home any purchased products. The widespread use of trucks eliminated the need for such service so the only use that remain is for bikes and for tourists with too many baggages for normal trains.

 

Just in case anyone gets the impression there are luggage compartments available for bikes and excess tourist baggage, there aren't. If you want to take your bicycle on a train (apart from that special bicycle train JR East introduced earlier this year) you'll need to put it in a bag; if you have too much luggage for a normal train... well you'll probably get withering looks from normal train users wondering why you don't send it via takkyubin like everyone else.

[cteno4]

From what I remeber from the piece I saw a long time back it was because there were no storage/luggage compartments on these trains and sellers just wheeled or carried it onto the regular train compartment with them it was just that the early morning trains were pretty empty so there was room where passengers would be. You just about never see spare storage compartments on Japanese trains. 

 

jeff

[kvp]

If you check older (pre 101 series, many were pre ww2) emu sets, there were dedicated luggage compartments on many sets. Then this practice fell out of use. The last i've found these running were on the Iida line in the 1980ies. Dedicated luggage cars for long distance trains disappeared around that time too.

 

On the other hand, recently many airport expresses and resort trains introduced dedicated floor to ceiling luggage racks in each car for tourists. Some new limited express trains frequented by tourists also have them.

 

For bicycles there is the new dedicated train going to the Boso area and some newer commuter emus have multi use spaces available for wheelchair users, baby strollers and to some extent tourists with lots of baggage. These spaces are either located in each car towards the end in place of around 3-4 seats (usually opposite the priority seating) or as larger areas towards the end of the sets (next the driver or conductor) in a third or half multi use section configuration. It seems whenever there is a new set shown on the Japan Railway Journal they tend to emphasize that the new train has some form of multi use space, even on some of the new Tokyo metro sets.

[Kiha66]

That was one thing that disappointed me about public transport in Japan, you can bike to the station but then you can't bring your bike and then have to walk for the rest of your journey once you get to the closest station.  Really limits your ability to explore in once you leave the city center.

[Densha]

When you can't decide between modelling Ohmi Tetsudou or Izuhakone Tetsudou.

 

[railsquid]

Seibu have been painting their remaining 101s in various odd liveries recently...

 

Talking of 101s, how about a JNR 101 in Kansai livery at Shinagawa station with destination blind set to Kofu (Yamanashi prefecture)? 6th photo down on this page: http://jigyourin.web.fc2.com/toukaidou8-3.html

(see here for partial explanation).

[railsquid]

On 6/16/2018 at 1:53 PM, Kiha66 said:

That was one thing that disappointed me about public transport in Japan, you can bike to the station but then you can't bring your bike and then have to walk for the rest of your journey once you get to the closest station.  Really limits your ability to explore in once you leave the city center.

 

It's unfortunate, but just imagine the chaos if everyone tried to bring their mamachari onto the train... AFAIK you can take bicycles as long as they're zipped up in a protective bag (possibly not on all lines at all times), but I've never tried it and rarely seen it being done.

[katoftw]

 

[cteno4]

7 hours ago, railsquid said:

 

It's unfortunate, but just imagine the chaos if everyone tried to bring their mamachari onto the train... AFAIK you can take bicycles as long as they're zipped up in a protective bag (possibly not on all lines at all times), but I've never tried it and rarely seen it being done.

 

Lol I had a flash of a Japanese bicycle parking lot inside a train car with people jumbled all over tangled in the bikes! 

 

Yes et would be hard to say how many bikes when... use to be a fair amount of bike rental is that still going near stations?

 

jeff

[bill937ca]

From what I understand many commuters have two bicycles--one at the home station and one at the work station.

 

[cteno4]

yes but on one trip to japan i stumbled on a bike rental near a station and then noticed them in a number of cities. I never did it as i was worried i would be looking at all the sights and not on where i was driving the bike, and also doing the right bike etiquette.

 

jeff

[kvp]

14 hours ago, railsquid said:

It's unfortunate, but just imagine the chaos if everyone tried to bring their mamachari onto the train

Quite a normal sight on some lake Balaton limited expresses in Hungary. One of the reasons many of these sets are using multiple half baggage combine cars. The most i've seen have been 9 cars with 3 combines (designated bicycle cars) and one full baggage, 50% of the train. On the other hand once when the normally 6 car north shore Ladybug resort limited express (1.5 hour non stop to the lake, then all stops along the coast) was ran with a lone desiro railcar (ok it does look like a ladybug), it was a really hard game of tetris to pack all the people and bikes in. Then gradually unpack them at each stop.

 

I think the Boso bicycle train aims at the same tourist market. On the other hand, having two bikes for commuting is a real testament to japanese efficiency. This gives the highest commuter density and efficiency of all possible solutions.

[Khaul]

On 6/16/2018 at 2:53 PM, Kiha66 said:

That was one thing that disappointed me about public transport in Japan, you can bike to the station but then you can't bring your bike and then have to walk for the rest of your journey once you get to the closest station.  Really limits your ability to explore in once you leave the city center.

 

Aha, that's how a Brompton would be useful in Japan!

[railsquid]

A Brompton?

 

13 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Yes et would be hard to say how many bikes when... use to be a fair amount of bike rental is that still going near stations?

 

There's a small but growing number of those new-fangled bicycle rentals where you can rent the bike from an unmanned bicycle parking lot, but in Tokyo I wouldn't say it's particularly widespread, and it would not be a good idea to assume you can turn up at any given station and find one. It might be more prevalent in touristy locations outside Tokyo, but I haven't been travelling much to those kinds of places recently.

Are you sure the "rental" places you saw weren't just manned bicycle parking lots? You will find those close to (or under or over) most stations.

 

13 hours ago, bill937ca said:

From what I understand many commuters have two bicycles--one at the home station and one at the work station.

 

It's conceivable, though probably a relatively small proportion, in Tokyo at least, and probably more prevalent among people who commute to stations outside the central area and have a long walk to the work location. Also, except in the unlikely event the company provides bicycle parking, you'd very likely have to pay to park your bike near the place of work...

[kvp]

4 hours ago, railsquid said:

A Brompton?

A kind of foldabe, carry on luggage type of bicycle. IST could tell you way more about it as he is often using one combined with public transport.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brompton_Bicycle

 

Edited June 23, 2018 by kvp

[cteno4]

 

11 hours ago, railsquid said:

Are you sure the "rental" places you saw weren't just manned bicycle parking lots? You will find those close to (or under or over) most stations.

 

That was I think 2009 trip, yes they were manned bike lots but they had a few bikes to rent. I was put onto it by a local I was getting directions from as they said walking 45 min or public transport of at least 2 kinds or grab a bike and 10-15min! They pointed out a place across the street to rent. The chap at the lot pointed to the part of the little pricing sign for the rate and then I looked for what the kanji was for the rental rate in other places (don’t read Japanese, I just copied it down to find it elsewhere) and found it more often than I expected, but situations was not right for rentals I was just curious at the time and usually passing bike lots walking from stations.

 

jeff

[kvp]

On 5/9/2018 at 9:54 AM, Kiha66 said:

When your DMU only has one cab, but you really don't want to bother with adding another car. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/lovejrkyusyu/permalink/2173893752840645/

Something similar, or how to move a shinkansen motor car without a cab (from 17:35):

 

[Densha]

When you have a layout with only high-floor platforms but still want to let ki-bo make its rounds...

 

[Densha]

Always remember to not couple together commuter trains and limited express trains on your layout.

 

[katoftw]

Variety is the spice of life though.

[JR 500系]

I  think it is a rescue mission? Saw this sometime back where the 287 series broke down and had to be towed away by the 223 series... 

[defor]

File this one under mixed gauge:

http://blog.livedoor.jp/asita381/archives/1753274.html

 

http://livedoor.blogimg.jp/asita381/imgs/a/8/a8187418.jpg

[Khaul]

Great defor! Which museum is this?

[Khaul]

On 6/24/2018 at 5:20 AM, kvp said:

A kind of foldabe, carry on luggage type of bicycle. IST could tell you way more about it as he is often using one combined with public transport.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brompton_Bicycle

 

 

IST is obviously a cool guy. My wife does the same. She rides her bike to Central, folds it and takes it in the bus to Canberra. Then rides from hotel to work there. We have been able to live without a car with this arrangement. The only problem is the lack of a decent Sydney Canberra Raül service.