JR East fires up steam locomotive to drum up tourism

[cteno4]

In a return to a simpler time, children and residents are waving at passengers riding a vintage steam locomotive along the Narita Line in the Boso Peninsula of Chiba Prefecture.

 

East Japan Railway Co. dusted off the old steam train for a three-day run on the line, in an attempt to drum up tourism...

 

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201302100063

[Densha]

Looking good! I don't get to see (and smell!) steam locos enough, I should try to look up when steam trains will be active in my country.

[miyakoji]

C61 20 has been back in service for a while now but I'm still impressed by its appearance. I wonder what the ratio is of serious railfans to families enjoying the weekend :) I assume the tickets sell out well before the run?

[westfalen]

Good to see C61 20 away from it's usual area of operation, you can run steam on any modern layout with the right excuse. The phrase "dusted off the old steam train for a three day run" makes it sound like it was just taken out of retirement for this occasion though.

[marknewton]

If only running steam engines was as easy as "dusting" them off!

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[bikkuri bahn]

I wonder what the ratio is of serious railfans to families enjoying the weekend

I reckon most of the riders are families and casual railfans.  The hard core fans usually are lineside, and come by car...

[westfalen]

I reckon most of the riders are families and casual railfans.  The hard core fans usually are lineside, and come by car...

And they're often the ones to complain when steam operations go bust. You do get the best shots from lineside but I usually try to ride the train as well if I can.

[bikkuri bahn]

 

*beautiful coaching stock too.

[marknewton]

"Hardcore" railfans were the bane of my life when I was working at Eveleigh on heritage trains. As you say, they usually come by car, contribute nothing to the cost of running a steam trip, and then have the gall to insist that paying passengers get out of the way of their photography. Even worse, they'd sometimes harass the traincrew when taking photos, which really gave me the shits. But as a few of them learned the hard way, never annoy a man who has a coal pick and a deck hose.  :angry5:

 

That video is particularly good. The cars are indeed beautiful. One thing that I always wonder about, though - why do so many JNR locos have the turbo-generator exhaust piped back over the cab roof?

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[miyakoji]

I was wondering about that pipe over the cab too.

[bikkuri bahn]

Another video showed (or rather you heard) a group of "railfans" shouting/screaming at people some 200m away (presumably local residents) to get out of the line of sight (sagare~!).  Deservedly, the comments on youtube were quite critical.

Edited February 25, 2013 by bikkuri bahn

[westfalen]

If I was in one of those photo lines I'd like to know the Japanese for "Turn off that damned annoying rapid fire shutter on your camera before I throw it and you under the train".

[cteno4]

At least there are no auto winders...

 

Jeff