ED75 does Japan (take 3)

[cteno4]

5 hours ago, ED75-775 said:

Ohhh. Bad idea. Bad, bad idea

Ha we got you in the trap, toni and I now get kickbacks from Sakatsu! 😜 just kidding, they do have such a tempting array of great tings in tiny packages! I’ve started an order rationally only to end up checking out with a large pile! I’m glad I’ve never visited the shop in person as I might end up selling my ticket home for more detail bits! At least your purchases will only take up a tiny bit of your luggage going home! Maybe stop by the 100yen store for a small plastic box to protect your tiny treasures! Glad to hear the owner is so welcoming and realizes JNS is sending a stream of customers his way! I’ve been impressed with the array they stock and having save the kobaru line and now seem to be getting the old prohobby line going again.

 

jeff

[cteno4]

22 minutes ago, Tony Galiani said:

At least now we know not to push the green button ….

Tony, sounds like a good story there or a line from a cheesy scifi movie! Not the green button! My mind is racing with images of what may have happened to you after pressing he green button…

 

jeff

[Kamome]

11 hours ago, ED75-775 said:

my wallet's now a little bit lighter for it

I am enjoying how you're single-handedly trying to recover the Japanese economy. It reminds me seeing a couple of Korean guys at Fukuoka airport who were repacking their cases on the concourse. There were no clothes, liquids etc.. Just boxes of Gundam models in a game of suitcase Tetris.

 

Sakatsu Gallery products are slowly starting to appear in more and more independent model shops, although no where near the range of what's available.

Hoping to pay them a visit in August as I'll be Tokyo bound for JAM 2024, plans permitting.

[Tony Galiani]

@cteno4 On our 2023 trip we did a batch of laundry at our hotel in Kyoto. One of those washer/dryer machines that does the whole process.  Unfortunately, our clothes weren’t quite dry so we decided to do some extra dry cycles. Put more yen in and thought we set it correctly but could not figure out how to start it. 
Well, green means go ….. doesn’t it?

Turns out it does not. It starts the machine pre-clean cycle and resoaks the clothes ……

We finally figured it out but several dry cycles later we still had damp laundry drying all over our hotel room. 
Tony

[cteno4]

LOL! Red means dry of course! I do remeber the first load of laundry I did in Japan back in 1984 in a tiny laundromat late at night. Luckily only one button but no instructions, so I just went for it and it worked! Luckily a 7-11 next door so I had plenty of snacks while I read a book.

 

jeff

[Tony Galiani]

@ED75-775 At least Jeff and I haven’t mentioned YFS in Akihabara so that’s one temptation we have saved you from …..

 

Cheers,

Tony

[ED75-775]

8 hours ago, Tony Galiani said:

@ED75-775 At least Jeff and I haven’t mentioned YFS in Akihabara so that’s one temptation we have saved you from …..

 

Cheers,

Tony

Bad, bad Tony. Don’t tempt me, I already do that pretty well on my own. Admittedly, I did have a look at YFS online and decided their offering wasn’t really my taste. Eh, maybe I’ll go there if I do a 2025 trip.

 

Today was spent in two different places, starting off with a final trawl through the hobby shops of Shinjuku followed by a jaunt down to Yokohama for a visit to their Popondetta store, and a walk along Kishamichi Promenade. Glorious weather for it too, sunny with traces of cloud and a refreshing breeze.

 

 

Of course no visit to Yokohama would be complete without a visit to Nissan HQ, and a wander down to CIAL Sakuragicho to visit an old friend, JGR 2-4-0T no. 110.

 

 

I got back to Shinjuku early this evening, and decided to set up for my first parcel this trip, a big box of miscellaneous Märklin rolling stock. This would normally be fine, but I’d brought a large carriage set and uh-oh, it was too long for anything Japan Post could offer. A brief check of the web confirmed that Tokyu Hands does boxes, and thankfully for me they had the right size box which a clerk went and got for me after he saw me testing various options out with said carriage set. Ten out of ten for customer service there!

 

As it’s moving day tomorrow, I’ll head to the local post office to offload the Märklin stuff first, then come back to grab my stuff, check out and then onto the station bound for Nagoya. Truth be told, I’d actually be quite happy to have stayed in Tokyo for longer - I’ve really enjoyed my time here, even if it feels like it’s flown by too fast.

 

Alastair

[Kamome]

On 6/5/2024 at 1:07 AM, ED75-775 said:

Of course no visit to Yokohama would be complete without a visit to Nissan HQ

Good shout! I'm quite a fan of Japanese Super GT. Last time I visited they had a very cool old Fairlady Z in police livery alongside some of their previous Japan GT racing cars.

 

 Shame it was a Wednesday otherwise you could've also gone to Hara Model Railway Museum too. The museum is closed Tuesdays and Wednesdays for those who want to pay it a visit. The collection is predominately European models with some North American and Japanese. 

 

Looking forward to the final haul images once you get everything back home, if it's not too scary to group together.

[N-Osoi]

Yokohama looks like a nice place to visit, it's on my list for next time! I know what you mean about the washer-dryers... they dont seem to do either very well 😛 but its usually far cheaper than hotel laundry service.

[Kamome]

Yes, just things you have to get used to. Even home washers just seem to move the clothes back and forth gently in water. Not sure the goal is to wash them, but get them wet and add a nice smell over the top of the sweatiness. Generally, Japanese washing machines are just trying to look busy and hope no one finds them out.

 

[ED75-775]

On 6/6/2024 at 1:31 PM, Kamome said:

Shame it was a Wednesday otherwise you could've also gone to Hara Model Railway Museum too.

I visited the museum in 2019. It's not bad, but I haven't been able to justify doing it again since. In any case, I've not posted since arriving in Nagoya so here's a quick roundup from Travel Day on Wednesday.

 

As alluded to in my last post, I spent part of Wednesday morning at the Shinjuku Kabukicho post office sending off a box of Märklin H0 stock - this time, I was fairly close to my stated weight on the packing slip, with the final weight coming in at 3.75kg actual against 3.5kg estimated. Hmm, not bad. Then it was back to the hotel to grab my stuff, onto Shinjuku Station to activate my Rail Pass, and onwards to Tokyo Station. Where, as I had time to kill waiting for my shinkansen south, I decided to trek over to the Imperial Gardens to visit the Starbucks there and pick up a reusable cup sleeve for a family member.

 

The shinkansen journey itself wasn't bad, although Fuji-san was determined not to show its face as usual. Managed to get to the hotel, dropped my bags off, and then - what else - off to Hobbyland Pochi. I ended up buying two KiHa sets, and they've been it for Nagoya since I discovered that I've mown through my spending money at an almost astronomical rate buying trains and train stuff! I've had to ease back on the spending, not that that's been an issue as Nagoya hasn't had as much to tempt me, and the one item that did and wasn't purchased, is available through Yahoo! Auctions so can be sniped at will later in the year.

 

I'm pleased to report that this time I'm in a much quieter room with no plumbing banging, although my view across the rooftops of Nagoya doesn't compare to the previous view in Shinjuku. The breakfast buffet downstairs also still does the same deep-fried skewers I enjoyed last trip, which I've been enjoying too.

 

There'll be more to come later, once I've sorted out a few things.

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

On 6/3/2024 at 1:43 AM, SL58654号 said:

It's amazing that they not only run steam but use such charmingly antiquated electric engines for their cement traffic also. I like those engines as they remind me somewhat of the JGR ED19 and other early government railway electrics.

Not sure I see the resemblance there to the early electrics - and I've currently got a copy of RM Re-Library 24 which covers all the early JGR electrics in my assortment with me - but perhaps subconsciously, it reminds me of something else a little closer to home. As a diversionary story, may I present: the Toshiba EO class.

 

 

The five locomotives of this type were originally built as the Ea-class in 1968 to replace the old English Electric Eo-class boxcabs on the Arthurs Pass-Otira section of the Midland Line, but would be reclassified as EO when computerized numbers were introduced from 1979 onwards. Following operational changes and the introduction of 'tunnel motor' diesel locomotives, the overhead was dismantled in 1997, but the EO's survived, in storage at Ferrymead and latterly three at Picton pending a trip on the rail ferry to Wellington where they might be reused under the same 1.5kV DC overhead. That finally happened in 2008-9 with three (EO's 45, 51 and 74) reactivated as a stopgap to run a push-pull passenger set and the other two (EO's 39 and 68) held to be potentially rebuilt.

 

The class was taken out of service by 2013 with increased (1.6kV) voltages causing electrical unreliability; one - EO 45 (Ea 2) - was later presented to the National Railway Museum of NZ project at Ferrymead for preservation and the other four were cut up. Supposedly 45 got picked as it had the KiwiRail branding on it whereas the other two refurbished examples didn't. And apart from the fact they're only single-cab units, they are somewhat similar to the DeKi's, at least in both age and general style.

 

Irrespective, the Chitetsu DeKi's are pretty unique locomotives these days and have their own charm. I mean, I've got three of them now in N scale!

 

Alastair

Edited June 10 by ED75-775

[Tony Galiani]

I have to ask!  Which two KiHa sets did you pick up in Nagoya?

Cheers,

Tony

[ED75-775]

Tony, I've posted the KiHa sets and a few other goodies in the 'What did you order' thread.

 

Getting back on topic, yesterday's adventure was a straight jaunt down to Kinjo-futo for the SCMaglev and Railway Park. Traditionally this is the sole reason I come to Nagoya for, since the Oigawa Railway typically doesn't run steam services at this time of year, and yes, the hobby shops are merely a bonus for me! I got lucky while waiting for my Aonami Line train as an EF510 ran through the station with a rake of HoKi wagons.

 

 

Another old favourite from my previous vists, ED18 2 is the sole survivor of its class and also happens to be a first cousin to the ED17 at Omiya, being largely the same other than having had two extra axles inserted to spread its weight on lighter-laid track. Apparently it was still running into the mid-2000s on Joyful Train service until it suffered some sort of a catastrophic failure, and came out of service. Not that you'd know it thanks to the high quality of cosmetic restoration.

 

 

Former Imperial locomotive, C57 139, had been specially decked out with its Imperial regalia for a limited time. It was only after I got close enough to check that I noticed there were special fittings attached to the locomotive to hold the flags and emblem.

This year I spent more time just wandering around and through vehicles, and decided to eschew the simulator which, although fun, is not quite as good as Omiya's D51 simulator. Eventually I decided that I'd had my fill, and shambled back to Kinjo-futo for the ride back to Nagoya. I could have stayed and visited Legoland Japan, but after looking at the website I concluded it's not for me. I ended up riding the Legoland-wrapped train back though, so I could claim (with some reservation) to have somewhat experienced it, I guess?

 

 

These days, Nagoya Freight Terminal is now well and truly HD300 territory with two noted on site. I didn't get any mainline locomotives though until Sashashima-Raibu when an EF210 blasted through with a container train. Shortly after that, having transferred to the Chuo Main Line heading for Kanayama, EF510 508 showed up with a string of cement hoppers, although I didn't get a photo of that one.

 

The whole purpose of heading to Kanayama was to review the different hobby shops there, and I am pleased to admit that I displayed considerable restraint with nothing purchased. Then again, most of them didn't have much worth taking up, and that which was worth taking was in most cases too expensive for me to do so at the time (or could be had cheaper elsewhere... looking at you, MicroAce A2086 set). And surprise! Karamatsu is no longer in the Z's Building where I'd found it the year before, and has now moved south, so I didn't visit them. I did contemplate doing so though as they had some railway hand lamps in stock, although after seeing the prices on the ones listed in stock online, that idea went firmly out the window!

 

Alastair

[SL58654号]

19 hours ago, ED75-775 said:

Tony, I've posted the KiHa sets and a few other goodies in the 'What did you order' thread.

 

Getting back on topic, yesterday's adventure was a straight jaunt down to Kinjo-futo for the SCMaglev and Railway Park. Traditionally this is the sole reason I come to Nagoya for, since the Oigawa Railway typically doesn't run steam services at this time of year, and yes, the hobby shops are merely a bonus for me! I got lucky while waiting for my Aonami Line train as an EF510 ran through the station with a rake of HoKi wagons.

 

 

Another old favourite from my previous vists, ED18 2 is the sole survivor of its class and also happens to be a first cousin to the ED17 at Omiya, being largely the same other than having had two extra axles inserted to spread its weight on lighter-laid track. Apparently it was still running into the mid-2000s on Joyful Train service until it suffered some sort of a catastrophic failure, and came out of service. Not that you'd know it thanks to the high quality of cosmetic restoration.

 

 

Former Imperial locomotive, C57 139, had been specially decked out with its Imperial regalia for a limited time. It was only after I got close enough to check that I noticed there were special fittings attached to the locomotive to hold the flags and emblem.

This year I spent more time just wandering around and through vehicles, and decided to eschew the simulator which, although fun, is not quite as good as Omiya's D51 simulator. Eventually I decided that I'd had my fill, and shambled back to Kinjo-futo for the ride back to Nagoya. I could have stayed and visited Legoland Japan, but after looking at the website I concluded it's not for me. I ended up riding the Legoland-wrapped train back though, so I could claim (with some reservation) to have somewhat experienced it, I guess?

Great stuff! I love that C57 and the ED18! What about the steam railcar?
It's interesting to me that Japan mimicked the British way of running light services on rural lines without a full locomotive in the days of steam.

[ED75-775]

I am now several days behind on updates, so while you all wait for me to catch up, have some fresh KiHa on me:

 

 

Popped it a little early but still came out pretty good otherwise.

#KiHaLife

#NoKiHaNoLife

 

Alastair

[miyakoji]

Thanks Alastair, great pictures!  What station is that with the two Kiha 47s?

[ED75-775]

@miyakoji it's Hiroshima Station. The KiHa's are used to run local services on the Geibi Line; best place to find them is Platforms 8 and 9. I was on Platform 8 when I snapped this photo.

 

I'm currently back at my hotel now for a quick break and to grab some trains, I'll head back to Popondetta later for a running session (¥600 for 20 mins or 1 hour on a weekday, user's choice), so have some updates on me! Last time I posted a proper update, I was in Nagoya, so we'll pick up from there.

 

In 2023, I made a point of spending two days in Nagoya, with the intention of doing either Meiji Mura or the Oigawa Railway, the latter not being possible as it looks like their regular steam locomotive-hauled services don't run over June. This year they're out until September, which is either for 'Thomas' duties, rolling stock maintenance, or something else. I've got no idea which is correct. So, I had a spare day to mooch around Nagoya looking at the shops and visiting the Sashashima-Raibu area to view the Kintetsu and JR Central yards.

 

 

As I've posted about this area during my 2023 travelogue, I'll let that speak for itself. As always, there's always something going on and in this case it was more Kintetsu action than anything else, although solo EF210 169 decided to wander through my rangefinder running back from Nagoya Freight Terminal. The JR Central yard was pretty well deserted other than a few commuter trains and a single KiHa 11 diesel railcar which wasn't in a good enough position for a photo. Having an early lunch near Sashashima-Raibu station, I headed back to Nagoya Station for a browse through the shops in the tower again, and then down to the platforms for some more photography. Could I land any of JR Central's KiHa's up close and personal?

 

 

Short answer - no. It was all EMU action, including a JR West 683 series unit, until I spotted a string of containers moving at the southern end of the station... time to sprint to near the end of the platform to catch EF210 159 heading north with a string of container wagons. Then, off in the distance, appeared another freight train, made up of mostly Seino containers - perhaps the Seino Longpass service? - led by sister EF210 144 and heading south. I managed to snap a shot of that, even though there was too much clutter in the way for it to be a really nice photo. It's almost nice, I guess, barring that there was a signal in the way... (mumble mumble stupid timing mutter mumble)

 

Dinner that night was at a curry shop just down from the 'ramen street' under Nagoya Station. Good cutlet curry, with cheese and three pieces of freshly-fried chicken. Delicious!

 

Alastair

 

[ED75-775]

Saturday was a travel day, this time from Nagoya to Hiroshima. This was for the Hiroshima Streetcar Festival which I was hoping would be the next day, but it's not - a check of the Hiroden website today confirms there's an event going on next Sunday, the 16th, so the viewing platform will be closed. Now, I need to decide whether it's worth going back for - it's an hour each way on the shinkansen, I'm kind of tempted to do it and push visiting the Kyushu Railway Museum/Stage 1 Models out to another day. We'll see.

 

The itinerary this time was much the same as last time, changing trains at Shin-Kobe from a Okayama-bound Hikari to a Hakata-bound Sakura. I also planned my seat allocation so that I'd have a good view of the Osaka Station railyard, where I was in the right position to view several interesting vehicles including JR West's 12-series coach set and part of the 14-series 'Saloon Car Naniwa' set. Though in checking the details of these sets just now, I'm surprised to see that JR West will be scrapping the 12-series coaches later this summer, after a final exhibition of three at the Kyoto Railway Museum, with two then running with C56 160 and a DE10 at the end of this month. 

 

 

I got into Hiroshima with an hour to spare, and after sorting out luggage storage, hiked off to the tram stop by Hiroshima Station to view the parade of older single-unit cars and tinfoil-wrapped worms coming in and out. Once check in was sorted, it was off to Popondetta Hiroshima Sunmall, coming away with seven wagons. I also managed to snap a quick photo of Hiroden 762 in service - last time I'd seen this ex-Osaka car (in 2023), it was parked at Senda depot out of service. I also got a glimpse of ex-Kobe 582 as I trammed back to Hiroshima Station to avoid the rain which was by now falling...

 

I decided to stop for dinner at Ippudo Ramen that night, a good choice although a little busy. Must've been the weather, I guess.

 

Alastair

 

Edited June 10 by ED75-775

[ED75-775]

It's late at night, the washing still has a little bit to go and I'm about to have second dinner - which sounds rather hobbit-y, though then again my home country is internationally recognized as the 'real' Middle-Earth (with no apologies to Mr. Tolkien). May as well do some blogging to go with it!

 

Yesterday was rather dismal and grey, but hey, that won't hold me back, there's trams to be found! My goal was to track down some of Hiroden's vintage trams and possibly even ride them. Success on the former, a big goose egg on the latter. The morning started with a trip down to Hiroden-honsha-mae for the Senda depot. And here's where the first success of the day was had: Hiroden 352 and 652 were visible from the viewing deck, along with ex-Kobe 1156 in its Hannover Zoo tribute livery. I'd swear that tram hasn't moved since I saw it last year...

 

 

Still no sign of 651 - which lives at Senda - or any of the other heritage cars for that matter, so a quick trawl around the back revealed 762 hiding under cover between a couple of buildings. Can't hide from me though! Obviously 582 was somewhere else, so that left only a handful of cars to track which I suspected would be hiding at Eba depot, right out at the end of the city lines. Having jaunted back to Hiroshima Station for lunch, and to find a handful of KiHa's on Geibi Line services, I decided to take the tram over in the hopes of finding them!

 

 

Big goose egg on finding Hiroden 156 or 653 this time, but a glimpse into the shed confirmed that Nishitetsu 602 and Osaka 912/2638 were parked up undercover. Along with an arguably much rarer bird: freight car 51, ex-Osaka 759/1643 which spends most of its time parked up. I'd seen photos of this tram in the Tram Yearbooks I like buying, but this was my first time seeing it IRL. Of course there was also the obligatory smattering of ex-Kyoto 1900s on depot, and a mixture of 700s and 800s. As can be seen, by this time it was pretty wet and it was also late so I headed back to the hotel.

 

Dinner that night was a 7-Eleven beef curry bowl, which was actually pretty tasty, and cheap to boot. I have to admit, kobini food is actually a really good option if you're a budget-conscious traveller, or just short on cash.

 

Alastair

Edited June 10 by ED75-775

[brill27mcb]

Thanks for the Hiroden pics - too bad about the weather...

 

Rich K.

[ED75-775]

Indeed a shame, but that’s how it is sometimes.

 

I’m currently on the Shinkansen now and at time of writing approaching Shin-Shimonoseki, so time for another update to (almost) get things back up to date.

 

Yesterday’s plan was to take an easy day in Hiroshima, rather than going off and re-doing something like Miyajima. The start of the day saw me heading west to Kinokuniya Books in the hope of finding some decent railway material (not quite) and another visit to Popondetta which I’d already cleared of any sensibly-priced, nice trains (anyone got a cool ¥66,700 or thereabouts for a Tomix 500 Type EVA?) The same could have also been said of my lunchtime visit to Fujiwara Models the day before, but that’s neither here nor there.

 

 

Having gone back to the hotel, I decided to sweep up some of my trains and take them for a run on Popondetta’s in store layout. ¥600 and one hour later, I was happy with my KiHa’s but not so with the Re 5000 vans I’d snagged in Shinjuku as they were making some funny noises, symptomatic of needing maintenance. So they’re on the RIP track for the remainder of their time here, which may be necessarily short as heavy suitcases are no joke.

 

Rather than return to the hotel straight away, I decided to hit up Senda depot one last time in a bid to find some 650-series action. I then proceeded to walk the distance from Hiroshima Sunmall to the depot, even going so far as to eschew a ride on Kobe 582 when I had the opportunity! One-track mind, indeed…

 

This time around, 651 was on depot and I spent a bit of time watching the goings-on at the depot. Thanks to a fellow enthusiast, I even got to witness 651 and 352 trundling around the depot, the latter towing a 3900 or 3800-series car that may or may not have been serviceable. Once I’d had my fill, I trammed back, this time riding part of the way on a rush-hour-packed 1900, 1907. And, as this tram was produced by Tomytec and is represented in my collection, you can guess which tram is now front of the queue for motorization.

 

 

Having caught an 800-series back to the nearest stop to my hotel, I dropped the trains off and hiked over to the station to organise my seat reservation for the next day. Then, seeing that there was another KiHa scheduled to arrive and leave shortly, it was back down to Platform 9 to observe. But hold on - KiHa’s at Platform 8? And the closest car looks surprisingly different…

 

 

Surprise! The rear car of this sometime-soon-to-depart set was a KiHa 40! Yes, I’d seen some at Okayama a few days before, but here was one up close and personal! Happy noises and fist pumps all round.

 

Of course I stayed to watch the other scheduled KiHa service arrive, and filmed it as it left. Then I headed back to the hotel to try find a spare washing machine, sort out dinner and attempt a repack. Got there in the end, and if I can make one observation, 7-Eleven frozen ramen bowls are… tasty.

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

Made it safely to Hakata today, decided to take a break and update my Rolling Stock List, and lo and behold, what do I find but my model of Hiroden 1907 already has a motor in it, which I installed after the previous owner customised it and installed a pantograph. Womp-womp.

 

Anyway, here’s today’s ride post-arrival. More update to follow later.

 

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

As alluded to yesterday, it was Travel Day from Hiroshima to Hakata. Having to be checked out of the hotel by 10:00, I planned to get a late-morning Shinkansen, Kodama 843 departing at 11:03 and getting me into Hakata just after 1:00. That would, of course be two hours early to check in, but the hotel staff held onto my suitcases for me while I set off to explore. I’m pretty sure by now the forum knows my standard modus operandi when it comes to exploring, so I’ll leave it at that.

 

Come 3:00 I was on my way back to check in, drop my suitcases in my room, and then after a bit of a rest, it was time for dinner! Last time I’d enjoyed the curry at Champion’s Curry under Hakata Station - and after deciding I wasn’t keen on konbini food for a third night running, that’s where I went. Eventually. I went the wrong way to start off with, and got lost for a bit. Funny how I never seem to get lost looking for train stores though…

 

I’ll post a today update in a bit.

 

Alastair

[ED75-775]

Currently sitting on the train at Mojikō waiting for departure, so here’s the update I should have written yesterday.

 

My first full day in Hakata was spent crawling around shops, namely Yodobashi Camera, Mandarake, and the Gundam Base. I also hit up Book Off, Hobbyland Pochi, Popondetta and a couple of bookstores on the way back.

 

 

Instead of heading straight ‘home’ for dinner afterwards, I decided to go back and lurk the station in search of ‘interesting’ trains. Initially I found plenty of EMU action, narrowly missed some KiHa 183s, and then something happened to wander through my camera’s rangefinder…

 

 

Gotcha! EH500 46 and a container train made a welcome change from all the passenger action. I decided to celebrate by going back to Champion’s Curry. And because these look tasty and Cinnabon hasn’t come to my home country (yet!) I had a cherry cinnamon bun for dessert. Tasty!

 

Alastair