My 2013 Trip - The Videos

[westfalen]

I've started uploading some video highlights from the trip.

 

For the first installment, when a pair of railfans arrive at Kansai Airport at 6:20 pm what do they do after clearing customs and checking into the Hotel Nikko Kansai Airport?  Sit in their rooms watching Japanese TV or catch a train to Hineno, the junction of the Airport line and the Hanwa line and spend a couple of hours watching trains?

 

[wazzd]

can you imagine trying to shoot night time video like this a few years ago?  It's great to watch and takes me right back.... 11 months since my last visit and keen to go again. My son tells me Jetstar is now only flying direct Coolangatta- Tokyo, no more Kansai.

Luckily we were in the front section when the train split in two, wouldn't want to run with luggage from the back on a peak hour service.

Thanks for the memories.

Edited December 15, 2013 by wazzd

[westfalen]

can you imagine trying to shoot night time video like this a few years ago?  It's great to watch and takes me right back.... 11 months since my last visit and keen to go again. My son tells me Jetstar is now only flying direct Coolangatta- Tokyo, no more Kansai.

Luckily we were in the front section when the train split in two, wouldn't want to run with luggage from the back on a peak hour service.

Thanks for the memories.

We were thinking about night time shooting during the trip, it's not that long ago that you put your cameras away when it got dark. You couldn't have done some of the things we did like hanging around the platforms at Ogaki until midnight videoing freight trains which I'll post in an upcoming installment. I was also taking hand held still shots at night of Hiroshima trams with my Nikon D5300 SLR that I wouldn't have even considered once.

 

We flew Jetstar to Kansai, so I tried to book a flight tomorrow on Jetstar's website to test your information but couldn't, but it looks like they just don't fly on Tuesdays though as I was able to find flights on most other days up until May next year which was as far as I looked, some days only offered flights with stopovers but the direct flight may be booked out on those days.

Edited December 18, 2013 by westfalen

[wazzd]

I don't think they could stop flights until all the previous sale tickets have been used, I hope they don't do it , I'd rather fly to Osaka again...anyway time will tell. I'm looking forward to seeing your other videos too!

[bikkuri bahn]

103 series with the original (or original-shaped) [ 田] windows- wonderful.

[westfalen]

Episode Two: Night Freights at Ogaki.

 

After making our way from Kansai Airport to Ogaki in a round about fashion via the Kansai Main Line and the Yoro Railway we hung around the platforms at Ogaki until the arrival of the last passenger train just after midnight watching the nocturnal parade of freight trains on the Tokaido Main Line though I took time out to ride the Tarumi Railway to the end of the line and back.  My friend Dave had worked out the passing times from the JR Freight timetable by estimating the running time from the last timed station either side of Ogaki and all the trains arrived within a few minutes of the timetable with most dead on time.

 

Regular visitors to Japan would not be surprised but it's worth mentioning that although we were loitering around the platforms for several hours no railway staff told us to move on or even ask what we were doing.

 

[westfalen]

Episode 3.  While the main purpose of hanging around Ogaki station till midnight was to see freight trains, obviously being Japan, they were far outnumbered by passenger trains and the odd one managed to get in front of our cameras.  As always on JR Central you have to like 313's.

 

[JR 500系]

Nice videos West! 

 

Great you caught the coupling of the 223 Kansai Airport rapid express train~ Also, the lovely conductor performing her stretching exercise ~~

 

The Konotori looks good! 

 

Would you happen to have any JR East videos? Always a fan of JR East ~~

[westfalen]

Didn't go north of Tokyo this trip and only had one day there so the only JR East stuff I got this year was at Nippori when we went out there to catch the Hokutosei arriving.

[westfalen]

After Ogaki we spent a day at Kiyosu, two stations north of Nagoya on the Tokaido Main Line, before heading to Hiroshima.  We had seen some video of Kiyosu on Youtube and it looked like a promising place to see more freight trains with a single long island platform and two seperate freight lines for uninterupted views of passing freights.  The prediction proved to be correct, here is part one of our day at Kiyosu.

 

Edited December 21, 2013 by westfalen

[bikkuri bahn]

Indeed a nice place- you can see freights for the Chuo Line in addition to the Tokaido Line parade.  I suppose that dd51 is bound for the Yokkaichi konbinato area to pick up some tank cars.

[westfalen]

Indeed a nice place- you can see freights for the Chuo Line in addition to the Tokaido Line parade.  I suppose that dd51 is bound for the Yokkaichi konbinato area to pick up some tank cars.

We assumed so, we came past there the day before and the place was swarming with DD51s.  There was also a DE10 go by light engine later on which we assumed was returning to Inazawa for servicing after a shunting turn at an outlying yard.

[westfalen]

Part two of Kiyosu. This takes up up until we returned from lunch at the Mozambique Coffee house down the street next to the station. On the way back I ducked down an alley to see if there was anything interesting to be seen and caught EF66 33 rolling into one of the sidings next to the station.  One of the Japanese railfans we met on the station said it was a loco being swapped off one of the limestone trains, they do the swap at Kasadera and run light engine back to Inazawa to save an extra stop.

 

[3railgreg]

westfalen, thanks for taking the time to post the videos. Nice to see freight action in a land with lots of passengers! Enjoyed them!

[westfalen]

The last two parts of our day at Kiyosu watching freight trains.  After lunch we were joined by several Japanese railfans so it appears to be popular with the locals also.

 

[westfalen]

After a satisfying day at Kiyosu we spent a while watching trains at Nagoya station in the afternoon before we headed to Hiroshima for three nights.

 

[westfalen]

The computer has been busy burning Blu-Ray discs but here is the next episode.

 

On our first morning in Hiroshima we headed west on the Sanyo Main Line to Otake.  The freight timetable showed a train running from Hiroshima to Otake in the morning so we figured if we went out there we might see some shunting going on which proved correct.  Not long after we arrived the resident shunt engine DE10 1731 came to life and took a string of container wagons over to a yard on the opposite side of the main line and returned with a string of outbound wagons.  EF66 106 that brought the train out from Hiroshima then moved over to the middle track to await a slot to head back to Hiroshima, note the female driver giving her loco a walk around.

 

Edited January 12, 2014 by westfalen

[westfalen]

After Otake we continued on to Iwakuni and Shin-Iwakuni via the Nishkigawa Railway then back to Hiroshima by Shinkansen for a lunch of okonomiyaki at a restaurant at Hiroshima station.