Japan Railway Eras?

[yakumo381]

Not sure if this is the right forum (hopefully an admin will relocate if not) but are there any logical "eras" for modelling Japanese Railways apart from the obvious pre- and post-JR group formation?

 

Came to mind in respect of looking at the stock I have for my Niihama layout and trying to work out what would be contemporary and what would be ambigous. Also regarding movement of stock between different areas of Japan, e.g. would JR West stock get migrated or cascaded to JR Hokkaido

 

The example I have in mind is from Bachmann who use the following eras for modelling UK trains:

1. Era 1 1804 – 1875 Pioneering
2. Era 2 1875 – 1922 Pre-grouping
3. Era 3 1923 – 1947 The big four – LMS, GWR, LNER and SR
4. Era 4 1948 – 1956 British Railways Early Emblem
5. Era 5 1957 – 1966 British Railways Late Crest
6. Era 6 1967 – 1971 British Railways Blue Pre-TOPS
7. Era 7 1971 – 1982 British Railways Blue TOPS
8. Era 8 1982 – 1994 British Railways Sectorisation
9. Era 9 1995 onwards – Post Privatisation

The idea I have is to make Niihama reasonably vague in terms of the time it is modelling - sort of late 1970's to the present - and then have different running sessions based on different decades within this range by changing over the stock being run as well as changing over easily switched items like cars and trucks.

 

[Davo Dentetsu]

An interesting idea.  Would make classifying things that little bit easier.

[Kabutoni]

Hmm... Regarding the classification of Japanese railway eras, I don't think it's a good idea to make a general scheme, if one were to be made, since every railway company has their own line of company changes/transition eras.

 

For example, a significant year for the Japanese Railways in general was the privatisation in 1987, which marks the transition from JNR to the JR eras, where all different companies start a different timeline. The year 1987 was then again not of importance to a company like Keisei, where the modernisation process starts from 1991 to 1994.

 

If you want to get specific with your rolling stock, you should pick a specific year or timeframe in which certain trains ran. For example, I have chosen Keisei in the spring and summer of 1992 when new trains were introduced (3700 and AE100 Skyliner), test colours were in use and old trains were slowly phased out (AE Skyliner). However, even my friends call me crazy for modelling such a specific era... Most people don't really care so much about it I think.

 

EDIT: thinking about JNR/JR related things, I think regarding the post-war era, one could classify it like this:

 

1945~1959: JNR Post-war era;

1959~1987: JNR Modernisation and Shinkansen era;

1987~2000: JR Group initialisation era;

2000 ~ now: current Modernisation era (at least on the behalf of JR East);

 

The 1959 to 1987 era is marked by an initial period of modernisation, optimism and the Shinkansen development, but around the end of the 1970s it all becomes a conservative and stagnant period with little updates on rolling stock and firm development. This leads to bad performance and eventually heavy protests and violent strikes. Maybe this era can be cut into several (two or three) different periods as well. I don't know too much about that to make exact estimates :P

Edited October 6, 2013 by Toni Babelony

[bikkuri bahn]

Agree with T.B.'s take on the matter.  I think the whole era thing is an artificial construct by model rr manufacturers for marketing purposes, and it's hard to really classify rolling stock into discrete periods, being especially difficult for JNR era rolling stock.  In general, periods are not defined by the type of rolling stock, but rather changes in the timetable, the biggest being the Showa 36 October timetable revision (1961), the inauguration of the Tokaido Shinkansen in Oct., 1964, the Showa 43 Oct. timetable revision (1968), the inauguration of the Sanyo Shinkansen in March of 1975, and the inauguration of the Joetsu and Tohoku Shinkansen in 1982.  While the S36 and S43 timetable revisions saw the introduction of many limited express services (especially the latter), the shinkansen services saw many of the same being eliminated.

 

As far as JR era classification, one thing to keep in mind is it resulted in the formation of separate companies, so there was little to no exchange of rolling stock between them- Hokkaido above all being the least likely to receive any rolling stock from other companies, given the requirements for cold weather operation- in fact, in the late JNR era, there was the fiasco of running 485 series(1500 ban dai) on the Hakodate Main Line- they couldn't handle the winters and the fine snow, so they were transferred back to Tohoku．The AC-only 781 series was developed as a result.

[westfalen]

To me a further dividing point in the JNR era would be the end of regular service steam in the late sixties/early seventies but I don't think you could pinpoint an exact year.  Dates are sometimes hard to narrow down as most change is gradual on railways, JR might have come into being at midnight on April 1st 1987 but for several years until larger quantities of new rolling stock began arriving there was not much visual change apart from JR logos appearing on rolling stock and the end of steam was spread over a decade or more depending on the location.  The use of paint schemes and logo variations in the British era designations is also very inexact as entire fleets are not painted over night, you could say late crest locos were not seen prior to 1957 but I wouldn't be surprised if some carried the early crest well past that year, and during my visit to the U.S. last year I saw considerable numbers of Santa Fe and Burlington Northern painted locos still around sixteen years after the BNSF merger.

Edited October 6, 2013 by westfalen

[Mudkip Orange]

I think the whole era thing is an artificial construct by model rr manufacturers for marketing purposes

 

I agree. When I go on, say, eHattons, and the website gives me the option to "sort by era," it only shows me Bachmann trains. If I want something from, say, Dapol, I gotta back out to the more general category.

[Ochanomizu]

Hello yakumo381,

 

Thank you for raising the interesting topic of Raliway Era in Japan.  Please allow me to assist you with further information on this subject.

 

Firstly, there is no universally accepted standard for the definition of eras in Japanese model rail.  However, those who are concerned about such matters usually adopt the railways standard as follows:

 

Era 1 - Foundation Period - 1854-1879:  Matthew Perry of the USA introduce railway to Japan.  England demonstrate for one month the narrow gauge railway to be introduced to China.  Covers the first commercial railways in Japan;

 

Era 2 - Dawn of Private Railways - 1880-1889: First private railways open.  Hokkaido's first railway open.  First electric railcar. Until first Kyushu railway in 1889 between Hakata and Chitose.  It is now part of the Kagoshima Main Line.

 

Era 3 - Railways Development - 1890-1900: Railways Construction Act.  First Railway Conference.  Contemplation of the Japan National Railway.  Sanyo Railways.

 

Era 4 - Nationalization - 1901-1912: Many new laws are passed to nationalize railways.  17 private railways become state owned.

 

Era 5 - Stabilization - 1912-1926: Private Railways Law protects remaining private rail companies from takeover by the state.  Various innovations and opening of new private railways.

 

Era 6 - Subway - 1927-1934: Opening of first subway, now Tokyo Metro, Ginza Line.

 

Era 7 - War - 1935-1944: Wartime acquisition of private railways. World's first undersea railway tunnel.  Integration of private railways into conglomerates was forced.  Such as Tokyu and Kintetsu.

 

Era 8 - Post-War (or Occupation) - 1945-1954: Rebuilding of the war devastated railways commenced.  Heavily controlled by international forces and laws preventing the concentration of economic power, monopoly of private railways prevented.  Aggression of labor movements resulting in three major accident being suspected of sabotage.

 

Era 9 - Pre-Shinkansen - 1955-1964: Odakyu Romance Cars.  Tokaido line fully electrified. Phasing out steam.  Many new long distance express services.  October 1, 1964, first shinkansen services commence.  Tokyo Olympics.

 

Era 10 - Shinkansen - 1965-1974:  Japan becomes world famous for shinkansen and railways.  Most steam service replaced by diesel.  Whole of JNR converted to ATS.

 

Era 11 - JNR - 1975-1988: There are many advancements in continuing throughout the railways, such as new shinkansen lines, life-cycle costing, Maglev test line experiments and the break up of JNR.

 

Era 12 - JR Group - 1989-1997: Development of JR East, Central, West, Hokaido, Kyushu, etc.  Osaka Subway opens.  Many new shinkansen line opened.

 

Era 13 - Automation - 1998- : Many proprietary IC card payment systems introduced.  Many other modification and automation take place.  IC card systems rationalized and integrated.

 

You can read about Japan's railways era here: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E3%81%AE%E9%89%84%E9%81%93%E5%8F%B2

 

These era are not hard rule.  For example, some argue there is new era commencing in 2008.  However, I cannot see a difference other than phasing out of some long distance express services that have been replaced by other means.  Also, some people call the JNR era Showa and call JR Group the Heisei, after the Emperors, of course.  But such railfans are those who are anti-government run railways and tend to promote private rail.  I do not subscribe to any such faction.  In fact, I do not refer to era at all.  To me, there has always been too many important things overlapping each other in Japanese railways to split into eras.

[bikkuri bahn]

Era 12 - JR Group - 1989-1997

Perhaps this era can be called the "funny colors" era, for all the crazily colored and zig-zag patterned rolling stock, especially on the rural lines.  It seems they wanted to shed the "dull" JNR era colors as much as possible, as embodied by the shutokenshoku orange. Ironically, such a color is now quite popular among railfans and other nostalgics.

[E6系]

Hello Mr bikkuri bahn,

 

The one thing about the current era that stands out to me is marketing and merchandising.  But as Ochanomizu-san points out, there is always so much going on with the railways in Japan.

[westfalen]

Marketing and merchandising and IC card ticketing systems don't really define what era a particular train comes from though or are much of a factor in modelling.

Edited October 8, 2013 by westfalen

[Ochanomizu]

Hello Mr westfalen,

 

This is a very good point.  Perhaps we actually remain in the JR Group era ... until the Maglev begins operation ... ;)

 

Edit:  So sorry Mr westfalen, but in my original post I did say that the eras were not related to railway modelling ... these eras are talked about by some railfan and there is no universally adopted system.

Edited October 9, 2013 by Ochanomizu