International Railroad Discussion > JR Freight Train #3086 through Shinjuku (Japan)

For the uninitiated, JR stands for Japan Railways. JR Group consists of 7 companies, 6 of them divided up geographically after the privatization in 1987 of government-run JNR, Japan National Railways. Those 6 are JR East, JR Central (a.k.a. JR Tokai), JR West, JR Shikoku, JR Kyushu, and JR Hokkaido.

The 7th company is JR Freight, which operates nationwide, not limited geographically like the other 6 JR companies which focus on passenger rail. JR Freight have very few tracks of their own, so they often pay the host railroads to operate the freight trains on their tracks. In essence, JR Freight is similar to Amtrak!

What's so special about JR Freight Train #3086?

The Sapporo to Nagoya train is the only scheduled freight train to go through Shinjuku, the world's busiest train station (in terms of passenger count) in broad daylight, using the Yamanote Freight Line tracks. #3086 is usually led by the red, articulated, dual-mode AC/DC EH500 "Kintaro" locomotive (~5300 hp). EH500s usually don't make it past Kuroiso, and the ones that do often go to Sumidagawa, freight terminal located in northeastern Tokyo. So this train is a treat for the discriminating Tokyo railfans who don't have to travel north to catch the EH500 in action.

FYI, Yamanote Freight Line runs between Tabata and Shinagawa via Ikebukuro and Shinjuku, an additional double track main beside the famous Yamanote Line, which loops around Tokyo. It is a "freight line" by name only, as majority of the trains that run on the line are passenger trains, like the Saikyo Line, Rinkai Line, Shonan-Shinjuku Line, and the Narita Express. Handful of freight trains run through this line very late at night, and very early in the morning. All other freight trains use the Musashino and Nanbu Lines along northwest Tokyo, and avoid the busiest part of Tokyo altogether.

- Video capture of Train #3086 at north end of Shinjuku Station.
- Video of chasing the #3086 from Nasu-Shiobara to Shin-Kawasaki, to be described below.

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I was going to ask after your first post in this series how freights from the north now accessed the Tokyo Freight Terminal -- thanks for the answer !

Are there any other JRF container terminals in the Greater Tokyo area besides that one ?

Best regards, SZ

I actually ran into Train #3086 the day before, as I was about to enter the Kinokuniya book store at South Shinjuku. I was still carrying my luggage around after chasing the Toyota Long Pass Express, so I didn't have time to grab my cameras out of the backpack. That inspired me to plan a quick chase the next day (Sunday).

First clip is at Nasu-Shiobara, one station south of Kuroiso where a crew change had taken place. I believe the engineer is taking Train #3086 near track speed here, which for him would be 95 km/h (59 mph). This was the chase target I was waiting for at Nasu-Shiobara that I mentioned in my previous post.

I hopped on Tohoku Shinkansen Nasuno #270 and went to Utsunomiya next, to get the second clip. I wouldn't have had a stop here, had I went to Kuroiso instead of Nasu-Shiobara, which was my original plan. It doesn't cost anything to change your travel plans with a JR Rail Pass, and to be considerate, I sat in the unreserved section for the entire chase (and risk standing room only conditions), as not to take away any seats from other paying passengers.

I then hopped on Yamabiko #130, detrained at Omiya, and took a Saikyo Line Local to Shinjuku and got there about half an hour ahead of Train #3086. I got some random video clips while waiting, which I might post a separate report later. This is where I got the third clip, Train #3086 going through north end of Shinjuku Station. The train pacing to its left is Chuo Line Limited Express Azusa #10. I leave it up to the "Jikokuhyo-Tetsu" (Schedule Foamers) to figure out the exact time. :-)

I'm riding a Shonan Shinjuku Line train in the fourth clip, about to arrive at Shin-Kawasaki. You can hear the arrival announcements in both Japanese and English in the video. Train #3086 is the nearest train seen in the yard, with the EH500 locomotive already uncoupled, seen a few seconds later moving about the yard. On the Freight Timetable, this location is known as Shin-Tsurumi (新鶴見).

Shin-Tsurumi is a crew change and locomotive change point, like Kuroiso (黒磯). Similar to the Southern Pacific's practice of labeling trains eastbound and westbound, there are only two travel directions for Japanese trains, nobori (上り) and kudari (下り), literally translated as climb and descend. Trains descend out of Tokyo (outbound), or climb towards Tokyo (inbound).

Here at Shin-Tsurumi, Train #3086 "changes" directions from nobori to kudari, gets a new train number (3075) and a new locomotive, ready to travel on the Tokaido Line towards Nagoya. That's the fifth clip, where I get the classic EF64 locomotive leading Train #3075, from the north end of the Shin-Kawasaki Station platform. At the end of the clip, inbound Yokosuka Line train arrives. The well-dressed railfan you see in the clip was taking photos (no machine gun shuttering) and detailed notes of each freight train departing Shin-Tsurumi. He voluntarily ducked so I could get a better view of the departing trains, although he didn't need to. I suspect he was doing what mapboy does here on TO, documenting train activities in detail.

I could have continued the chase of this train, but decided to end the chase here, grab some lunch, and do some location scouting as well as rehearse a chase of a very high value target I was hoping to get the next day.

- Fashion Service Car container is owned by Naniwa Transportation Company with HQ in Osaka, specializing in transportation for the garment industry.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/31/15 19:17 by cchan006.

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Steinzeit Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was going to ask after your first post in this
> series how freights from the north now accessed
> the Tokyo Freight Terminal -- thanks for the
> answer !
>
> Are there any other JRF container terminals in the
> Greater Tokyo area besides that one ?
>
> Best regards, SZ

Yup. The second JRF container terminal in Tokyo is Sumidagawa (隅田川) Terminal near Tabata (田端) and almost next to Joban Line Minami-Senju Station (常磐線　南千住駅). Majority of freight trains from Hokkaido and Tohoku areas go to Sumidagawa, which is accessed directly from the Tohoku Line tracks, but a few of them go to the main Tokyo Freight Terminal near Shinagawa (品川) via Musashino/Nanbu (武蔵野線、南武線) Line access, circumventing Tokyo's downtown areas from the west.

Great place to railfan the freights in/out of Sumidagawa is at Higashi-jujo (東十条), where there's a triple double track main. I posted a quick report from that location last year.

I am very impressed on how fast they go in the 3'6" gauge track, proving you can built high speed NG lines.

Fun video, thank you