ED75 does Japan (take 2.3)

[ED75-775]

Well, it's finally happening... after three years (and two failed attempts due to a certain virus) I start my journey to Japan today!

 

Last time around in 2019 I spent two weeks mostly in Tokyo and Kyoto with two nights in Nagoya so I could visit the SCMaglev & Railway Park. This time around I'm spending four weeks with time in Tokyo, Nagoya, Hiroshima, Hakata and Kyoto with plans to cram in as many steam train trips as is possible in a short space of time.

 

Plenty of photos to come once I start taking and downloading them, thankfully I have a more reliable camera this time around plus my iPod and cellphone as backups or the obligatory selfie to prove that I did something. But first things first: I fly to Auckland later today, spend the night with family, and then hop onto the Tokyo-bound flight tomorrow morning.

 

This is going to be awesome!

Alastair

[kuro68000]

Looking forward to your photos Alastair! What camera do you use?

Edited May 29, 2023 by mojo

[ED75-775]

These days I use a Canon SX50 HS that was previously owned by my mum and was given to me after my previous Canon died (at the Railway Museum in Omiya of all places!)

 

Of course, I have my now-elderly (7-8 years old, eek!) iPod Touch and my cellphone to back up if I need them, but my camera’s pretty good so they’re just spares or for when I don’t want to whip the ‘big’ camera out.

Alastair

[Grant_T]

Nice Alastair. Enjoy the trip. I'm heading over Thursday next week and visiting some of the same places.

[ED75-775]

@Grant_T thanks - I'd like to say I've taken your advice but it hasn't all been plain sailing so far.

 

So to recap, I am now sitting in my hotel in Shinjuku's Kabukicho district (not far from Goji, I saw him briefly earlier this afternoon) but I had a few annoying snags along the way. First I left a travel organizer (thankfully not full of Important Things) behind at Narita Airport's railway ticket machines as I rushed to catch my train, then my Travelex card didn't have enough funds to pay for the hotel when it should have; luckily my ANZ card did though! There were two other issues (no paid breakfast and wrong travel plug) but I've found solutions to both - a nearby konbini and a trip to Bic Camera for a new adapter.

 

So I'm feeling slightly happier and will go this afternoon to see if JR East's Lost & Found service has that organizer, which was brand new, and Travelex has been peppered with annoyed emails asking them can they get the money to me ASAP? Their customer service is sadly lacking which is a bit of a turn-off... they'll get back to me by Friday! Hopefully sooner as I need those yen.

 

But happily, I have funds for now, my cards work, and I now know where the local Popondetta store is and have already been there (and tested out my card in the process). I'll post later about my new purchases and some pretty train pictures. I did my wander around the same-ish route as 2019, no photobombing 215 series this time but an ex-Narita Express 253 waiting to head to Nikko and a Sotetsu service on JR tracks instead!

 

Alastair

[cteno4]

12 minutes ago, ED75-775 said:

So I'm feeling slightly happier and will go this afternoon to see if JR East's Lost & Found service has that organizer, which was brand new, and Travelex has been peppered with annoyed emails asking them can they get the money to me ASAP? Their customer service is sadly lacking which is a bit of a turn-off... they'll get back to me by Friday! Hopefully sooner as I need those yen.

Alistair,

 

I think you have good odds of it being turned in! When I was in japan for a scientific conference many years ago, the organizers had us taken to many sightseeing venues. On one I left my hat and on the bus ride back to the conference center I realized this and thought oh well. About 20mminutes after I got back to my room at the conference center the phone rang and they said my hat was at the front desk! Not only did the hat make it to the conference center at rocket speed they had figured out who was wearing a hat talking to staff! I was stunned and very happy! Later in the trip I did it again leaving my hat in a small restaurant at lunch. Like 2 or 3 blocks away one of the waitresses came running up to me with the hat! Granted at 194cm I stood out like a giajin godzilla so easy to spot, but she made a great effort finding me for the hat. Was wonderful.

 

sadly banks profit margins are thin these days and the first thing to go seems to be customer service…

 

jeff

 

 

[kuro68000]

Similar experience. I left a shopping bag on the train once because I was in a rush. Picked it up the next day from the office at Mitaka, which for some reason is/was on one of the platforms. Back then my Japanese was even worse and I was trying to explain to the staff that the bag contained a t-shirt with a cat on it, but it came out as "cat clothes".

 

You might ask the staff at the hotel to call ahead for you to see if it has been found. They will be able to tell you where you need to go to pick it up as well.

[ED75-775]

@cteno4, @mojo thanks for the encouragement. I didn't have any luck today unfortunately but the Narita Airport police station (the aboveground one) has now filed a missing item report and they have contact details both for my hotels and when I head back to NZ at the end of next month. I'm prayerfully hopeful that organizer will come back to me. And yeah, I can relate to the size thing as I'm around 180cm and some of the low ceilings here feel almost head-scrapingly low!

 

But anyway, I promised photos and so far I haven't posted any! Well, I should do something about that!

 

 

While waiting for the shops to open this morning, I undertook another wander around some of my favourite photo spots: the spiral ramp behind Takashimaya Times Square, the level crossings on the Odakyu line as it leaves Odakyu-Shinjuku, and this little gem of a level crossing down by Yotsuya Station, in fact the station's south entrance and eki-stamp station is just the other side of the Chuo-Sobu line bridge.

Of course being morning rush hour there was plenty of E231-E233 action (sometimes both together on the same train) plus an unexpected by me Sotetsu line service. Further lurking both before and after this turned up one of the two 209-1000 sets drafted into Chuo Line service, and an ex-N'Ex E253 bound for Nikko.

 

I loved hanging out at this little crossing last time in 2019, and I'm glad to see that things haven't changed all that much here. One of the nearby buildings has been painted to resemble a NYC subway car of all things, but otherwise it's still Shinjuku as I remember it. And to my surprise, someone stopped to talk to me at one of the Odakyu crossings - he may have been a train buff too, I'm not sure - very friendly and very aware of the City Rail Link being built in Auckland. Great stuff!

 

 

Later in the day heading to Narita Airport in the hopes of finding my travel organizer, I found myself changing trains at Kinshichō Station, home to these staging sidings which were hosting three E235-1000 sets and a solitary E217 set. From my poorly-noted observations, the E217s seem to be a little thin on the ground now although I did ride out to Narita on a fairly-crowded one; the Sobu Line commuter service seems to be E235 territory now with the odd 209 and 231 series sets in support and a E129 noted somewhere at (I think) Chiba station.

 

And if that wasn't enough, apart from an EF210 and EF65 parked in the sidings at Shin-Koiwa with a rake of TaKi's apiece, I just so happened to see a real-life Tomix 97949 set... or rather, a rake of HoKi 800 ballast hoppers with several bearing numbers from that same set. Being just past the station, and under circumstances not conducive to photography, I didn't get a picture of them. Sorry!

 

I'll try to post in a more chronological fashion rather than jumping all over the place if and when I can!

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

OK guys, time for an update and more pretty pictures. I'm going to split this into two sections, as I won't be able to fit pictures of everything in and it allows me to bring things up to date.

 

So, as previously noted my first day on the ground was a general trawl around the Shinjuku area to find out what had and hadn't changed, purchase a new travel plug so I could charge my laptop, and capped off with a trip to Narita Airport via Tokyo to find out if my travel organizer had been handed in (if it had, I arrived too late to get it back from the airport's underground police station). Having never ventured into the Kabukicho area on my 2019 trip, I was a little nervous about what I'd find, but it turns out daylight is fine and night isn't too bad provided you ignore the touts and keep moving.

 

 

As I've also previously noted, one of the best spots to train-watch from is a spiral ramp behind Takashimaya Times Square. Back in 2019 I bagged my one and only 215 from this spot, and while they're now gone, this 209-1000 made a somewhat acceptable replacement. Otherwise it remains as it has for so long, a bland diet of 209s, E231s, E233s and E235s plus a few long distance services (N'Ex, Azusa/Kaiji and Nikko).

 

 

Remember how I mentioned that one of the buildings near my favourite level crossing in Yoyogi had been painted as a NYC subway car? Well, here it is. I believe this area is now called Broadway Square, and hosts both a scaled-down Statue of Liberty and another, of all things, Spider-Man! The lanterns were of course just incidental, but if @Kamome442 wants more prototype photos for Neon Noir Designs to make use of or for the Yurakucho layout build, I'm happy to attempt to oblige.

 

As part of the day's adventures, I also hit up the Popondetta in the Keio department store, accessed via the Maruzen bookshop on the seventh floor. It seemed to be pretty well stocked as per @paolo's videos, although it is a bit pokey and hard to move around in if like me you are wearing a backpack. As a bonus, you'll find a selection of railway books just outside the door which I'm pretty sure is a planned thing.

 

With my shopping out of the way, I decided to hop on the Chuo Line to Tokyo Station and attempt to find out whether my organizer had been handed in, which in turn lead to a spontaneous visit to Narita Airport when that didn't pan out (the poor L&F staffer had to dig out his translator to try and help me!) But too late; the koban by the JR ticket office was closed for the day and with no success from either rail operator I had to venture aboveground to the main Airport police station to file a Lost Item report. One of their staff spoke enough English that we could converse and with that sorted, back to Narita T1 Station to buy a Welcome Suica and dinner from a konbini before heading back to Shinjuku, this time via Green Car as far as Kinshichō.

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

Following on from yesterday, today's first port of call was Shinjuku's "Four Seasons Path", a linear park following the route of a former Toei tram line. According to this website, the last trams used this route in 1970 while the park itself wasn't opened until 1974. About halfway along it also connects into the Golden Gai area. It's not a bad little walk at all.

 

 

Then it was back to Yoyogi for some more crossing-lurking, back to Shinjuku to visit Tower Records (interesting but nothing brought) and Kinokuniya Books, before lunch. Then, I decided spontaneously once again to pick up the @paolo tour of Shinjuku and area, and visit the remaining hobby shops. Imon wasn't hard to find thanks to Apple's Maps tool and was fairly well stocked, though fair warning for tall visitors, the building has two low staircases which you will bump your head on at some point. Although I didn't bonk my head on the way up, I couldn't avoid testing the bump cushions the building owner had installed on the way back down.

 

Next on the agenda was a visit to the Hobby Center Kato in Ochiai-Minami, and after almost missing my subway train, I got there only to find a sign warning that mask use was required for entry. Oh dear. I was initially crestfallen until I saw another customer who wasn't wearing a mask. With that noted, I went in... and nothing happened. The sign hadn't been taken down when mask-wearing became optional. Phew! Again, well-stocked and I picked up a station here for my N-gauge stock.

 

 

Apple recommends taking a bus from HCK to Nakano Broadway, but it's actually possible to walk it in about 30mins. Which is what I did and trawled through the three train shops inside. I had fun browsing in Big Yard and Model Shop Poppoya, but it wasn't until Mandarake Ryusenkeijiken that I brought anything. Somewhat incredibly, both Big Yard and Poppoya still have some older and even ancient models on their shelves!

 

 

Rather than head home, I instead decided to head to Shibuya for a walk to the Starbucks Reserve Roastery... 20mins from the station, and this time delighted to know that, after checking my emails, my missing money had turned up and been deposited onto my travel card! Dinner was a caprese ciabatta and hot chocolate with whipped cream on the fourth-floor balcony looking towards the Meguro-gawa, wrapping up a very good day indeed.

 

Since the Mandarake clerk mentioned that tomorrow's supposed to rain (likely from a certain ex-typhoon) I suspect tomorrow may result in my continuing the Paolo Train Tour, this time in Akihabara! See you then!

 

Alastair 

[ED75-775]

With Typhoon Mawar bringing rain and some winds to Tokyo, you'd think I'd be cooped up in my hotel room staying out of the weather, right? Well, no. Instead I spent the day on the Paolo Walking Tour of Akihabara. I only got through about half of the stores though before the weather, sore feet and my growling stomach which had missed lunch at a more reasonable time, drove me back towards shelter.

 

Starting off with a trip to the nearby FamilyMart for a new umbrella, I set off to Akihabara to find some train stores. Thanks to Paolo's incredible videos - thank you, Paolo! - I was in luck fairly quickly once I left the Radiokan and Volks behind. It looks like their train area is a lot smaller, or maybe it was always that small and it's my memory at fault. But I digress. By late afternoon, I had clocked up about half a dozen stores, including Mandarake Akihabara which I don't recall Paolo visiting, and which also happens to be diagonally across from Hobby Land Pochi's second Akihabara store! There's a mid-size assortment of trains available there, although nothing that made me go 'I want that'.

 

  

 

With only two 209-1000s on Chuo Line duties, it's no exaggeration that they're somewhat more difficult to catch at work. Somehow I managed this one at Yotsuya! Otherwise it was a fairly bland diet of Sobu Line E231s, mostly ex-Yamanote Line 500-subseries units, and mostly Chuo Line E233s to keep me entertained until home time.

 

 

Having seen this briefly in the wild, I can honestly say that while the new look isn't bad, it's not great either. By now I was back in Shinjuku after a late snack of curry roll and hot chocolate at atre1 in Akihabara Station, and had just hightailed over from the Sobu Line platforms to photograph an out-of-service 253 that had left by the time I got there! By now Mawar had made its presence well known, with some longer-distance trains already suspended due to deteriorating weather. Not that it bothered me, as I was back and after a short rest it was out to dinner at a ramen restaurant before coming 'home' for the night.

 

The next two mornings look to be fairly busy, as I'm heading out to the Chichibu Railway tomorrow for a trip as far as Nagatoro (not going the full way because I couldn't get a seat reservation for the whole line), followed by the Moka Railway on Sunday in a reverse of what I'd originally planned. Thankfully, my planned timetables are interchangeable so I can make the trips without changing anything, although it has served as a good reminder that I need to book ahead to guarantee some of my adventures.

 

Alastair

[bill937ca]

I think Volk's closed a  store in Akihabara during the pandemic. But I can't find that video.

 

EDIT

Found an article.  Japanese text.  https://toshoken.com/news/21549

Edited June 2, 2023 by bill937ca

[kuro68000]

Walking is often not a bad alternative to getting the bus. Unlike the railways, busses are often delayed further along their routes. Can't do much about the traffic I guess.

 

I don't know about Apple Maps but Google Maps usually takes you on the scenic route when walking, so it's a nice way to take in some of the area.

[ED75-775]

On 6/3/2023 at 5:10 AM, bill937ca said:

I think Volk's closed a store in Akihabara during the pandemic.

Which would explain why they had a lot less trains in that store - they had to reduce the selection to fit the stuff in from the store they closed down. I still have a photo from 2019 showing a case full of Shinkansen and commuter trains taken at Volks Radiokan, somehow I wasn't caught back then, but I haven't attempted to repeat the experience either!

 

It's been about two days since I last posted, largely because I've had some early and early-ish mornings to make a couple of steam train trips work out. The first one, on Saturday, took me out to the Chichibu Railway to ride their SL Paleo Express between Kumagaya and Nagatoro, while today's trip took in the sights of the Moka Railway and their SL Moka between Shimodate and Motegi. Let's start off with my trip out to Kumagaya, shall we?

 

Chichibu promotes their train as being the closest steam locomotive running to the Tokyo area, and while Tobu might be in a position to (maybe) dispute that with their SL Taiju, there's no denying that that Chichibu has the most accessible SL - just jump on the Joetsu/Hokuriku Shinkansen, and it'll take you right to Kumagaya Station! (Incidentally, that accessibility is why I won't be riding the Taiju even though it is running tomorrow.) I planned to arrive nice and early, so I could watch the train being brought in which turned out to be a good idea as there were plenty of other passengers who had the same idea.

 

 

At the moment the SL Paleo Express is running with a slightly different headmark promoting a tie-in with the PC game Honkai: Star Rail and its World Tour event, a theme that was carried over to the advertising posters inside the carriages and some freebie items given to passengers on board. The trip itself was pretty good, though I felt disappointed that I hadn't booked sooner as it meant I couldn't get a reservation for a full trip. Maybe if there's a next time!

 

 

Several times throughout the trip we either waited for or crossed other trains, including a couple of freight trains. This one turned up just as my return train pulled into Nagatoro for a three-way crossing with another passenger train tucked in behind on Platform 3. Of course, that meant I had to buy the Micro Ace models of these oddly charming little wagons, and a DeKi to pull them with, later that day.

 

I can also admit to finding the Chichibu Railway staff to be unfailingly helpful, beyond even what I expected of that day. One of the station staff at Nagatoro spotted my eki-stamp book and, without prompting, pulled out an extra five eki-stamps; while the driver on my return train not only let me jump out while we waited to cross another train at Oaso so I could take some photos, he also offered generously to turn the headlights on his train back on so I could take a photo of that too! These are people who not only love what they do, they know how to give exceptionally good customer service while they're at it and I don't doubt that's part of why this railway is so popular.

 

Having brought a Tokyo Wide Pass to make this and my Moka Railway trip work, I decided afterwards to head back to Narita to see if the police had been handed my travel organizer... long story short, they hadn't (Mum's theory being that if it's been handed in, it's with Air New Zealand upstairs) so I headed back to Akihabara feeling slightly disconsolate. A visit to Volks to buy a Micro Ace DeKi 300 and matching WoKi/WoKiFu hoppers helped to dispel that.

 

Now, with Tomix producing JR East's C58 239, it begs the question how long it'll be before they also produce C58 363 and the SL Paleo Express. I know for one I'll be buying it when it comes out, and I'll probably buy the Micro Ace model of DeKi 201 to pull the train back into the station with it too.

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

Following on from my last post, yesterday's trip took me out to Togichi Prefecture to ride the SL Moka steam train. This meant a (very) early wake-up call and a prepurchased breakfast so I could leap on the direct train from Shinjuku to Oyama. From there it was a short train ride up the Mito Line to Shimodate, where I initially couldn't figure out how to get to the Moka Railway platforms. Once I had sorted that out and my pocket WiFi had stabilized following a short blackout of coverage, I brought my ticket from a booth on the platform.

 

Unlike the Chichibu Railway whose history goes back as far as 1899, the Moka Railway is a relative newcomer having come into existence in 1988 when the 42km long former JNR Shimodate-Motegi branch line, also known as the Moka Line, was sold into third-sector ownership. Although the Japanese Government Railways planned to extend the line further to Nagakura and built most of the infrastructure in preparation for this, the extension was never opened and I understand from Japanese Wikipedia that what track had been laid was recovered for the war effort. Probably the most obvious sign of this is the long stretch of open ground beyond the buffer stop at Motegi where there used to be an embankment leading toward the site of a bridge crossing a small river; both have since been removed, but the land hasn't been reclaimed for anything.

 

 

There's not terribly much at Shimodate Station, unless you're there to watch trains at which point you have the choice of the Moka Railway, the Kantō Railway Jōsō Line or the JR East Mito Line with the first two running diesel railcars and JR East using its dual-voltage E531's. So not much variety unless the steam train shows up! When it does arrive, the consist is led by one of Moka's three DE10 diesels, as there's no run-round track at Shimodate - just a bay platform and a siding. And as a diesel railcar comes in between the SL showing up and its scheduled departure, there's a bit of zig-zagging that goes on to get the trains moving.

 

The lower section of the line runs through mostly open agricultural plains, but once you get a bit higher up the line it's into the hills for the final stretch to Motegi. It's fairly pleasant scenery, and the C12 doesn't muck about with its three-car train. Track quality can be anything from well maintained to decidedly bouncy; the staff are friendly but fair warning to all who visit, their English is negligible so either bring a translator device or brush up on your Japanese.

 

 

Nishidai Station, a little over halfway up the line, is what I imagine a typical little JNR country station to be - not that I have much knowledge about this. I wouldn't say the same about Moka Station which is of course in the shape of a stylized steam locomotive, although the railway museum there isn't really much of a museum. Sure, you have two steam locomotives - 49671 and D51 146 - plus a SuHaFu 44 passenger car, some freight stock and two each DE10 diesels and KiHa 20 railcars scattered across both sides of the tracks, but only the steam locomotives, the SuHaFu and some of the freight cars could really be called 'preserved' and looked after, but the rest is tired - very tired in the case of the KiHa's. Motegi Station is a rather more utilitarian structure but its biggest draw is that it has a rooftop balcony from which to watch the steam locomotive being turned and watered at the end of its trip.

 

 

The railway also has some sort of deal in place with the Hotel New Tsutaya to produce ekiben boxes for passengers. At 1,000JPY they're cheap, delicious, and made from local produce. As a bonus, the thin wooden ekiben box has an image of a C11 steam locomotive on the lid - presumably in reference to the railway's now-departed C11 325 which moved to the Tobu Railway in 2019.

 

This time around I was able to do the full trip and enjoyed it immensely, and as @Tony Galiani mentioned when I met him today, I picked a good day for it! Blue skies, warm and sunny with only a mild breeze - perfect for taking a steam train trip. Rather than stay and wait for the return SL trip I took a diesel railcar back down the line and enjoyed riding beside the driver for a while, filming the track ahead with my cell phone. Once back at Shimodate, it was across the platforms to the JR line, and on to Oyama for the Shinkansen back to Ueno. The reason for this being twofold - one, I enjoy having a look around the Oku-Tabata railyards, and two, the Rheingold Tokyo Märklin store is 10mins away from Oku Station.

 

The railyards didn't have much other than some E195 and E492 maintenance/support vehicle sets and EF81 80 parked by the fenceline at Tabata, although the three ex-blue train coaches dumped in the Oku yard look even more tired that when I first saw them in 2019. Action - limited to DE10 1695 on engine shunting duties pushing EF65 1102 around, EH500 2 passing through with a container train - and that was it! No ballast wagons being pushed around (although there were two rakes of them on site and well out of good photographic range). I duly made a few purchases at Rheingold of three coaches with a free New Items brochure and some other promo material thrown in, and then hiked off to IKEA Tokyo Bays for dinner.

 

What? IKEA for dinner?

Well, we don't have one in New Zealand... yet. It's opening in 2025 (and it's in Auckland - the Christchurch store is probably still some way off).

And I must profess a fondness for Swedish meatballs and cinnamon buns.

 

Alastair

[Kamome]

Good to see the Chichibu railway don’t update their advertising trains. Is that a banner promoting the 2019 Rugby World Cup?

[ED75-775]

@Kamome good spotting - it is indeed decorated for the 2019 Rugby World Cup. Four years ago now! Though if you think that’s bad, there’s a station on the Sobu Line - from memory it may be Kinshichō - that still has posters up promoting Shinkalion... series 1 from 2019. Not that I mind, in fact I enjoy watching it myself, but just to throw it out there as a case of institutional inertia!

Alastair

[Kamome]

Haha! Weirdly I was talking to a colleague about this years tournament in France. Japan and England in the same pool and the Cherry Blossoms have a habit of giant killing as South Africa and Ireland can attest to.

 

Anyway, glad you’re enjoying Japan. Keep the photos coming.

Edited June 5, 2023 by Kamome

[ED75-775]

Aye aye sir, more photos inbound...

 

Today's trip was supposed to be pretty lowkey - start off in Omiya at the Railway Museum, head back to Tokyo in time for lunch to meet up with @Tony Galiani, and then a quiet afternoon during which I planned to go back (ahem!) to Nakano Broadway to pick up some other Tomytec trams I had noticed looked interesting. I got lucky and picked up a Saikyo Line train almost straight away which was running late. From memory, it was something to do with a signal?

 

While I got time to look around the museum again and take plenty of photos for a Talk I am giving to my local heritage railway in September, I didn't get a chance to do any of the simulators despite trying for the D51 sim in the lottery app. Also didn't help that when I checked my wallet, I didn't have the 510 yen needed for such a thing. Aaargh! Oh well, I can always go back on Wednesday and try again that morning.

 

  

 

Obligatory photo with my profile namesake, why not? I had a good over two hours here, and then hiked it back to Omiya Station to pick up a Shinkansen to Tokyo for my meeting with Tony. I was initially rather nervous as the train wasn't due in until 1:28, and Tony had said he'd be waiting at the station between 1 and 1:30. I managed to make it though, and we rendezvoused as planned. A big thanks to Tony for taking the time out of his day to catch up with me, it's been a highlight of my trip so far.

 

I note with some chagrin from Tony's last post on his holiday thread that he feels a bit left out by my impulsive buying behaviour. I'm going to be brutally honest here and admit that Japanese N-gauge stock is not available in New Zealand in any quantity, unless someone is selling bits off secondhand. And I think the last person to have any quantity of stock for sale like that was @Morcs, who nearly suckered me with a Kato ED75-1000 until I found some small self-control. I'd like to pretend I kept that self-control but alas no - the 'What did you order or the post deliver?' thread of late can attest to that.

 

In any case, today's purchase was remarkably lowkey again. Rather than going for all four trams - Tobu 100 series, Hiroden 351, Nagasaki 215 and Tosaden 800 series - on my hit list, I decided instead to target just the Nagaden and Tosaden cars. And for the first time ever, I had to reject a model because the first Tosaden 800 pulled out had a broken lifeguard assembly. The staff hadn't noticed that, so said model was put to one side and a second found, this time with lifeguard intact. No doubt the first will reappear in due course with a reduced price sticker on it in the hopes someone might give it a hand and conduct the necessary repairs. Meanwhile, I now have two more trams and the Nagaden one even came with a powered chassis (which I knew it had, it was labelled so on the box.)

 

After dinner at my 'favourite' ramen joint Ieki Ramen in the Omoide Yokocho area it was a decidedly quiet evening doing washing and having a bath since I got back too late to use the hotel's public bath, boring but essential stuff. Tomorrow's day trip will take me to Negishi and Yokohama. But for now the eyelids grow heavy, so it's time to turn in and I'll be back tomorrow with more photos!

 

Alastair

[cteno4]

Wow Alistair, you are having quite the trip! Great you got to meet up with tony, he’s a delightful chap.
 

Enjoy!

 

jeff

[ED75-775]

Have some more random photos from last night, because why not and they’re from my ‘favourite’ level crossing down Yoyogi way:

 

 

 

 

While waiting at Ueno earlier that day, I bumped into a friendly Californian who was taking pictures of trains, but admitted that they weren’t moving fast enough for him to get a decent speed blur - which he likes in his photographs. I’d like to hope he could appreciate these photos, which were taken not with an expensive camera with a powerful lense, but my now-elderly sixth-gen iPod Touch!

 

 

Oh, and welcome to Broadway Square, complete with faux-subway car to hide a services cabinet. If you can find this spot, you’re less than ten meters from the crossing.  Looks like a lively spot.

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

Been a busy last few days, so I haven't posted up until today which was a Travel Day to Nagoya.

 

Tuesday just been dawned rather gloomy and grey, but I wasn't too fussed about that as I planned to head to Yokohama and visit the Yokohama Tram Museum! Headed down to Yokohama, changed trains but only got as far as Sakuragicho, then got surprised by an EH200 and string of TaKi's running through northbound. Vaguely remembered that someone commented on Negishi having a freight yard full of TaKi tankers, but that brought it back to mind as I got a Negishi Line train for the last leg.

 

 

Yokohama's tram museum is located on the site of what once was a major tram depot, or part thereof as apparently the museum closed for a bit to be moved so housing could be built on part of the site. Six trams plus a freight/maintenance car that was decked out as a float to celebrate the arrival of a new subway train type when I was there. They also sell the Tomytec Yokohama trams and TM-TR01 powered chassis for them, but it's strictly cash only so no powered chassis for me at this point. Very well set up though, including a little driver simulation which for a qualified volunteer motorman, I initially didn't do very well with until I figured out the controls! Ooops.

 

 

Having finished up at the Yokohama Tram Museum, I trained back to Sakuragicho station to find another old friend: JGR 2-4-0T No. 110, a former member of the Ome Railway Park fleet. In 2020 it was removed from the park, restored and placed in the CIAL Sakuragicho building together with a vintage coach to commemorate the fact that the building is smack bang on the site of the former Yokohama goods yard. The locomotive has been nicely restored, considering that the last time I saw it, it was a sectionalized hulk! There's also exhibits on the railway and its origins, plus models of the original ten locomotives and a restored slotted-post semaphore signal - at least, I'm guessing it's a restored example. I really have no idea!

 

From there it was time to take a shamble through the Minato Mirai area along the Kishamichi Promenade (an old rail line turned into a walkway), and over towards the Hara Model Railway Museum (closed Tuesdays) and the Nissan headquarters to ogle shiny cars, because why not? I then managed to wind up at Popondetta thanks again to @paolo, where I found another Märklin container car. Whether I would have pursued further hobby shops, I don't know as it was raining when I finally emerged and that meant time to go home! But nothing was moving at Yokohama; red lights flashing, loud alarms blaring - had someone hit the Big Red Forbidden Stop Button? Eventually it got sorted, and I headed back to Shinjuku in time for some really good curry at Gourmet Curry Bon Gout above the south-end station complex.

 

 

One of the former rail bridges on the Kishamichi Promenade, complete with nonfunctioning railway track to show what this route was originally used for. Believe it or not, I didn't learn about this until I watched the Precure All Stars DX movie once online - not that I care about not being the target demographic, good animation and story writing transcend such boundaries plus kids animes are great for learning new words and phrases - which showed the promenade briefly during the first fight with the Big Bad of the movie. This area seems to be surprisingly monster-attack prone in the same way Tokyo Bay seems to be Goji's favourite stomping ground (literally!); the fairground to the left out of frame appears again in Precure All Stars New Stage and again in Precure All Stars Memories, each time during a monster attack!

 

Getting back to more forum-approved (ahem!) reading, I got lucky along the way with plenty of EF210 and EH200's sighted, plus a few EF64/65s and EH500s for good measure and as a bonus, no less than three EF66-100s in a freight yard along the way! Plus the Kanagawa Rinkai happened to be shunting on my way out of Negishi with a blue off-center cab shunter which I can't find any pictures of online. Mine are too lousy to reproduce sorry.

 

I'll post yesterday's activities later, time to find dinner... oh, there's a Hobby Land Pochi nearby too? Leeeeeeeet's gooooooooo!

 

Alastair

 

Edited June 20, 2023 by ED75-775

[ED75-775]

Not as many pretty pictures with this one guys, Wednesday turned out to be a return visit to the Railway Museum in Omiya without the added time pressure I put myself under the first time around. Not that I minded, though - this museum is very well set up, and that means more time to go around snapping things and taking mental notes for a Talk I will provide my local railway society with in September.

 

My main reason for going was to get a go on the D51 simulator, having enjoyed that four years ago. Suffice to say I managed it after a few tries with the app. The young lady supporting the simulator operation very quickly figured out I knew what I was about so didn't have to give me too much help as I 'drove' D51 426 from Hanamaki to Shin-Hanamaki on the Kamaishi Line. She also confirmed that yes, this was the line that SL Ginga formerly operated on (it had made its final public run that previous weekend). I also managed to get a drive of a mini train outside, I got the E926 East-i as my train for that. Slow as anything, but fun so I can say I've done both Kyushu (2019) and Omiya (2023). Similar length of track, though in Omiya you have double track the full way whereas Kyushu has a stretch of single track in the middle for added interest.

 

 

Having wanted the Shimbashi eki-stamp, and to visit the Gundam Base in Daiba, I hiked it south and headed first for Shimbashi's SL Square after a friendly reminder from @Tony Galiani that the square is home to a C11 tank locomotive. The locomotive in question being C11 292, built during World War II and thus fitted with bread-bin steam and sand domes for ease of manufacture. It also whistles from time to time at certain times, but I was there too late for that. I jumped on the Yurikamome people mover and headed east. Along the way I couldn't help but notice the Fuji TV building - it's pretty close to Daiba Station - which I remember as being a location for both the Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02 series during my childhood. What? Digimon? You expected me to say something about Goji, didn't you?

 

 

The G-Base happened to be pretty interesting, but I didn't end up buying anything, just ogling the models in the display cases and some of the recreated scenes from different Gundam animes. Snapped some pictures of the RX-0 Unicorn Gundam outside (as featured in the anime Gundam Build Divers) and headed back on the Yurikamome to Shimbashi where I finally found the eki-stamp! It's in the south side of the station between two supports. And of course, it features C11 292 in silhouette form.

 

Rather than head straight back for another dinner at Bon Gout in Shinjuku, I decided to go for a little bit of a walk. Before I knew it, things looked... strangely familiar. Then it clicked to me: I had wandered onto @Kamome442's layout! Funny, it looked like Joe had been busy, because it looked very complete, and very realistic.

 

 

One bonus of wandering down to Yūrakuchō was that I found a shop in one of the arches. A shop for Oginoya, no less: manufacturers of the famous toge-no-kamameshi ekiben of Yokokawa Station and Usui Pass fame. Of course I tried one in the traditional ceramic pot; tasted good, though some of the pickled vegetables that came with it on the side nearly had my taste buds in revolt! But it was delicious none the less. And in an awesome nod to Oginoya's heritage, the poster in front of my seat was absolutely laden with railway references with most being drawn from the Usui Pass Railway Park.

 

 

Added the Yūrakuchō eki-stamp for good measure so if Joe wants a copy for his layout, I can provide a photo of mine, then hiked it back to Shinjuku to figure out how I was going to get all of my model goodies away having not done so sooner. Turned out to be a bad idea the following morning at the Kabukichō post office as with the addition of two Starbucks Reserve Roastery mugs and two four-packs of IKEA travel bottles (the little short ones), the whole lot in box came to 4.959kg. Wowch! I had only guesstimated it at 2kg. But the box is on its way south as I speak, hopefully will be waiting for me when I arrive home at month's end, and I've had a valuable lesson in not hoarding too much stuff at once.

 

Alastair

[Kamome442]

Really enjoying this thread @ED75-775, plenty of inspiration for model making. 

I do like the big frames with rows of lanterns, I will have make one at some point.

Good to see you got your Yūrakuchō eki-stamp. If you get the time to send a photo it would be very much appreciated.

Now I am going to have to model a mini Alastair eating Oginoya in one of the arches 🙂

 

Joe

Edited June 9, 2023 by Kamome442

[ED75-775]

Haha, thanks Joe! I'd consider it an honor.

Oh, and here's my copy of the Yūrakuchō eki-stamp. Feel free to make use of it for your information boards!

 

 

Plus the Oginoya shop downstairs under the arches. I think I read somewhere this may have been a post-pandemic arrival to Tokyo as Oginoya couldn't sell at some of their usual locations, so decided to bring the product to the customers instead of having the customers come to the product.

 

 

Alastair