Vintage Soya Main Line Operation

[bikkuri bahn]

A few scenes of the DD51 hauled Express "Soya" on the Soya Main Line in northern Hokkaido.  Make sure to see the segment starting from 2:56, the DD51 arrives and then makes a smoky departure from Otoineppu Station!

 

[Bernard]

I wouldn't want to be in that first car when the DD51 sets off!

[Claude_Dreyfus]

Hmm, a bit of a 'Clag Monster' (as they would say in the UK) that DD51 

 

I do like the layout of that station though, with the railcars and freight train stabled in the sidings...

[bikkuri bahn]

Hmm, a bit of a 'Clag Monster' (as they would say in the UK) that DD51 

 

I do like the layout of that station though, with the railcars and freight train stabled in the sidings...

 

Yes, back in the days of local freight and numerous branchlines, even smaller towns like Otoineppu, whose station was a junction point, saw much activity.  Oh, to be able to go back in time and spend a warm summer afternoon on hill near such a station, just watching the trains come and go...

[westfalen]

That's what I like about hokkaido, even today in some areas, not a freeway, apartment building or neon sign in sight. I show people my photos and they say, "that's not Japan". Just wish I had a time machine to go back to the day when it was covered with a spider web of railways.

[stevenh]

If only the populations around the top end grew enough to keep the railways viable? (I imagine that's the reason for there being no rail services anymore...)

The 'ruins' page that I listed previously has information on the top half of Hokkaido.

 

 

Now, for 'smokers', that DD51 is running quite lean... unlike our 'powerhouses':

 

 

Bigger version here

[Martijn Meerts]

Looks like it's running on oil rather than diesel =)

[scott]

Looks like it's running on oil rather than diesel =)

 

Used crankcase oil collected from abandoned Morris Minors, by the look of it.