Boxcar shed

[Jcarlton]

I was using Google maps to explore the Tsrurumi Line when I found this boxcar being used as a shed just south of Anzen station:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Anzen+Station,+Kanagawa+Prefecture,+Japan&hl=en&ll=35.499147,139.701045&spn=0.000201,0.000348&sll=35.557193,139.6664&sspn=0.012708,0.022273&oq=Anzen++&t=h&hnear=Anzen+Station,+Kanagawa+Prefecture,+Japan&z=21

[bikkuri bahn]

When JRF downsized with privitisation and got out of the mixed carload business, they got rid of many of their surplus boxcars by selling them as sheds.  You can see many of them being used in some backlot or farm, all around the nation. JRF still sells surplus, but now it's containers.  I while back I saw a container being used as a shed, still in its faded light green JNR colors.

[cteno4]

Or a hobby shop and layout!

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,1356.0.html

 

Jeff

[miyakoji]

and there was just a thread on Ompuchaneru about JNR-era containers: http://rail-uploader.khz-net.com/index.php?id=1044639

[Davo Dentetsu]

Or a hobby shop and layout!

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,1356.0.html

 

Jeff

 

Very inventive!

[Jcarlton]

How about a Harley davidson dealer near Kokudo Station:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=kawasaki+japan&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=35.500797,139.675731&spn=0.000795,0.001392&hnear=%EF%BC%AA%EF%BC%A1%EF%BC%B0%EF%BC%A1%EF%BC%AE+Japan&t=h&z=19

[cteno4]

doesnt look like its made out of containers, is it?

 

jeff

[Jcarlton]

doesnt look like its made out of containers, is it?

 

jeff

No, but the house next door is small enough to made from containers

[Jcarlton]

It looks like Komatsu is trying to get into the business:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=kawasaki+japan&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=35.501252,139.722516&spn=0.000213,0.000355&hnear=%EF%BC%AA%EF%BC%A1%EF%BC%B0%EF%BC%A1%EF%BC%AE+Japan&t=h&z=21&layer=c&cbll=35.501252,139.722516&panoid=8-elqBBAD7SfpC-vhtox8Q&cbp=12,331.22,,0,14.83

[Jcarlton]

doesnt look like its made out of containers, is it?

 

jeff

I sort of started out looking at this thread as, using street view to find cool stuff on Tsurumi Line, which I'm considering as a model subject rather than a, weird stuff you can do with containers thread.  Trust me, I have seen some pretty strange things done with containers in Japan.  Just look south on the Tokaido Shinkansen across some rice patties.  I can understand the dinosaurs, but the gorilla in a baseball uniform?

[cteno4]

cool. always love to see interesting things done with things like containers to model! just thought the hobbyshop/layout was the most fitting for a piece of rr equipment!

 

streetview is fantastic to find interesting things. luckily the streetview bookmarking has improved, it use to be such a crap shoot. keep more interesting buildings coming from your searches to the thread.

 

jeff

[Densha]

When JRF downsized with privitisation and got out of the mixed carload business, they got rid of many of their surplus boxcars by selling them as sheds.  You can see many of them being used in some backlot or farm, all around the nation. JRF still sells surplus, but now it's containers.  I while back I saw a container being used as a shed, still in its faded light green JNR colors.

I want one in my yard too!

[brill27mcb]

When JRF downsized with privitisation and got out of the mixed carload business, they got rid of many of their surplus boxcars by selling them as sheds.  You can see many of them being used in some backlot or farm, all around the nation. JRF still sells surplus, but now it's containers.  I while back I saw a container being used as a shed, still in its faded light green JNR colors.

I want one in my yard too!

 

Me, too, but I would want to paint mine:

[Guest Closed Account 1]

Yes, connex boxes or containers are being used as residences, cheap and easy to convert, add windows, etc. Stackable. Easier to transport than mobile trailers. No lane width restrictions.

 

I think the concept was on a program highlighting micro homes.

 

Cool video of this Maui home:

 

[cteno4]

And of course storage sheds of all kinds.

 

http://www.jnsforum.com/index.php/topic,5381.0.html

 

Jeff

[Jace]

There are also former cabooses now in use as stations with quite a few in Hokkaido way up north on the Soya Main Line. Stations include

 

Chiebun:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiebun_Station,

 

Yuchi: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuchi_Station, and

 

Shimonuma: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimonuma_Station.

[Davo Dentetsu]

Hanasaki looks quite cheerful:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Hanasaki_Station.jpg

[Jace]

I'm not quite sure how I stumbled across this but here are two former boxcars in Obihiro (Hokkaido):

 

http://sapokachi.cocolog-nifty.com/photos/uncategorized/2011/04/18/photo_2.jpg

 

The same article has a couple of very cool photos of a Yo 8000 caboose now used as a store:

 

http://sapokachi.cocolog-nifty.com/photos/uncategorized/2011/04/18/8000.jpg

 

http://sapokachi.cocolog-nifty.com/photos/uncategorized/2011/04/18/8000_2.jpg

 

Both of these are located on the south side of Obihiro, in Midoriaoka, within a few blocks of each other.

 

I'm thinking of visiting Hokkaido soon, this only adds to my motivation!

[The_Ghan]

When I was studying Architecture at Uni in the late 1980's we had to design an adaptive-reuse building.  For my project I came up with a transportable building that could follow the Grand Prix circuit, or the Olympics, or some other major event around the world.  The idea was to use shipping containers to make an office building to be used for organisers, media, etc. 

 

As a race official or journalist, you simply locked your office after the event and left.  A team would dismantle the building and transport it to a new location, then reassemble it.  When you arrived, you opened your office and started work again.  It looked like a mega version of this beastie:

 

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[The_Ghan]

Look at these ...

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[cteno4]

Always brings me back to the Nakagin capsule tower. I've just about got all the parts worked out to make this in n scale, i really want to push it way up on the to do list, I love it's whackyness.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakagin_Capsule_Tower

 

And habitat

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitat_67

 

I reall like the concept of modular building and its simplicity, given enough uniqueness and attention to aesthetics, but the modular concepts usually end up getting so wrapped up in the modular aspect these other more human elements can get overlooked.

 

Cheers,

 

Jeff

[The_Ghan]

cteno4,

 

You never cease to amaze me.  I knew about Nakagin, but I don't remember studying Habitat 67.  Thanks for the link.  It's very interesting.

 

I'm a big Tadao Ando fan and have always admired his Rokko Housing projects in the 1980's.  Having seen Habitat 67, I now wonder if Ando borrowed Safdie's idea ... Looking back, Rokko housing seems a bit dated these days.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[cteno4]

Just yankin my chain there dude! ;-p

 

I do like interesting architecture that goes past just trying to splash or keep up withe current trend. Love the simplicity of some of the container vacation houses, pop down the wall to have all glass then seal it up for when not used!

 

Ando's rokko does have its own thing going on into the hillside that captures something Japanese, can't quite put my finger on it. But you're right it is a bit stark and 80s. Wasnt there an Japanese robot/monster movie (little precocious kid and two hip guys) jet jaguar I think that had a ando house they lived in?

 

Habitat is quite wild, on a little island and lots of trees now around it, really quite interesting. Got to visit it about 7 years ago. It's organic growth/shape really mask the concrete boxes well and it gets your mind trying to figure out what's going on like looking at a dimension warped Escher (a big fav of mine)

 

There was this movement in Japan post war for this sort of expanding, modular organic developments called Metabolism. I ran into some of this a while back while researching something completely different, but don't have the links handy here on a couple days leave. I'm sure ando was at least tangential to that movement or studied it some.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolism_(architecture)

 

Cheers

 

Jeff