International Railroad Discussion > C58 #239 and SL Ginga (Japanese Steam)

In October of 2012, JR East (East Japan Railway Company) announced that they will be restoring a steam locomotive in response to the devastating earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, in their attempts to revive tourism in the Tohoku region. 2-6-2 ("Prairie") C58 #239 was picked for that purpose - steam locomotive restoration for economic stimulus!

C58 #239 had been on display at Iwate Prefecture Transportation Park near the City of Morioka since 1973, the year when it retired from service. As with many of JR East's steam locomotives (D51 #498, C61 #20, C57 #180), #239 was shipped to the Omiya facility in Saitama Prefecture for restoration work. I'm sure the #239 was no stranger to the mechanical guys at Omiya, as they restored the sister C58 #363 in 1988, the steam that runs on the Chichibu Railway's (秩父鉄道) Paleo Express.

After the restoration was finished in December of 2013, the C58 #239 went through several test runs, and pulled a charter for Fuji Television in March of 2014, just one week before I made my first visit to Japan last year. Darn, just missed it.

I returned to Japan a month later in April and found out that JR East had started the SL Ginga (SL 銀河) train on the 12th of that month which featured the C58 #239. No private charter this time, the excursion was open to the public, including JR Rail Pass users like me.

- SL Ginga going across the bridge at Rikuchu-Ohashi (陸中大橋). The train just finished climbing a horseshoe curve that's all inside a tunnel. More on this later.

- SL Ginga going across the Miyamori River Arch Bridge (宮守川橋梁). Nickname is Eyeglass Bridge (めがね橋), which is what the railfans I met called it, but there are other famous Eyeglass Bridges in Japan. I got this during my October trip last year.

- Video of SL Ginga ride & chase, to be described next.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/06/15 22:24 by cchan006.

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SL Ginga runs east on JR East's Kamaishi Line (釜石線) from Hanamaki (花巻) to Kamaishi (釜石) on Saturday, then makes a return trip on Sunday. I had already planned a chase of the D51 #498 steam locomotive to Minakami on Saturday, April 19, so I attempted a reservation on the Sunday return trip. I was going to start my morning in Tokyo, hop on the Shinkansen for a 500 km (311 miles) trip to Shin-Hanamaki (新花巻), take a DMU Rapid to Kamaishi, then hop on the SL Ginga for the return trip. The alert ticket agent warned me that I only had 4 minutes to transfer from the DMU to the SL Ginga at Kamaishi, which only had 3-4 seats left. I politely accepted his warning, and booked the reservation anyway.

The agent didn't need to know that I had a ride & chase planned, where I was going to de-train the SL Ginga and catch up to it riding a DMU. I could have afforded to miss the transfer at Kamaishi, which I didn't. FYI, JR East has adjusted the schedules this year so there are 3 more minutes to make that transfer now.

First clip in the video is at Kamaishi, where I'm arriving onboard the DMU Rapid Hamayuri #1. C58 #239 and SL Ginga is sitting at the station waiting to depart.

I de-trained at Rikuchu-Ohashi, and let the SL Ginga leave me behind. I was the only passenger to take this risk. I jogged over to a location about 1 km away (0.6 miles) where I could view the railroad bridge from below, and got the second clip. Other railfans got there by car.

I was the only fool to loiter at the station for the next 50 minutes for the next westbound DMU. A gentleman from nearby building came out and introduced himself as the volunteer caretaker of the station. He politely reminded me to close all the doors of the waiting room before I boarded the train, so the wind wouldn't blow the leaves in. I accepted his request.

I caught up to the SL Ginga at Tono (遠野), where the C58 #239 was making an 1 hour 13 minute stop to get more water and coal. This was also a tourist stop for the passengers. I get the third clip here, where the 110 Series DMU that I rode to catch up is accelerating past the C58 #239.

#239 is done with refueling and mechanical inspection, so it reverses back to the train in the fourth clip. I chose to avoid the crowd by getting this clip from outside the station platform.

I'm onboard the SL Ginga in the fifth clip as the train departs Miyamori (宮守). There are two whistles heard. First one is from the C58, and second one is from the train set. I'll explain that later.

I returned to Miyamori 6 months later on an October Saturday specifically to get the sixth and last clip, SL Ginga crossing the Eyeglass Bridge. The machine gun shutters are going off everywhere! Once again, I started my morning in Tokyo and travelled several hundred miles.

- "Unicchi" at Kamaishi Station. This mascot promotes sea urchin donburi, one of Kamaishi's specialties.
- Cherry blossoms at a distance, few minutes after departing Kamaishi.
- I think the girl makes the shot, not block the shot. At Rikuchu-Ohashi, before I marooned myself here.

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Ginga (銀河) means galaxy or Milky Way (literally translated, "silver river") in Japanese. Both the anime classic Ginga Tetsudo 999 (銀河鉄道 999, Galaxy Express 999) and SL Ginga were inspired by Kenji Miyazawa's (宮沢賢治) novel, Night on the Galactic Railroad (銀河鉄道の夜). The novel was published posthumously in 1934, a year after Miyazawa's death, and is considered a classic. Besides the idea of a train travelling the stars, however, the anime and the novel share very little in common in terms of themes and plots.

Kenji Miyazawa was born in August 27, 1896, in the Hanamki (花巻市) area. The nearest railroad line happens to be the Kamaishi Line, where SL Ginga runs, and the nickname for that line is "Ginga Dreamline" a reference to Miyazawa's novel.

One of the themes explored in the novel is people dying too young. The grade school age protagonist's best friend dies in the story, and he meets kids onboard the Galactic Railroad which implies they just died from the sinking of the Titanic. In real life, Kenji Miyazawa's beloved sister died too young. He was born only two months after a major earthquake and tsunami devastated the region, so there is an eerie parallel to the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that inspired JR East to restore the C58 #239. Like the Galactic Railroad, SL Ginga symbolizes the journey to the afterlife, and reinforces the theme that those who survive must stay strong. These themes led me to choose locations where the train is seemingly travelling to the stars.

- Crew member pondering. When I wasn't doing the train-chasing-train routine, I did some pondering onboard the train, too, thinking about the novel, the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, so unfortunately, I didn't socialize with anyone on the otherwise very memorable trip.

- One last shot at Rikuchu-Ohashi before I jogged ~1/2 mile to get the second clip in the video.

- Onboard the chase DMU, I'm looking back at the location where I got the bridge shot at Rikuchu-Ohashi.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/15 01:57 by cchan006.

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Here are some shots at Rikuchu-Ohashi while I waited 50 minutes for my chase train.

- View of a nearby mountain from the Rikuchu-Ohashi station platform. Cement structure was used to load hoppers for a mining operation. You can see an abandoned tunnel past it.

- East portal of the horseshoe-curve-in-the-tunnel. I'm looking in the westbound direction, which would be toward Hanamaki. I'm facing north geographically.

- My chase DMU (110 Series) arrives after waiting patiently for ~50 minutes, minus the time spent walking back ~1/2 mile. The name "Minajo" in roman alphabet and katakana is the name of the station in Esperanto. Kenji Miyazawa had fascination with the language.

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- Tono Station. Two cars in the foreground are Toyota Crown taxis, which are ubiquitous in Japan.

- Roster shot of C58 (nickname "Shigohachi" or "シゴハチ") #239 at Tono.

- Mama-tetsu ("ママ鉄"), or mothers who take their kids railfanning, spotted at Tono.

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SL Ginga actually uses a diesel helper on the trip.

When D51 #498 pulled steam excursions on the Kamaishi Line several years ago, the train required diesel helpers coupled to the front of the train, so the passengers wouldn't suffer from the smoke, and the crews wouldn't suffocate when the train made the climb inside the horseshoe-curve-in-the-tunnel at Rikuchu-Ohashi. Both Tori-tetsu (撮り鉄, photographer-railfans) and Nori-tetsu (乗り鉄, rider-railfans) got increasingly snarky about the helpers, so JR East eventually cancelled the steam excursion.

So whaddaya think, diesel helper whiners? :-)

JR East got creative for SL Ginga, since this train (as an economic stimulus) was too important to screw up. The "passenger cars" behind the C58 #239 are actually a self-propelling DMU set. The diesels operate only inside the horseshoe/tunnel, but otherwise remain idle. That explains the two whistles heard departing Miyamori in my video, the steam crew blowing the whistle, and the diesel crew doing the same.

- View of the cab of the lead car in the DMU set. C58's tender is visible. The crews remain there for the entire trip, in case they are needed. The brake handle is off (not visible), so the steam crew has full control of the air brakes.

- Old photograph of Kenji Miyazawa, the author for the novel, Night on the Galactic Railroad. Many of his other novels are geared for children who have just become proficient in reading, perfect for those learning the Japanese language.

- Interior of one of SL Ginga's passenger cars are done in Taisho Era (大正時代, 1912-1926) style. JR East recruited the talents of none other than Ken Okuyama (a.k.a. Kiyoyuki Okuyama, 奥山清行), that industrial designer who has designed Camaros, Porsches, Ferraris, and Shinkansens E6 and E7.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/15 01:52 by cchan006.

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- Souvenir store inside the train.

- There's also a planetarium on the train. The lady attendant of the planetarium is caught pondering here.

- Looking back toward the viewing area of the Eyeglass Bridge near Miyamori, where I returned 6 months later to get a video clip.

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- Horse and rider chasing the SL Ginga. Tono area is known for breeding horses for riding and racing.

- Chasers and pacers. Lead car is a 1980s era Toyota Crown. When new, these were used for taxis back then, too.

- Mom, look! (汽車ぽっぽ!)

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Steam excursions bring out all sorts of people, whether in Japan, the U.S., or anywhere else around the world.

- Casual railfans, seen at Tsuchizawa Station (土沢駅).

- Serious railfans, seen near Tono: well-dressed, hat-backwards, compact camcorder, Canon L lens, and so forth.

- VERY serious railfans, seen between Tsuchizawa and Shin-Hanamaki.

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The gents in the last picture have some serious hardware there.

Your megane bridge in the first photo appears to have the abutments of an even older span in front of it. The big concrete aqueducts for the Shinkansen don't have the same class. I hope to visit that area to the north sometime.

Railpax71 Wrote:
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> Your megane bridge in the first photo appears to
> have the abutments of an even older span in front
> of it. The big concrete aqueducts for the
> Shinkansen don't have the same class. I hope to
> visit that area to the north sometime.

The older span was constructed in 1915, and that's the bridge Kenji Miyazawa knew. The current span was constructed in 1943.

The city of Miyamori installed colorful lights in the 1980s to light it up at night, and I believe JR East ran a night special SL Ginga last year to take advantage of it. Hopefully, you'll get to see THAT, or autumn colors with the C58.