Basic reference for local/regional Japanese railroads?

[scott]

I'm a newbie at all this, so a lot of the smaller/lesser lines are unfamiliar. Shinkansen info is all over the place, but is there a good website that talks about the lesser and shorter-range services? I'm mostly looking for passenger rail--freight isn't my thing.

[bill937ca]

Its mainly a picture site, but the Picture Book of Japanese Railways will give a photo show of what's running.

 

http://www.uraken.net/rail/alltrain/index.html

 

You can also try Hisakyu@Japan

 

http://space.geocities.jp/hisakyu_rail/japan/index_eg.html

 

Tekken is mainly focused on Tokyo.

 

http://tekkenweb.sakura.ne.jp/tekken/index.html

 

http://tekkenweb.sakura.ne.jp/tokyorail/index.html

 

And there is the Japanese Railway Society web site.

 

http://www.japaneserailwaysociety.com/index.htm

[scott]

Thanks, Bill!

[bill937ca]

I forgot to mention you can translate the Japanese pages with a machine translator like Google Translate.

 

http://translate.google.com/translate_t#

 

Another source is the Electric Railways of Japan books written in the 80s and 90s.  These are small digest size books with no pictures, but lots of maps.  Look for Volume 1, Volume 2 and Volume 3.  They are out of print.  I searched by title in Google and found all 3 over 3-6 months for about $35-$50 per book including shipping.  Expensive? Yes. But indispensable!

 

Ian Allan in the UK has Volume 3.

 

https://www.ianallanpublishing.com/product.php?productid=7455&cat=1142&page=8

 

Motor Books in London, UK usually has a few books on Japanese railways.  Looks like Volume 2 is available.

 

http://www.motorbooks.co.uk/showsect.asp?id=161

[marknewton]

In addition to the three volumes of "Electric Railways of Japan", the same authors also wrote another book which is well worth getting, "Japan By Rail". It's ISBN is 0-9611538-0-6. Although it dates from 1985, it provides a good overview of the JNR and private lines.

 

I don't know who published it, but the pictorial book "90 years of Electric Railways" covers all the major and minor lines, plus tramways, subways and monorails. It comes up now and then on eBay.

 

Failing that, you can always ask questions here!  ;D

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[scott]

Thanks, Mark!

 

(A little advance reading might keep from asking really basic questions....)

[scott]

Sorry, mean to say "keep ME from asking really basic questions...."

 

Such typing skills.  ::)

[marknewton]

That's okay, I thought that's what you meant! But there's nothing wrong with asking really basic questions, we all started out the same way, with relatively little knowledge.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Tenorikuma]

 

I'm a newbie at all this, so a lot of the smaller/lesser lines are unfamiliar. Shinkansen info is all over the place, but is there a good website that talks about the lesser and shorter-range services? I'm mostly looking for passenger rail--freight isn't my thing.

 

The problem is that English information is scarce. If you're not afraid to scan Japanese text for the details you seek, the Japanese wikipedia generally has detailed information on exactly what train types are in service on different rail lines throughout Japan.

 

In the dead tree column, there are numerous magazines put out in Japan for Japanese rail enthusiasts (fans of the real thing, not modeling) that also provide information in depth. Japanese people are just crazy about trains in general.

[Mudkip Orange]

 

I'm a newbie at all this, so a lot of the smaller/lesser lines are unfamiliar. Shinkansen info is all over the place, but is there a good website that talks about the lesser and shorter-range services? I'm mostly looking for passenger rail--freight isn't my thing.

 

The problem is that English information is scarce. If you're not afraid to scan Japanese text for the details you seek, the Japanese wikipedia generally has detailed information on exactly what train types are in service on different rail lines throughout Japan.

 

In the dead tree column, there are numerous magazines put out in Japan for Japanese rail enthusiasts (fans of the real thing, not modeling) that also provide information in depth. Japanese people are just crazy about trains in general.

The english wikipedia is getting a lot better, though. I make edits from time to time where I can. Also, Japanese sites (like railfan.ne.jp) are legible if you run them through a web translation service like babelfish. Yeah, the text gets garbled ("as to the electric train of the 600 series type it is..." etc) but you can still figure stuff out.

 

I've gotten a pretty good grasp on the "big 15" private railroads by surfing around Google Maps and then keying in station names to the English-language Wikipedia.