Vintage Niigata Transport

[bill937ca]

I originally posted this as a reply to the Echigo Kotsu Moha1400 thread from the old forum, but I think these vintage photos would get lost  in the board.  You will see Moi No. 51 pulling four wheel freight cars, which in its self is a real treat of vintage iron. There is also what looks like a hand made diamond for the line. Freight operation ended 1982.7.1 and line was suppressed April 4 1999.

http://tsushima-keibendo.a.la9.jp/niigata/niigata-1.html

 

http://tsushima-keib.../niigata-2.html

 

http://tsushima-keib.../niigata-3.html

 

http://tsushima-keib...iigata-dia.html

 

More here:

 

http://tnk-ko.a.la9....ta/niigata.html

 

Edited June 18, 2013 by bill937ca

[Nick_Burman]

There is also what looks like a hand made diamond for the line.

 

You mean a diagram... "diamond" is a very poor translation of "daia"... :-)

 

I wonder what was the origin and destination of those gondolas of steel wires. On the tsushima-keibendo site on can see also a car loaded with steel coil, there must have been a metalworking plant somewhere along the line.

 

 

Cheers NB

Edited June 18, 2013 by Nick_Burman

[westfalen]

I wish I'd been there earlier to see the freight operation and the street running, that downtown station at the side of the street would make a great model.

 

One thing that stuck in my mind from my visit to the already truncated line in 1997 was that for a backwater shortline, to borrow an American term, the driver's timecard showed arrival and departure times at stations to five second intervals.

[bill937ca]

I wish I'd been there earlier to see the freight operation and the street running, that downtown station at the side of the street would make a great model.

 

I've always thought that was the prototype for the Tomytec Station Building. To me it looks more like a commercial building than a station.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10129157

[bikkuri bahn]

I've always thought that was the prototype for the Tomytec Station Building. To me it looks more like a commercial building than a station.

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10129157

Yes, though that model is for an "ekimae" building (station square area building), it would make a very nice kitbash for the relatively few stone station headhouses in Japan, such as Niigata Kotsu's Kenchomae Station.

 

On the topic of station buildings that look more like regular office/commercial buildings, there is another example- Toyohira Station on the old Jozankei Rlwy, in Sapporo. Though much less architecturally worthy than the Kenchomae Station, it had a unique arrangement of a station platform built into the structure itself, rather than next to it. It was extant until a few years ago, when owner Tokyu Real Estate tore it down to build yet another cookie-cutter condominium.

 

*Scroll down to see the platform area:

http://www.geocities.jp/northpolis_plus/station/other/joutetsu.htm

 

In happier days:

http://www.s-dentetsu.jp/station/station.php?stationcd=1090-51-003

 

Looking in the opposite (down direction). The down platform was more rudimentary:

http://park7.wakwak.com/~oya-p/data/023.html

[marknewton]

Some more Niigata Kotsu pictures from one of my favourite blogs:

 

http://umemado.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/blog-post_18.html

 

http://umemado.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/blog-post_19.html

 

http://umemado.blogspot.com.au/2013/06/blog-post_353.html

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[westfalen]

The interior of the workshops hadn't changed when I was there in 1997.

[bill937ca]

 

 

 

 

Edited June 22, 2013 by bill937ca

[bill937ca]