International Railroad Discussion > Semi-Random JR Freight Trains (Japan)

I haven't posted a Japanese freight train report in a long time, so here's one from my visit to Japan in 2016.

My flight landed at Tokyo's Haneda Airport around 5 am. An average tourist might not know what to do, since you can't check into a hotel, the stores are closed for several hours, as well as most of the sightseeing spots in and around Tokyo. JR Rail Pass exchange offices were going to be closed for at least 2 hours (except in Shin-Yokohama, too far away) but I was NOT going to sit and wait at the airport as some people on my flight were planning to do.

So I took the least expensive option out of the airport by riding the Keikyu Line to Shinagawa, then transferred to a JR Keihin-Tohoku Line train. I had already missed the high value JR Freight targets, the Super Rail Cargo and Fukuyama Rail Express, so I headed north to Omiya, hoping to catch the rare marine container carrying train. That's the first clip.

Soon after that, a tank train showed up going the other direction, second clip.

I went to Tokyo station next to pick up my JR Rail Pass, bought the 2016 Edition of the JR Freight Timetable in Shinjuku, then headed to Komagome to document JR Freight #3086 taking the curve at the north end of Yamanote Freight Line, third clip. This is the same location where I accidentally caught the Yamanote Line E235 EMU in a report I posted just before this.

Train #3086 is the only daylight freight train to go through downtown Tokyo area (Shinjuku), in case people are wondering why it's significant.

Later in the afternoon, I headed to Sitte Station, which is on the Nanbu Line near Kawasaki. A light engine move showed up, fourth clip. I knew that the counterpart marine container carrying freight (#4073) was going to show up soon, so I waited - fifth clip. It was a pleasant surprise to see a second generation EF66 leading.

Next morning, I headed to Nishi-Kokubunji Station on the Musashino Line, to document Train #4072, the same marine container train I caught the morning before, sixth clip. Like the day before, EH500 "Kintaro" locomotive is the leader, and I get "highball the foamer."

That's it for the belated and quick report.

You must be a registered subscriber to watch videos. Join Today!

Great video but how to solve the 50hz flicker on the LED signals? This is one of my vexing problems as I record a lot of Shuwa under different lighting conditions. LED lighting doesn't coast like incadescent to provide an event transition between cycles. Our power here in Gunma is 50 hz and even if you are synced, 30 fps, and especially if I set a shutter speed of 1/250 the flicker destroys many videos.

I have been noticing the flicker on the signal lights and thought that the lights were designed to perform that way as a safety feature to call more attention to the signal by the locomotive Engineer but apparently the flicker is translated to the video at a different speed because of the constant pulsation generated by the lights which when viewed at it's display does not flicker when seen by the human eye and is caused by the difference of FPS when viewed by video.

Great pictures and thank you for posting them.

Jim
Hatboro, PA USA