Military movement by rail next week- Thurs. Daily Yomiuri article

[bikkuri bahn]

Ground Self-Defense Force tanks and armored vehicles will next month be carried by a chartered private ferry and JR cargo trains from Hokkaido to Oita Prefecture, where major exercises will be conducted, it was learned Wednesday.

 

The Type 73 armored personnel carriers will be transported by Japan Freight Railway Co. freight trains from Sapporo Freight Terminal Station to Nishi-Oita Station in Oita next Thursday.

 

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T111026005221.htm

[stevenh]

I. so. wish. I. was. trackside.

 

Who do we have on the ground to cover this? :)

[bikkuri bahn]

This train has no published schedule (as it is a rinji ressha and also for natsec reasons), but a yahoo chiebukuro answerer guessed (based on past movements) that the train will take a Hokkaido-Kanto (via Tohoku Main Line?)-Kansai-Kyushu route.  Estimate passing thru Kanto Nov. 2 or 3, Kansai on the 4th.

 

past movements (not type 73, but more mundane vehicles), first last year, on Tohoku Main Line:

 

in 2009:

[westfalen]

I. so. wish. I. was. trackside.

 

Who do we have on the ground to cover this? :)

I'll be in the Nagoya area from Nov. 2nd to 6th but without specific times I don't think I'll be spending the day hanging around somewhere waiting just in case it comes along.

 

However, if during my day's travels I see a bunch of Japanese railfans who look like they are waiting for something...

[bikkuri bahn]

These movements are followed by the railfan community, but info on schedules usually is received on the spur of the moment, typically via monitoring websites or an SNS service, fed by sightings lineside.  According to one page, in recent years GSDF equipment have been moving on freight 8863レ(rei), which originates at Kawasaki Freight Terminal. Times in the Nagoya area (Tokaido line) are Kasadera Station at 13:52, Inazawa arr. 14:14/dep. 17:38, Gifu (frt terminal) 18:02.

[bikkuri bahn]

It appears the train was indeed 8863レ. It ran on the Sanyo Main Line today. At Hatsukaichi Station, in Hiroshima Pref:

 

At Shimonoseki Station, now designated as train 8463レ:

[westfalen]

It would have gone through Nagoya about 2pm Yesterday if I read the timetable correctly?

 

If I'd hung around Nagoya station a bit longer I would have seen it.

[bikkuri bahn]

It would have gone through Nagoya about 2pm Yesterday if I read the timetable correctly?

 

If I'd hung around Nagoya station a bit longer I would have seen it.

 

Perhaps.  But I can find little video evidence of this train so far, maybe fans haven't posted them yet.

 

*extra: This blog has a daylight pic of the train passing through the Kanayama Station vicinity, so yes, you might have caught it if you'd stuck around a bit longer (last two pics):

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/miyakosirogumi/27943676.html

[westfalen]

It would have gone through Nagoya about 2pm Yesterday if I read the timetable correctly?

 

If I'd hung around Nagoya station a bit longer I would have seen it.

 

Perhaps.  But I can find little video evidence of this train so far, maybe fans haven't posted them yet.

 

*extra: This blog has a daylight pic of the train passing through the Kanayama Station vicinity, so yes, you might have caught it if you'd stuck around a bit longer (last two pics):

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/miyakosirogumi/27943676.html

Ah well, you win some, you lose some.

[bikkuri bahn]

More coverage.  At Inazawa, Nagoya area, nice scene of a DE10 moving the train:

 

Passing through Gamagori Sta. on the Tokaido Line, Aichi Pref:

 

Arriving at its final destination, Nishi-Oita Sta: