Japanese Vacation No.9 (week 2)

[westfalen]

I've been here a week already.

 

I did the short branch to Miyazaki Airport this morning before going to Shibushi at the end of the Nichinan Line, I think that gives me all Japan's airport branches. Note the 'Round the Kyushu' stickers covering the 787's old names.

[westfalen]

The KFC at Miyazaki station is getting into the Christmas spirit.

[westfalen]

When I arrived at Shibushi I was wondering what to do for lunch when I noticed the driver put his bag in the station and head across the street to a shopping centre, so I followed him and took his lead in getting lunch from the local supermarket, chicken wings and potato cakes and a carton of milk for Y365.

 

No problem finding a seat on the 1344 from Shibushi to Aburatsu, definitely not JR's most heavily patronised train. (However, see next post)

[CaptOblivious]

All the KFC's around Kyoto have the Colonel dressed up as Santa Clause like that. It's incredibly creepy.

[westfalen]

At Nango the quiet kiha 40 was invaded by a school excursion group who started practising their English on me, they had only mastered 'Hello', "Nice to see you', and 'How are you?' but I got asked about twenty times. I was hoping they wouldn't be changing to the connecting train at Aburatsu but not only did they come with me, the other half of their school got on at the next stop, fortunately they all got off after three of four more stops.

 

The train only went as far as Minami Miyazaki and instead of getting another train I walked the rest of the way into town and filmed some trains crossing the long bridge (19 deck girder spans) across the river on the way.

 

Off to Hakata tomorrow.

[bikkuri bahn]

Nice pictures of the Ooyodagawa Bridge there.  Especially of that 713 unit.  This was also a favorite spot for photographers when steam was still running.

 

Ltd. Express Kirishima, properly in the hands of a 485 series:

[bikkuri bahn]

All the KFC's around Kyoto have the Colonel dressed up as Santa Clause like that.

 

KFC wanted to increase their sales, so they orchestrated sometime in the 1980's a "tradition" of eating fried chicken on Christmas (a novelty "holiday" in Japan if ever there was one, and now Halloween has seen its popularity rise)- now you see the colonel dressed up as Santa to help hock his fryers. Oh well, as long as Japan doesn't adopt the manufactured and sickening American "tradition" of "black Friday"- a term which didn't exist AFAIK when I was growing up in Los Angeles in the Eighties and early Nineties.

[bikkuri bahn]

Off to Hakata tomorrow.

 

Fortuitous.  Looks like it will rain in southern Kyushu tomorrow.  Hakata is supposed to be cloudy.

[westfalen]

Nice pictures of the Ooyodagawa Bridge there.  Especially of that 713 unit.  This was also a favorite spot for photographers when steam was still running.

The pictures came out better than I expected as it was getting rather dark. They are stills taken by my Sony HDR-CX550 while recording video (as are all the 800x450 ones). When I get home I'll put up some video as time permits.

[scott]

It's incredibly creepy.

 

My thoughts exactly. Plus I think he's turning Japanese.

 

More really interesting pictures here, Westfalen--thanks for posting. I think the school-bus-railcar would have pushed me over my crowd limit, but it's still fun to see.

[The_Ghan]

Yowara station looks cute ... easy to model too - just kit-bash a British rural station.

 

What's the bridge in the last three photos?  Very seductive.  When photographing the trains though, I wouldn't centre them in the image.  A little trick I learned was to leave more "track" or space in front of the train and less behind.  Mentally, we automatically presume the direction of travel is towards the free "track".  When they're centred in the image it looks like they've stopped on the bridge.

 

But, as usual West, photos are up to your usual standard.  Interesting how they've covered the "Relax Tsubame" logos.  You can still see the relief through the new stickers.  THAT would be interesting to see modelled .... 

 

Cheers West, great job.

 

The_Ghan

[westfalen]

Yowara station looks cute ... easy to model too - just kit-bash a British rural station.

 

What's the bridge in the last three photos?  Very seductive.  When photographing the trains though, I wouldn't centre them in the image.  A little trick I learned was to leave more "track" or space in front of the train and less behind.  Mentally, we automatically presume the direction of travel is towards the free "track".  When they're centred in the image it looks like they've stopped on the bridge.

 

But, as usual West, photos are up to your usual standard.  Interesting how they've covered the "Relax Tsubame" logos.  You can still see the relief through the new stickers.  THAT would be interesting to see modelled .... 

 

Cheers West, great job.

 

The_Ghan

The station caught my eye because it was above track level.

 

The bridge is across the Ooyoda River about 1km south of Miyazaki station.

[westfalen]

An easy day today travelling from Miyazaki to Hakata. Started the day at one of my usual spots, the Train Dor bakery.

 

The ride to Oita on the 787 was smoother than the trip from Kagoshima, maybe better track but the offcuts of the 'around the Kyushu' stickers covering the rust spots on the roof of the one that arrived from Kagoshima this morning suggests that some of them might be overdue for a trip through the workshops.

 

The old maglev test track up the coast from Miyazaki is getting a new use with about half the length being used to mount solar panels.

 

A passing shot of a JRF DE10, some interesting platform details and some creative translation on a notice in the 787's restroom.

[westfalen]

I changed to an 883 'Sonic' at Oita and got to Hakata earller than originally planned.

 

Tokyu Hands Christmas window display included a gauge 1, live steam Great Norther S2 class 4-8-4 with a Y900,000 price tag, but I passed on that and just picked up some 0.35mm steel wire for my Tomytec guided bus. They had nothing else I could see in the way of trains but there is a model train shop upstairs with a reasonable range including some second hand stuff, (a branch of Poppendetta? there were some Poppendetta signs in the store).

 

Tokyu Hands had some iPhone cases but I had to blank out part of them in case there are children viewing.

 

The escalators at the station had a steam loco theme.

 

Up at 0530 in the morning to try and beat No.1151 freight to Omuta.

[Bernard]

How would you compare the ride and comfort of the "Sonic" to the 787? (two of my favorite trains)

[scott]

I changed to an 883 'Sonic'

 

Looks pretty comfortable, and quite a bit brighter.

 

Tokyu Hands had some iPhone cases but I had to blank out part of them in case there are children viewing.

 

But why? Those are such charming sentiments to have on one's phone...

[Nick_Burman]

I changed to an 883 'Sonic' at Oita and got to Hakata earller than originally planned.

 

Tokyu Hands Christmas window display included a gauge 1, live steam Great Norther S2 class 4-8-4 with a Y900,000 price tag, but I passed on that and just picked up some 0.35mm steel wire for my Tomytec guided bus. They had nothing else I could see in the way of trains but there is a model train shop upstairs with a reasonable range including some second hand stuff, (a branch of Poppendetta? there were some Poppendetta signs in the store).

 

Tokyu Hands had some iPhone cases but I had to blank out part of them in case there are children viewing.

 

The escalators at the station had a steam loco theme.

 

Up at 0530 in the morning to try and beat No.1151 freight to Omuta.

 

Alas, no more Usa Sangu trains at Usa...

 

Cheers NB

[The_Ghan]

Wow, the sonic interior looks great.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[westfalen]

How would you compare the ride and comfort of the "Sonic" to the 787? (two of my favorite trains)

The Sonic seemed to ride smoother and the decor wasn't as gloomy as the 787.

 

My dislike about both of them, compared to older trains like the 485, is the small windows that don't give you as good a view, especially out of the opposite side to where you're sitting, and you have to recline your seat all the way back to see properly out of your own window. Another gripe is the airline style luggage overhead compartments, I could put my suitcase in the real railway luggage rack in a 485.

[westfalen]

I was before dawn this morning to get the 0624 Nishitetsu train to Omuta, it was a bit cool that time of the morning so luckily the train was only mildly air-conditioned.

 

I beat 1151 freight to Omuta with the loading for the Mitsui Miike Railway figuring that the latter's operations would revolve around JR's pick up and delivery of the day's wagons. I headed for the interchange sidings north of Nishitetsu's Shin Sakaemachi station and found nothing there, 1151 passed through on time and headed into the yard at Omuta. After about half an hour a Mitsui Miike steeple cab arrived with a string of container wagons, dropped them in the interchange sidings and headed light back to the chemical plant. I was interested to find out how the actual interchange was made as the connecting track between JR and the Mitsui Miike is not wired (different voltages obviously) but I wanted to see the battery powered loco shunting the plant sidings so I followed the track in the direction the loco went.

[westfalen]

Anyone got a London bus they don't know what to do with now they are modelling Japan?

 

One of the level crossings had manually controlled gates.

 

When I arrived at the chemical plant yard the large steeple cab and the small one with the battery car were parked at the yard office, the battery loco had the pantograph up which must be how they charge the batteries. While I was photographing around the yard the large loco took off light engine back to the JR and came back with the inbound wagons. I wonder why they don't just make one trip instead of having two light engine movements.

[bikkuri bahn]

My dislike about both of them, compared to older trains like the 485, is the small windows that don't give you as good a view, especially out of the opposite side to where you're sitting, and you have to recline your seat all the way back to see properly out of your own window. Another gripe is the airline style luggage overhead compartments, I could put my suitcase in the real railway luggage rack in a 485.

 

Agree.  Nothing like a good old solid 485.  In general, I find JR Kyushu designs to be overstyled or derivative (especially egregious are the tourist trains)- they could ease back a notch or two on the styling, and get a nice balance between form and function.  And lose the gratuitous English labels.

[westfalen]

When the large loco arrived back with the inbound wagons they shunted them into separate tracks ready to be taken into the plant.

 

While on the subject of separation I noticed the two types of containers always had empty wagons between them, could they contain chemical that need to be kept separate for safety reasons? It seems a waste of resources to handle empty wagons both ways otherwise.

 

After they finished shunting the train the crew quickly moved to the battery loco and took the wagons with the green/silver containers into the plant one at a time. Either one wagon was all the loco could handle or perhaps there was a track inside the plant that only held one wagon. After they took the three wagons into the plant the crew left the loco and went into the yard office, probably to have lunch, so I headed for Omuta station. Along the way I spotted some abandonded bridges on the Mitsui Miike's old track through town.

[westfalen]

1152 freight left Omuta on the dot at 1208 and I got lunch at a Family Mart and caught the next Nishitetsu limited express back towards Hakata.

[westfalen]

I detoured up the branch to Amagi the rode the Amagi Railway to Kiyama and back to Ogori to rejoin the Nishitetsu.