Throwback Thursdays

[cteno4]

Joe,

 

Nice found treasures! Love how they tell their own little stories.
 

I need to be a lot better at saving little tests I’m always playing with and leave myself a little Scribble with it and pop in a plastic bag as I’m always finding them at the back of the work bench smooshed up with other junk…

 

jeff

[Kamome442]

Giving Uguisudani Some Love

 

A little later than planned, I got a little sidelined working on Yurakucho. This time around I want to look at Uguisudani Station, in my opinion a hidden gem on the Yamanote line. Located between Ueno and Nippori it is formed of two island platforms serving the Keihin-Tohoku and Yamanote lines.

Source: Google Earth

 

Similar to Harajuku it has two station entrances, one (South) above the tracks with access via a foot bridge and one (North) accessed by a tunnel under the track. The south entrance opens on to a road that crosses the tracks forming a convenient scenic break. A second bridge around 500 metres north west bookends the scene nicely. The ground height behind the tracks is the same as the bridges while the streets at the front are slightly lower that the tracks drawing your eye in the scene. 

 

A View of the North Entrance

Source: Google StreetView

 

The area at the front of the layout is filled with characterful streets and would be a lot of fun to model.

A section of street near the north entrance.

Source: Google StreetView

 

What stands out for me are the 6 tracks that pass in-front of the station. These serve a wide variety of trains on, among others, the Joban and Takasaki lines heading into Ueno. Depending on the era modelled a host of sleeper services also ran through the area. There are some interesting videos of Cassiopeia being moved into and out of Ueno from the Depo, past Uguisudani, with the loco at the back of the train so that is can be at the front when in service.

The thing I really like about these lines is subtle undulations and how they sweep out and back to pass around the station. Starting at the north end (looking right to left in the top picture) all the tracks are on a very gentile incline as they enter the scene, they continue up until they pass over the tunnel under the north exit. At this point the 4 tracks at the back stay level for the station while the front 6 begin to drop slowly downhill again. Around half way along the platform the 6th track closest to the station levels off and begins to climb again to be level with the tracks running through the station at the south end. About 3 quarters of the way along two tracks split allowing trains to enter both the lower and upper levels of Ueno Station. There is also the end of a siding or head shunt from the track work outside Ueno that passes under the bridge and runs part of the way along the layout. 

 

A view of the South Entrance building which sits over the Nappori bound Keihin-Tohoku line. The tier effect of the different lines can be seen moving from highest point on the left.

Source: Google SteetView

 

One thing I am planning for Yurakucho is having information boards running the length of the layout. I not only want to give the history of the rolling stock and the station itself but also the local area, significant buildings and roads etc. I feel it is a good way to engage people that come see the layout and hopefully peak their interests in Japanese railways and Japan in general. This is something I have worked on for most of the layouts I have panned, looking at the areas history, traditions and any festivals that happen locally. When I planned Uguisudani I set about researching the area, it seems that its biggest claim to fame is the number of 'Love Hotels' around the station. While not as seedy as a western equlivient, it would have still be interesting see peoples reaction reading about the local hotels that charge by the hour 😆

 

I did actually start building this with my dad in the early 2000's, we got as far as building all the levels on three 4ft by 2ft baseboards. Sadly it was around the time I went to University and a mixture of life getting in the way and time, what we had build fell into disrepair. Not realising that it would never reach completion we didn't take any pictures of the early stages of construction. Also the original artwork (drawn up in Microsoft paint) was lost several computers ago. 

 

To this day I think Uguisudani would make a stunning layout with a huge variety of rolling stock and its interesting topography. Sadly it may always be just outside the area of interest for anyone to bring it to life. For this post I decided to recreate my original plans (not in paint this time) to show how well it can fit on 3 boards. I will leave it here incase there is anyone who fancies making a unique little layout.

Uguisudani.pdf

 

So I was going to leave Tokyo for a while after this post and head to Kyushu for the next couple of plans. However since I shared my drawing work of Tokyo station on Shiniji's awesome thread I figure the cat is out of the bag that I did once make a plan for Tokyo. To be honest I have made several over the years, I am like a moth to a flame when it comes to that station. Not to give to much away, unlike Shiniji I did not have the guts to take on all those platforms!

 

Joe

 

 

Edited September 23, 2021 by Kamome442