Kyoto to Nara on JR West 221 Series Miyakoji Rapid

[miyakoji]

Alright!  The camera could be positioned a little higher, but it's not bad, and you get a good feel for the ride in a 221.  Videos from youtube contributor atusi3ban:

 

Kyoto to Rokujizo

 

Rokujizo to Uji

 

Uji to Tamamizu

 

Tamamizu to Nara

 

I wonder if this will ever be fully double tracked.  Hell, even the Sagano Line finally got it.  I seem to remember reasonably frequent service on the Nara Line, but there were a few strange waits on passing loops, even on this rapid's schedule.

 

I should point out there's also a video of the front view* by youtube contributor SuperExpress1, running from Nara up to Kyoto.  This contributor appears to be the absolute king of zenmen tenbou, with many end-to-end rides.  I'll post one more of his tonight if possible.  Here's the first in his Miyakoji Rapid series, from Nara to Kizu:

 

 

* zenmen tenbou 前面展望, if your computer doesn't have Japanese input but you can see the 4 kanji, just copy and paste the string into the search on youtube for all the passenger seat views from trains and buses you could want.  Totally hit and miss as to what line/route it is, unfortunately.

[bikkuri bahn]

I wonder if this will ever be fully double tracked.

 

Somehow doubt it, considering JR has competition in the form of Keihan part of the way, and particularly Kintetsu all the way to Nara (including trains off the Kyoto subway).  Kansai wasn't dubbed the 私鉄王国 (kingdom of the private railways) for nothing. From a railfan point of view, I prefer the single track operation, much more interesting.

[keitaro]

Kansai wasn't dubbed the 私鉄王国 (kingdom of the private railways) for nothing. From a railfan point of view, I prefer the single track operation, much more interesting.

 

agreed i love single track operations as well

[Mudkip Orange]

Single tracks + Japanese prototypes = 3-way meets at stations!

[stevenh]

3-way meets at stations!

 

... with the major factor ...

on time!

 

Sure, I'm exaggerrating the Japanese ability to run trains to schedule... but we have a single line pretty much down the length of the eastern coast of Australia and the timetable is completely disregarded.

 

Love single-line-working though.

[keitaro]

our line is also covered by weeds and growth

 

well was few years back when i drove up to qld

[scott]

* zenmen tenbou 前面展望, if your computer doesn't have Japanese input but you can see the 4 kanji, just copy and paste the string into the search on youtube for all the passenger seat views from trains and buses you could want.  Totally hit and miss as to what line/route it is, unfortunately.

 

This is great -- I've been looking for a search term for this. Thanks!

[scott]

Does "前面展望" cover all window views, or just out the front?

[miyakoji]

 

Does "前面展望" cover all window views, or just out the front?

That'll be the front.  前 is front or in front of, 面 is... face, aspect, or mask, according to Henshall's "A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters."

 

For regular passenger window views, like the one below, the contributor SuperExpress1 writes "左側(北側)車窓展望" [hidarigawa (kitagawa) shasou tenbou] in Japanese and "Left(North)-side view" in English.

 

 

A rare example may be this one, from the same contributor, of the Wide View Hida.  The service connects Nagoya and Takayama, which requires a reverse move at Gifu.  So, in order to have a front view from Gifu on, you've gotta watch out the back between Nagoya and Gifu on the Tokaido Main Line.  This guy is the boss, so he recorded it:

 

 

He labels this 後方展望 (kouhou tenbou), rear or back view.

 

 

I was thinking more about what I wrote above about the results being random.  Try searching, in English, for a line or location you want at Wikipedia.  When you find it, look in the language list on the left for 日本語.  Click it, copy the title of the article, past it in youtube with zenmen tenbou from above and you should be able to narrow things down.