Kotoden Q

March 28, 2011

Question...is Kotoden's Shido line still physically connected to the rest of the system? Kawaramachi station is covered by an office building and I can't see any sign of a connecting curve between the Shido line.

Cheers NB

March 28, 2011

My understanding is that it is not connected any longer.

http://www.bae.se/kitayama/kotoden.htm

March 28, 2011

My understanding is that it is not connected any longer.

http://www.bae.se/kitayama/kotoden.htm

Thanks Bill. That explains one of the reasons why Kotoden cleared out its "heritage" fleet - lack of space. With all servicing for the Shido line done at the cramped Imabashi storage yard, there simply was nowhere to store "non-essential" equipment.

Cheers NB

March 28, 2011

My understanding is that it is not connected any longer.

http://www.bae.se/kitayama/kotoden.htm

Thanks Bill. That explains one of the reasons why Kotoden cleared out its "heritage" fleet - lack of space. With all servicing for the Shido line done at the cramped Imabashi storage yard, there simply was nowhere to store "non-essential" equipment.

When did they clear out the heritage fleet?

[EDIT]

Are you referring to the retirement of the older stock in 2007 or the retro fleet? Because the retro fleet is still on the property and ran as recently as March 20, 2011. Its cars 300, 120, 500 and 23. The retro train usually runs during Spring break and Golden Week.

http://www.kotoden.co.jp/publichtm/kotoden/event/retro03/index.htm

http://www.kotoden.co.jp/publichtm/kotoden/kasikiri/index.html

On older stock's retirement it was replaced with air conditioned 1950s vintage ex-Keikyu rolling stock. Kotoden's bankruptcy due to non-railway related real estate investments probably prolonged the life of the 80 year trains by a decade. In the late 90s there were several other lines in Japan with elderly equipment like Kotoden's including the Fukui Railway, Keifuku-Fukui, Towanda-Kando Electric Railway, Niigata Kotsu Co. and the Kanbara Railway. Those lines either closed or modernized circa 1999-2001.

March 28, 2011

My understanding is that it is not connected any longer.

http://www.bae.se/kitayama/kotoden.htm

Thanks Bill. That explains one of the reasons why Kotoden cleared out its "heritage" fleet - lack of space. With all servicing for the Shido line done at the cramped Imabashi storage yard, there simply was nowhere to store "non-essential" equipment.

When did they clear our the heritage fleet?

[EDIT]

Are you referring to the retirement of the older stock in 2007 or the retro fleet? Because the retro fleet is still on the property and ran as recently as March 20, 2011. Its cars 300, 120, 500 and 23. The retro train usually runs during Spring break and Golden Week.

http://www.kotoden.co.jp/publichtm/kotoden/event/retro03/index.htm

http://www.kotoden.co.jp/publichtm/kotoden/kasikiri/index.html

On older stock's retirement it was replaced with air conditioned 1950s vintage ex-Keikyu rolling stock. Kotoden's bankruptcy due to non-railway related real estate investments probably prolonged the life of the 80 year trains by a decade. In the late 90s there were several other lines in Japan with elderly equipment like Kotoden's including the Fukui Railway, Keifuku-Fukui, Towanda-Kando Electric Railway, Niigata Kotsu Co. and the Kanbara Railway. Those lines either closed or modernized circa 1999-2001.

Some of the retro cars were scrapped - I recently posted a video of the "last run" of one of them. There used to be at least one retro car assigned to the Shido line (again, pictures) but it was either cut up or transferred to the Nagao/Kotohira lines.

Cheers NB

March 28, 2011

That video posted was car 65 which was retired in November 2007--almost four years ago. It was painted in retro colors, but I don't think it was ever part of the retro fleet apart from in the minds of some rail fans. That was during a period of general retirements of old Kotoden equipment only a couple of months after the retirement of the Kotoden 30s. All retro cars were retired from regular service by the end of 2007, actually after July 2007 when all trains were air-conditiioned. Somewhere I have all the Kotoden retirement notices printed off.

Kotoden's retro fleet appears to be limited to cars originally delivered to the line in the 1920s. These cars are advertised as available for charter and used when Kotoden runs commermorative runs during some Japanese holidays.

There is a fleet introduction on

the Kotoden web site, which translates quite well with Google Translate.

Retro cars seen in April 2010.

March 28, 2011

Thanks Bill, most interesting. Good that they decided to keep a train of "Heritage" equipment around.

BTW, did Kotoden ever buy anything new (other than maybe right at the beginning, when the lines were independent)??

Cheers NB

March 28, 2011

Kotoden was very good at exploiting the commercial potential of old cars. Over the last 2-3 years there were numerous special run events. Not only did Kotoden issue event notices, but also they published PDF timetables and graphic timetables or diamonds. This was for #315 on August 11, 2007.

I have fleet list from 1989/07 that was online 3 years ago, alas when I tried the bookmark today it was an error 404. The newest car #107 was from 1963, the rest were anywhere between 1926 and 1962. There is builder info, but no clear pre-ownership. I think the second hand nature of the equipment played into the scrapping of 65. It was a double-end car of Hanshin origin and somewhat similar cars continue to run on the Hanshin. The 30s were ex-Tokyu cars and Tokyu has restored cars of that type.

Some photo links.

Kotoden in 1965:

http://6.pro.tok2.com/~haasan55/KotodenSido.htm

More old Kotoden:

http://homepage3.nifty.com/ryouhei/site1/Local/kotoden/kotoden.html

Kotoden 30s

http://ongakukanblog.cocolog-nifty.com/photos/kotoden30/index.html