Kato HO JNR KiHa 81 Train Names/Destination Signs

[RS18U]

I'm hoping someone will be able to either direct me to a web site where I can find some information, or maybe provide it directly.

 

As I posted in The Introduction Thread, I recently returned from a trip to Japan with a lovely Kato HO scale JNR KiHa 81.  With the help of Google Translate/Lens, I was able to attach all the various parts with no issues, but I am stumped when it comes to what to put on it with all the decal options Kato offers.

 

There are what I think are train names that go into the centre of the hood (bonnet in Google translate speak).  Kato supplies 5 pre-printed ones: Hatsukari, Inaho, Tsubasa, Hitachi, and Kuroshio.  They also supply what I think are route or destination signs for placing by the rear doors.  Several of these reference towns in Hokkaido (Sapporo, Abashiri, Hakodate) as well as several in Honshu (Akita, Aomori, Taira, Nagoya).  My preference would be for Hokkaido as we have good friends in Abashiri and it would be a nice tie, but I also want it to be accurate.

 

The question I have, and have not been able to find by searching, is which of the train names would apply to Hokkaido, and which ones apply to Honshu.  Not that any of my railway friends would know the difference, but it would always bug me.

 

Thanks for whatever insight can be provided.

[Kamome]

To my knowledge, the Kiha 81s were not present in Hokkaido. The sticker sheet is shared with the Kiha 82-900 which was a converted green car coach into a driving cab. These Kiha 82-900 were present in Hokkaido, be it in very limited numbers, think only 2 were made.

 

The more famous trains that used the Kiha 81s were the Hatsukari and the Kuroshio, with the Inaho and Tsubasa slightly less represented in model form until recently. I modelled a Tsubasa formation.

The Tsubasa is the shortest form of only 7 coaches, 2 driving cabs, Green car, dining car and 3 standard seating cars. It was relatively short lived and needed the help of an EF71 to get up the steeper gradients. (Ueno-Akita)

 

The Hatsukari was a longer 10 coache train again with 2 Kiha 81 driving cabs. (Ueno-Aomori)

 

The last 2 formations had additional Kiha 82 driving cabs in the middle of the train, sometimes in the case of the Kuroshio, one driving end was a Kiha 81 and the other a Kiha 82. This travelled between Nagoya , Tennoji and Shingu in Wakayama.

 

Inaho/Hitachi also travelled between (Ueno-Akita)  although on a different route to the Tsubasa. This had a Kiha 82-900 at some point as car 3, other times perhaps a regular Kiha 82. 

 

For Hokkaido services like the supplied Hokuto or Okhotsk stickers , you would need either the Kiha 82 or Kiha 82-900 for appropriate service and destinations. 

Edited March 31 by Kamome

[RS18U]

@Kamome thank you, this is what I was looking for.  It would also explain why I could not find anything about the 81 operating on Hokkaido.  Since I like the outliers I will probably pick either Inaho or Tsubasa and look to get a few more cars to make up a short train.

 

Also very nice modelling, impressive.

[Kamome]

Actually this is a rental layout as I don’t have the space to do HO any justice. The Kiha 81 is a very nice design and I particularly like the express red and cream colours they adopted for the Limited Expresses. The Kiha 82 which was the next phase of development and used the same intermediate cars, was used all across Japan. 

 

I liked the Tsubasa as it was a short nippy looking train but I believe the Hatsukari was the first to use this new technology. 

 

Here’s a nice piece of old public information type footage regarding the Kiha 81s development. Sorry only Japanese but great visuals none the less. 

 

 

[RS18U]

Great video thanks.  The look is growing on me.

 

First I heard of these sort of rental layouts was at the Popondetta at Hakata station a couple of weeks ago while I was looking for the 81 (ended up buying it at Hobby Land Pochi across the street).  I have never seen anything like that here in Canada but it makes sense given the space constraints in Japanese apartments and houses.  Saw another one later in our trip, Kumamoto I recall.