Brill Magazine: Tokyo Tetsudo K. K. 1910

[bill937ca]

The J. G. Brill Company of Philadelphia was the largest US builder of streetcars (trams), subway cars and interurbans. From 1907 to 1917 Brill published a small magazine with profiles of deliveries and articles on conditions that lead to car design decisions. In the July 1910 issue Tokyo was featured.  Brill had already done 18 articles on Lisbon, Milan, Moscow and Glasgow in addition to several US cities.

 

At this time the lines were operated by Tokyo Tetsudo K. K. or Tokyo Tramway Company.  The trams bodies were Japanese, but the trucks were built by Brill.  This probably gave the Japanese traction industry a great boost as Brill was known not to patent its designs in foreign markets much to its later regret.

 

The article notes that the use of tram trailers was prohibited by the authorities.

 

Tokyo was one of several places (including Havana, Cuba and Cincinnatti, Ohio) to use double overhead, so the return current went through the overhead rather than the rails.

 

Of course, all of this was before the Tokyo earthquake of 1923.

 

Cover:

 

http://ia700602.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/25/items/brillmagazine41910phil/brillmagazine41910phil_jp2.zip&file=brillmagazine41910phil_jp2/brillmagazine41910phil_0235.jp2&scale=4&rotate=0

 

Article:

 

http://ia700602.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/25/items/brillmagazine41910phil/brillmagazine41910phil_jp2.zip&file=brillmagazine41910phil_jp2/brillmagazine41910phil_0240.jp2&scale=4&rotate=0

 

http://ia700602.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/25/items/brillmagazine41910phil/brillmagazine41910phil_jp2.zip&file=brillmagazine41910phil_jp2/brillmagazine41910phil_0241.jp2&scale=4&rotate=0

 

http://ia700602.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/25/items/brillmagazine41910phil/brillmagazine41910phil_jp2.zip&file=brillmagazine41910phil_jp2/brillmagazine41910phil_0242.jp2&scale=4&rotate=0

 

http://ia700602.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/25/items/brillmagazine41910phil/brillmagazine41910phil_jp2.zip&file=brillmagazine41910phil_jp2/brillmagazine41910phil_0243.jp2&scale=4&rotate=0

 

http://ia700602.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/25/items/brillmagazine41910phil/brillmagazine41910phil_jp2.zip&file=brillmagazine41910phil_jp2/brillmagazine41910phil_0244.jp2&scale=4&rotate=0

 

Brill Magazine each month featured a profile of an important traction industry figure and included a portrait insert in the issue.  April 15, 1917 Brill Magazine returned to Japan to feature Hayatsuchi Kodama, Chief Engineer of the Electric Bureau of Tokyo Municipal Office.

 

Portrait:

 

http://ia600405.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/10/items/brillmagazine11191721phil/brillmagazine11191721phil_jp2.zip&file=brillmagazine11191721phil_jp2/brillmagazine11191721phil_0123.jp2&scale=4&rotate=0

 

Profile:

 

http://ia600405.us.archive.org/BookReader/BookReaderImages.php?zip=/10/items/brillmagazine11191721phil/brillmagazine11191721phil_jp2.zip&file=brillmagazine11191721phil_jp2/brillmagazine11191721phil_0125.jp2&scale=4&rotate=0

[KenS]

There's an interesting comment in there that the 4' 6" gauge derives from an earlier horse-drawn system.  That's similar to other places in the world, but it's the first I've heard that Tokyo had horse trams (not that I've really studied that era much).

[bill937ca]

Here`s a start Ken.

 

From Electric Railways of Japan Volume 1, p.75:

 

The first horse tramway was opened 1882.6.25 by the 1372mm gauge Tokyo Horse-Car Railway.

A second company, the 737mm Shinagawa Horse-Car Railway opened 1897.8 and passed to the former company 1899.10.

Tokyo`s first electric tram line opened 1903.9.15 by the Tokyo City Street Railway.

The horse car company became Tokyo Electric-Car Company in 1900 and began electrification in 1903.

Another company, Tokyo Electric Tramway Company opened 1904.12.18.

All were merged into the Tokyo Railway in 1906, which was municipalized in 1911.

[Nick_Burman]

Interestingly, Tokyo later sold sever of these single-truck cars (or later copies of them) to what became Kintetsu's Mie Kotsu subsidiary... their bodies were sawn in half down the middle :blink:, narrowed, then placed over regauged (or built to measure) Peckham trucks. Thus equipped they inaugurated electric traction on the 762mm gauge Utsube and Hachioji lines...a far cry from today's MU cars!

 

 

Cheers NB

[KenS]

I guess you'd call that a "half-unit" car.  It's a bit odd to think of a single-truck tram as being too large, but I suppose I can see how that would work downsizing to a smaller truck assembly.