International Railroad Discussion > More Japanese Freight Trains

Back in March, I spent almost an entire day chasing freight trains in Japan:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?6,3353712

I was thinking of doing something more elaborate last month in October when I visited Japan again, but Typhoon #18 changed my plans and detoured/cancelled some of the freights I wanted to chase, then I ran out of time and had to return to the U.S.

However, I still have plenty of video clips from my trips in March and April that I haven't posted yet. Here's about 11 minutes worth of material, posted in two separate videos.

In the first clip in the first video, I'm riding a southbound Keihin-Tohoku Line local between Omiya and Higashi-Jujo on my way to intercept the Luxury Sleeper Cassiopeia that I had just de-trained in Utsunomiya. I meet a northbound container train as my train slows for a stop at Yono Station. It's probably Train #3087, Nagoya to Sapporo container train. The commuter lady dodges my camera near the end of the clip.

I recorded the second clip at Aioi, while foaming N700, 700, and 500 Series Shinkansens as I've posted in previous reports. While standing on the Shinkansen platform, I overheard the crossing bells going off, so I took a peek and got a nice view of the tracks below. The train is either #8053 or #8059 to Hiroshima, a westbound container train.

The third clip was recorded at Miyajima-guchi, which is located west of Hiroshima. I had just finished joyriding the Hiroshima Streetcars, and was waiting to return to Hiroshima on a JR train, when the eastbound Fukuoka to Niigata #2072 shows up.

Fourth clip was recorded at Minakami, while I was waiting for steam locomotive D51-498 on March 21. It's the same freight train that met the C61-20 on October 4, Train #2082 from Niigata to Sumidagawa (Tokyo). Here, the freight comes to a stop to wait for a green signal.

- Image #1: Freight train I caught at Yatsushiro, Kyushu, while waiting for SL Hitoyoshi and #58654 steam locomotive back in March 20. Could be Train #4093, from Kita-Kyshu to Kagoshima. ED76 locomotive has 6 axles, but only 4 are powered, with 2 idle axles in the middle. First manufactured in 1965, and designed to operate in AC catenary territory.

- Image #2: Light engine move, EH500 "Kintaro" locomotive featured during my first freight chase linked above. I took this at Omiya after I finished the chase, and was waiting to do a northbound chase of the Luxury Sleeper Cassiopeia.

- Video as described above and below.

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Kuroiso is a crew change and locomotive change point, the next station stop north of Nasu-Shiobara. It is located 163 km (101 miles) north of Tokyo. As I reported earlier, I went to Nashu-Shiobara in April to record videos of Shinkansens taking the curve at 196 mph, so after I was done there, I hopped on a local to Kuroiso to record some freight train action. Two birds with one stone, so to speak, or "Isseki Ni-cho" in Japanese.

While waiting for my local train at Nasu-Shiobara, a southbound freight shows up, which might be a late-running Sapporo to Utsunomiya Train #7066. If I'm right, the train was running about 30 minutes late. That's the fifth clip in the first video.

I didn't want to get left behind at Nasu-Shiobara, so I recorded the sixth clip while inside the local I was about to ride to Kuroiso. That should be southbound Train #8064, from Morioka to Nagoya.

In the seventh clip, I'm recording video of the locomotive yard just south of Kuroiso, as I'm seconds away from arriving. Japanese locomotive foamers can see some classics parked here, including the venerable EF66. The blue locomotives are assigned to run south of Kuroiso to Tokyo and beyond, some running through to the Tokaido Line, which is DC catenary territory.

I was barely able to record the eighth clip as I heard the inverters energize while I was trying to get in position. That's a EH500 "Kintaro" that had just detached from Train #6092, Sapporo (Hokkaido) to Sumidagawa (Tokyo) freight train. It's heading light engine into the yard for the next northbound assignment.

Ninth and final clip is of Train #6092 departing on time precisely at 5:10 pm, led by EF210 "Momotaro" locomotive. Japanese freight trains run on tight schedules like the passenger trains, since they run on the same tracks. If they miss their assigned schedule slot, they have to wait until the next available one like Train #7066 did above. That's sort of opposite from how Amtrak and Class I freights operate in the U.S.

- Image #3: While riding the Sleeper Hokutosei, I spot a congregation of diesel-electric locomotive DF200 "Red Bear" near Hakodate, Hokkaido.

- Image #4: I saw some hopper cars near Hakodate, while eating breakfast in Hokutosei's dining car.

- Image #5: Off topic, but that's my breakfast. Posting it here, since I didn't get to post it in the Luxury Sleeper Cassiopeia thread.

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Unfortunately, freight trains that have boxcars were discontinued in 2012, carrying paper products between Tokyo and Niigata as well as along the Tokaido corridor. Japanese railfans have lamented this, that most freights in Japan are just unit container trains now. In the second video I'm posting, there's a bit more variety besides just containers.

I had never visited the city of Akita before. I wasn't planning on doing any foaming for my first visit to Akita, until I saw railroad tracks near the Port of Akita while studying an online map while onboard Komachi #1, a 410 mile journey that took 3 hours and 53 minutes, including travelling on the non-HSR segment for 127 miles. Quick research yielded the name of the railroad, Akita Rinkai Railway, or Akita Seaside Railway if translated literally. A more appropriate English name would be Akita Port Railroad, since this freight-only railroad's main job is to transfer containers between JR Freight's Akita Freight Terminal and Port of Akita.

I caught one of the three daily roundtrips, in the first and second clips. The locomotive is the diesel-hydraulic DE10, wheel arrangement of AAA-B, a 5 axle locomotive. Initially manufactured in 1966 and mainly used by the government-run JNR, many still remain on the privatized JR system, and a few have been sold to small operations like the Akita Rinkai Railway.

In the third clip, I'm riding a Shinano Railway local during my day trip to Nagano, and meet a unit tank train bound for Negishi, a freight terminal near Yokohama. I believe this is Train #5775, carrying crude oil empties. "Oto-tetsu" foamers get a bonus here, with the sound of Series 115 EMU going full throttle and blowing the horn for the crossing just before the bridge.

I made another chase of D51-498 to Minakami in April, and once again, the ol' reliable Niigata-to-Sumidagawa Train #2082 shows up like clockwork, demonstrating the reliability and predictability of Japanese trains, even the freight trains. I got the train departing this time, led by articulated EH200 "Blue Thunder" locomotive, fourth clip, and the entire train is shown.

Later in the day after finishing the chase of the D51-498, I catch Train #5097 at Takasaki, bound for Yasunaka, fifth clip. I believe this is an ore train, a nice change from the constant flow of freight containers on JR main lines. I believe the ores are in the covered gondolas. Not sure what's in the tank cars. In the background is a Joshin Electric Railway EMU.

On my last day in Japan during the April trip, I was finally able to visit the Railway Museum in Omiya, which I'll report on later. Before going there, I squeezed in some freight foaming, catching couple of southbound freight trains at Omiya, sixth and seventh clips. It seems the freights were running late that day, so I'm not sure of the Train # of the first train. The second train might be Train #4074 or #8584 Extra, a crude oil empty train (two tanks cars) between the baretables, heading for Kawasaki.

- Image #6: ED79 near Hakodate, viewed from Sleeper Hokutosei. ED79, a 4 axle locomotive is used to haul both freights and sleeper trains through the underwater Seikan Tunnel. The drumhead hints at recent sleeper train assignment. Railfan rumors say once the Hokkaido Shinkansen starts revenue service through the tunnel, ED79 will no longer be used, and may go out of service, so its days might be numbered.

- Image #7: EH200 "Blue Thunder" leads Train #2082 at Minakami. I have met this train every time I've visited Minakami to chase a steam locomotive, at precisely the same time every time.

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any idea what's in the containers? They look specialized.

Great pictures/stories on the Japanese freight system. We visited in April and it was interesting seeing the short specialized freight trains. Alot different than the states! Also, we had many a breakfast with those runny scrambled eggs and mystery sausages in our hotels.

The second video will not download. Says something about my URL???????

Jim

Very interesting especially for us who will never visit Japan. Is this 3ft gauge?

Don Bowen
Saint Helena, CA

Chooch Wrote:
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> The second video will not download. Says something
> about my URL???????
>
> Jim

Try a page refresh/reload. Using [Back][Forward] might not work, if your browser simply reloads from the cache. Sometimes, the link goes stale if you don't download the video right away after viewing the page.

dlbowen Wrote:
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> Very interesting especially for us who will never
> visit Japan. Is this 3ft gauge?

3 ft 6 in gauge, or 1067 mm. Unfortunately, Japan's mixed freight era is long gone.

While at LittleTGV, the Japanese railfan I met there wanted me to show him photos and videos of U.S. mixed freight trains, which he found fascinating. He was particularly fascinated with centerbeams (on Union Pacific's QRVWC and MWCRV, naturally).

hwb36604 Wrote:
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> any idea what's in the containers? They look
> specialized.

Japan's standard domestic container sizes are 12' and 31'. The brown "JRF" boxes you see most often in the videos are the 12 footers owned by JR Freight. Tanktainers are somewhat common, too, and there are different flavors of hybrid container/gondolas, as well.

Many of the 31' are owned by the shipping companies, for example, there's the "Takkyubin" boxes (with black cat logo) with are equivalent to UPS in the U.S., higher priority package delivery service company in Japan. The 31' boxes tend to have different paint schemes, and are interesting, if you are an intermodal foamer.

Marine boxes are rare, and I don't think I've seen any 20' or 40' boxes on JR Freight trains yet, but maybe I need to review my videos again to see if I missed one.

I was unable to catch the really specialized container trains, the night-running "Super Rail Cargo" and "Toyota Long Pass Express" which were cancelled/detoured due to the typhoons. According to Japanese railfan blogs, the Toyota Long Pass Express resumed running 4 days after I left Japan. Ugh.

Interesting video, thanks for posting.

A question: Why do some of the signals appear to be flashing?
That seemed odd to me.

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

cchan006 Wrote:
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...snip...

> - Image #5: Off topic, but that's my breakfast.
> Posting it here, since I didn't get to post it in
> the Luxury Sleeper Cassiopeia thread.

Almost looks like a western breakfast. Here's a different style, from my hotel in Kamakura a while ago.

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rantoul Wrote:
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> Appreciate the films. Are there any at-grade
> road/highway-rail crossing in Japan?

I'm trying to remember, and it seems all the grade crossings were with local roads. I don't remember a crossing with a highway or a major thoroughfare, even out in the countryside of Hokkaido and Kyushu. I'm sure there are some out there, but probably not many.

ntharalson Wrote:
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> Interesting video, thanks for posting.
>
> A question: Why do some of the signals appear to
> be flashing?
> That seemed odd to me.
>
> Nick Tharalson,
> Marion, IA

The signals flickering might have something to do with their frequencies and my camcorder's frame rate. I didn't notice when viewed with my naked eyes.

symph1 Wrote:
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> Almost looks like a western breakfast. Here's a
> different style, from my hotel in Kamakura a while
> ago.

It was indeed a "western-style" breakfast I had onboard the Sleeper Hokutosei, and the menu said so, too.

Your hotel breakfast in Kamakura is Japanese style, with rice, miso-soup, fish, and picked vegetables (tsukemono). I ordered a Japanese style breakfast onboard the Luxury Sleeper Cassiopeia the next morning (no photos).

Looks like these generic flat cars with specialized containers are tried in Europe too, as novelty! This pic is from Innotrans 2014. There were all kinds of containers in the adjacent similar flat cars.

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Signals are flickering at the same rate you would see if you video your television set and all signals are doing it. Therefore it is a video situation, not that the signals were actually blinking, especially not at that rate.

Very interesting stuff on freight trains in Japan, something I haven't seen much of. Thanks for posting.

Nathan