International Railroad Discussion > Marine Containers on Japanese Freight Trains

I did some research before visiting Japan last May, so I can nab a JR Freight train known to carry 20' and 40' containers. JR Freight's official web site confirmed my research with the train numbers (#8075 and #8074) so with the Freight Timetable in hand, the morning (and daylight) runner #8074 was going to be an easy catch, a ~10 am arrival into Tokyo Freight terminal.

When I arrived in Japan and bought the 2015 edition of the JR Freight Timetable, #8075 and #8074 became completely different trains, running in a territory way up north in Hokkaido, not even close to Tokyo. I didn't have the time to just wait at a location all day to find the train with the marine containers, so it was a major fail for me.

For my recent trip to Japan in October, I was ready.

While JR Freight still hasn't updated the web site, the Japanese railfan blogs pointed to Train #3076 as the new train carrying "Umicon" (海コン), nickname for marine containers. Unlike the U.S., only a handful of trains a day carry marine containers, as few as 4. Of course, no doublestacks in Japan. All other containers are the domestic 12' and 31' types, with the occasional domestic only 20'.

Rather than just wait at a location to document the train, I planned a chase which required two transfers with ~2 minute margins. I started my second day in Japan at Oyama (小山), and nabbed the #3076 only 12 miles from its origin, the Utsunomiya (宇都宮) Freight Terminal. That's the first clip. While the train had lots of baretables, this was THE train, with four 40' of different heights (standard and High Cube), the usual 12' boxes, then a marine 20' at the end.

I hopped on the first Tokyo-bound Shinkansen Nasuno #252 at Oyama, de-trained at Omiya, hopped on the Saikyo Line commuter rapid to Musashi-Urawa, transferred to the Musashino Line local, then de-trained at Nishi-Urawa. On cue, #3076 arrived less than 3 minutes after I got there, and my revenge railfanning was complete. I specifically chose this location since this is the west end of the double-track wye between the Musashino Line and the Nishi-Urawa Branch Line, a freight-only line that connects between Tohoku Line and Musashino Line. In the second clip, you see Train #3076 take the flyover out of Nishi-Urawa Branch Line and descend to the Musashino Line.

Seconds later, I heard a opposing freight train approaching, which happened to be #3085, the counterpart to #3086, the only daylight freight to run through Shinjuku which I covered here on TO several months ago. That's the third clip, showing what a typical Japanese container train looks like, with 12' and and a handful of 31' boxes. #3085 is going from Musashino Line to the Nishi-Urawa Branch Line, ultimately heading north to Sapporo, Hokkaido.

- Train #3076 at Nishi-Urawa that I got later in the week (fifth clip).
- Some familiar 40' boxes (K- Line, OOCL, Tex).
- Video described above and below.

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I nabbed the #3076 two more times during my stay in Japan, while the last and fourth attempt was a failure since I got blocked by a Musashino Line EMU while at Shin-Kodaira Station. The train runs around Tokyo on the Musashino Line on its way to the Tokyo Freight Terminal between 6-8 am so it's a good morning train to catch before embarking on a foaming trip in or away from Tokyo to start the day.

Fourth clip is at Shin-Kodaira Station, and I returned to Nishi-Urawa Station in the rain for the fifth clip.

- 31' domestic box and 20' marine box sharing the same car. The "ECO Liner 31" is popular with Japan's intermodal foamers.
- At Shin-Kodaira, an OOCL reefer 40' box. OOCL = Orient Overseas Container Line, a Hong Kong based logistics company.
- OOCL 20', JRF domestic 20', and Namsung (South Korea) 20' at Shin-Kodaira.

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I mentioned JR Freight Train #3086 above, so I'll post a video of that train again, which I caught twice in October.

Back in May, on my last day in Japan, I planned a nab of #3086 at the railroad crossing in Yoyogi which is just located south of Shinjuku in Tokyo... except the train didn't show up. Whether it was annulled or delayed, I didn't found out as I had other foaming plans that day. So I returned in October for a little revenge, and this time #3086 showed up like clockwork, where I ate lunch before the nab, confident of its running time. That's the first clip. Note some half-height 12' boxes as well as interesting 31' boxes.

In the second clip, I got too risky, trying to nab the #3086 from the Yoyogi Station platform. It was either that, or shoot against the light from the other side, which I SHOULD have done in hindsight. I got triple-blocked, first by an outbound Chuo Line Rapid, then an inbound (Tokyo-bound). Just as I thought I was in the clear, northbound (outbound) Shonan-Shinjuku Line train completes the block of the #3086. Ugh.

I returned to Kyushu again in October, and in the third clip, I nab Train #4075 at Oita, third clip. The lead locomotive is the venerable EF81. I zoom out to include the nose of the 883 Series EMU used on the Limited Express Sonic, which I had ridden earlier to Oita.

On my last day the JR Raill Pass was valid, I went on a semi-random Shinkansen joyride to Mishima to catch two freight trains. In the fourth clip, I catch Train #71 to Niihama (Shikoku), but I knew this was coming when I passed it few miles back on the Shinkansen I was riding on. A passenger realizes too late he was blocking my shot, but I told him later no worries. On a station platform in Japan, it's not easy avoiding people.

A Tokyo-bound train #1050 shows up next in the fifth clip, but unfortunately, the train is mostly baretables. I'll have to catch this train again on my next visit, since it represents another logistics company in Japan, but their containers were missing that day. Both #71 and #1050 are led by EF210 "Momotaro" locomotive.

In the sixth clip, I catch what should be Train #3085 at Shin-Kodaira while waiting for #3076. This is the counterpart to the first train in this video, #3086. Classic EF65 locomotive leads the train and note the green gondola/container in front of the train. Few minutes later, my nab of #3076 failed due to another train blockage (video not shown to avoid further foamer embarrassment).

That's all for now.

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cchan006 Wrote:
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> That's the first clip. Note some half-height 12'
> boxes as well as interesting 31' boxes.
>

Thanks for posting. 

Note the half height (or thereabouts) 12' containers are from Nitto Kogyo.

Nitto is a large manufacturer of medium and low voltage switch gear located near Nagoya.  Many homes in Japan are equipped with Nitto circuit breaker panels.  The company also manufacturers 19" EIA opening electronic racks used in many TV stations, recording studios and data centers.

Why they use this odd height container is a mystery.  Nitto won some kind of award in 2014 for using this ecologically friendly container.

The japanese site: http://www.nito.co.jp/profile/enkaku.html 
Under the "profile" tab (会社), from the drop down menu to "company history" (会社沿革) then down to 2014.  There is a small picture of these containers at the Nakatsugawa (Gifu-ken) Plant.

The english site: http://www.nito.co.jp/english/index.html

daniel

Good catches. Most of the locals seem to prefer to look at their mobile phones.

mukinduri Wrote:
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> Good catches. Most of the locals seem to prefer to
> look at their mobile phones.

It's probably accurate to say that Japan pioneered the concept of cell phone zombies! Even before the recent emergence of Smartphones, they were already addicted to cell phones going back more than a decade. Many venture capitalists, "visionaries," and tech media authors here in the U.S. predicted the same would happen here, not because they had a vision or a hallucination, but because they visited Japan and observed the behavior firsthand.

The woman in the foreground at Shin-Kodaira wasn't a zombie - she was actually paying attention to the surroundings. If I was a creep, she would have been ready to defend herself.

251F Wrote:
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> Note the half height (or thereabouts) 12'
> containers are from Nitto Kogyo.
>
> Nitto is a large manufacturer of medium and low
> voltage switch gear located near Nagoya.  Many
> homes in Japan are equipped with Nitto circuit
> breaker panels.  The company also manufacturers
> 19" EIA opening electronic racks used in many TV
> stations, recording studios and data centers.
>
> Why they use this odd height container is a
> mystery.  Nitto won some kind of award in 2014
> for using this ecologically friendly container.
>
> The japanese site:
> http://www.nito.co.jp/profile/enkaku.html 
> Under the "profile" tab (会社), from the drop
> down menu to "company history" (会社沿革) then
> down to 2014.  There is a small picture of these
> containers at the Nakatsugawa (Gifu-ken) Plant.
>
> The english site:
> http://www.nito.co.jp/english/index.html
>
> daniel

Thanks for the look up and the links. That motivated me to do some research on the Nitto "containers."

What I found out is that the "containers" are actually more like gondolas - they are open top boxes. They are used to transport high voltage equipment, which seems like a different market segment than the low/medium voltage products showcased on their web site. My guess is that the high voltage equipment is too difficult to put inside 12' and 31' boxes due to height tolerances too tight, so the half-height open top 12' containers are used. Probably easier to drop the equipment in and take it out at the origin and destination, only using the container as a means to transport between truck, train, and other modes of transport.

Seems the #3086 is taking the empties back, so the loads must go on the #3085. Hmm, that's a train I already know how to catch. #3085 is a Nagoya to Sapporo (Hokkaido) train, so having the Nitto containers on the train as well as empties on its counterpart makes sense. I have a hypothesis that this might be related to JR Hokkaido's electrification project going on right now. Seems logical to transport high voltage equipment by rail for that purpose.

Found this photo of the loads on a Japanese blog site.

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SG or NG?  I do like the concept of short trains running faster than long trains like the US does.

CPRR Wrote:
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> SG or NG?  I do like the concept of short trains
> running faster than long trains like the US does.

Freight trains in Japan are like Amtrak trains in the U.S. They rely on the tracks of the host railroads, which happened to be passenger rail companies. Majority of through freight trains are run by JR Freight (Japan Freight Railway Company) and they run on the tracks of the 6 other Japan Railway Groups, JR East, JR West, JR Central, JR Hokkaido, JR Kyushu, and JR Shikoku. So JR Freight can't run their trains too long which will disrupt passenger operations.

While I've yet to see a freight train in middle of 2-3 minute headway scheduling, I've seen them mixed it up with passenger trains in ~5 minute headway scheduling, for example on the Musashino Line, which is where some of the video clips in this thread were taken. So yeah, run them short (about 20 cars average, longest is 26), and run them fast as the passenger trains.

SG or NG? Japan's SG, which is 1067 mm.