"Wide Gauge" freight service

[Nick_Burman]

Hi all,

 

Did any of the "wide gauge" (that's how some Japanese refer to 1435mm, AFAIK) interurbans have freight service? I'm not talking carload freight, I'm thinking more of LCL/express in box motors/trailers, rather like what US interurbans used to do in the past. Some interurbans served territory which was away from JNR service (Nose Electric, for example), so a box motor running once or twice a day would make sense (especially if roads were poor), delivering LCL, mail and newspapers. In the case of the Nose, I remember seeing a page (can't rembember if I bookmarked it though) which showed what looked like the bodies of two express cars grounded minus trucks behind the car house. Another interurban with a box motor (single truck) which once upon a time must have been used for freight was the Hakone Tozan. Kintetsu used to run a fish train between Matsuzaka and Osaka and I saw somewhere in this forum a picture of two Kintetsu flat motors loaded with what loked like lobster pots (! - to be confirmed). Any other known cases?

 

Cheers NB

[bikkuri bahn]

I didn't know about the Kintetsu fish train.  It appears to still be running.

 

Wikipedia Japan:

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%AE%AE%E9%AD%9A%E5%88%97%E8%BB%8A

 

Another site:

http://www6.ocn.ne.jp/~ul-next/sengyo/sengyo.html

[bikkuri bahn]

It appears most 1435mm lines (and indeed most private railways) had lcl/express services at one time.  As you alluded to, before the age of widespread motorization when the road system was not developed in the outer suburbs and hinterlands, railways provided package services now done by firms like Yamato or Nittsu.

 

Sanyo Dentetsu had some box cabs:

 

http://kokutetu.blog.eonet.jp/photos/uncategorized/2009/06/05/photo_7.jpg

 

http://kokutetu.blog.eonet.jp/photos/uncategorized/2009/06/05/photo_8.jpg

 

In the Kanto area, Keikyu and Keisei used conventional passenger stock on small package service.

 

Keisei:

http://www.geocities.jp/tnk_ko1/gallery/niden/Keisei-2203_19741206bw_s1024_I05-1207_IchikawaMama.jpg

 

http://www.geocities.jp/tnk_ko1/gallery/niden/Keisei-704_19780305w_s1024_I05_Ichikawa_dM.jpg

 

Keikyu had package services until 1973(deha 429 type):

http://furu-den.pos.to/kq/kq0031.jpg

 

There are more examples if you look for them.

[Nick_Burman]

Thanks for the reply, bikkuri bahn. Apparently Kintetsu's fish train stopped running in the mid-1980's. The links you sent me seem to relate to charter train service...for humans, not for fish! Although it could be possible to carry fish inside cooler boxes in passenger stock, I really doubt that commuters would appreciate having to travel in a train smelling of fish...

 

Another "wide gauge" line which actually had carload freight for a while was Tokyu's Tamaden - after the great Kanto Earthquake Tamaden hauled gravel to construction sites in central Tokyo. Originally built to 1435mm, the line was narrowed to 1372mm so as to allow gravel trains to access the Tokyo urban tram network. The gravel trains came off a few years later, but the track gauge stuck - that is why the Setagaya line is such an oddball inside the Tokyu system... some of the gravel wagons served in maintenance service till the end of the Tamaden mainline.

 

I found the pictures of the Nose motors, unfortunately I'm at work right now. Will post the link later if there is interest.

 

Cheers NB