JR East Akita Depot online tour

[miyakoji]

I was interested in trains when I lived in Japan, but I wasn't clued in and the internet was only starting to become the clearinghouse of information that it is now.  Despite living reasonably close to depots that would have had open days, I never went to one, and at this point if I get back to Japan ever, I'll be a bit surprised.  Well the guys at JR East Akita Depot have really come through with a little Christmas gift, an "online tour" of their facility via Zoom that they have now posted on YouTube.  Looks like they did this 3 times on December 19.  Most of it appears to be live, and they do a great job.  There is some stop motion footage of a thorough DE10 inspection/overhaul, and quite a wild time testing a DE10 engine on a dynamometer.  Folks who blow up their $100,000 diesel pickups on a portable dyno at the county fair have nothing on these guys.  Seriously, where do I apply?

 

Later they checkout a few more interesting pieces

• preserved 583 series driving car, KUHANE 583-17
• 485-700 series joyful train Kirakira Uetsu
• Akita Cruise joyful train DMU, formerly the Resort Shirakami Buna (Japanese Beech) formation, and prior to that, rank and file KIHA48s
• DE10  1651, built by Kawasaki in 1973