3 points meet

[Peter Osborne]

Hi all 

on planing my layout based on JR West and JR central I see a point in the map where West Central and East meet together. I know JR West use dual voltage type 521 in this area but what about the two other companies? It seems an ideal location for a “modellers licence “!large station to operate the 3 concerns. 

[Socimi]

Now, it's a little bit hard to pinpoint exactly where JR East, JR Central and JR West's "jurisdictions" meet from your picture, but the closest guess seems to be Mt. Mitsumata, wich sits at the crossing of the prefectural borders of Nagano (served by JR East), Gifu (served by JR Central) and Toyama (served by JR West).

 

There's no railway service in the immediate vicinities of Mount Mitsumata. The nearest railway lines are the northern section of the Takayama Main Line to the west, the northern section of the Oito Line to the east and the Hokuriku Main Line (nowdays the Echigo Tokimeki Railway Nihonkai Hisui Line) to the north, all of wich (besides the latter) are operated by JR West.

 

Here's a more detailed map:

 

JR Group

- Light blue: JR West

- Green: JR East

- Orange: JR Central

 

"lines-handed-over-from-JR" railways formed after the opening of the Nagano Shinkansen (1997) and the Hokuriku Shinkansen (2015).

- Dark blue: Echigo Tokimeki Railway

- Purple: Ainozake Toyama Railway and Ishikawa Railway

- Red: Shinano Railway

 

- Black: other third-sector railways - Noto Railway, Nagano Electric Railway, Alpico Kotsu (Toyama Chiho Railway omitted for map clarity).

 

 

Now, as you can clearly see, there's no point where the three companies come nowhere near close. Before the opening of the Shinkansen, the "border station" between JR West and JR East was Naoetsu, while Minami-Otari and Inotani keep have kept their "border station status".

JR Central does run the Hida limited express service (run by KiHa 85s) all the way to Toyama, but beside that, "local" trains strictly attain to company jurisdictions.

 

Now, my suggestion would be to consider modelling something based on the Hokuriku Main Line, such as Itogawa, Naoetsu or even Toyama itself. While these are all stations served by JR West, they could also pass for something more "northern" such as Kashiwazaki and even Niigata with little effort.

 

For the rolling stock, these are some of the trains used in that area:

 

JR West

Express services

- 681 Series

- 683 Series

- 485 Series

- 581/583 Series

-471/475/457 Series

-EF81+Twilight Express

 

Local services

- 521 Series (most common local service EMU)

- 413 Series

-419 Series "Bread Man" (a must have if you're modelling this area)

 

JR East:

Express Services

-485 Series

-E653 Series

 

Local Services

-E127 Series

-E127 Series

-115 Series

 

JR Central

- KiHa 85

 

"lines-handed-over-from-JR" railways

 

Echigo Tokimeki Railway

-ET127 Series

-ET122 Series (DMU)

 

Ainozake Toyama Railway

-521 Series

-413 Series

 

Ishikawa Railway

-521 Series

 

JR Freight

-EF81

-EF510

-EH500

 

 

[Peter Osborne]

Thanks for a thorough reply very interesting especially as I already have most of the stock listed and it also gives me a reason to purchase one of the ETR122 DMU sets I’ve also got a 382 shinano set , if my modellers licence lets me I could model a large station served by all 3 🙂