WelcomeToCatcliffeDemon

Japan rivals the UK for lack of loco-hauled.

ALTHOUGH I DIDN’T do much train watching on my holiday in Japan in 2001, I did travel extensively by rail in the southern half of the country and I was disappointed but the almost complete lack of loco-hauled trains that I saw in action (or travelled on!). I think I can remember seeing something like ten locomotives maximum, and managed to photograph even less, and none that I consider half decent.

Of course, I wasn’t expecting much; my cursory investigations before the trip had informed me that the country had multiple-unit-ized itself pretty comprehensively, for what had seemed like forever, and scenes like that pictured above were the kind of thing that I was likely to find repeated all over the places I was planning to visit.

This, by the way, is 813 series EMU No. R214 of the Kyushu Railway Company approaching Hakata station, on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, with a local passenger service on May 8th, 2001.

What I wasn’t ready for, was just how much the country had changed since the 1970s. I recently bought a fascinating book called Electrics and Diesel Japan (El- und Diesellok/Locomotives electriques et diesel), a tri-language English/German/French publication produced in 1979 by Swedish publisher Frank Stenvalls Förlagg, which is a contemporary study of the locomotives that could be seen in Japan in the late 1970s.

The variety was enormous, with ac and dc machines, bi-current electrics and plenty of different diesel types too. A quick count up gives around 40-50 different classes, although there is a strong family resemblance that runs through much of the fleet, suggesting that many of these should be considered sub-types.

The pace of change since that heady period reminds me strongly of the growing ‘Sprinterisation’ that has overtaken the UK’s passenger railway scene in the same period, and what might be considered worse is that freight has never been a large part of the Japanese network either.

That’s not to say that the country is a total waste of space when it comes to trains, and the sheer novelty factor of a lot of the multiple units, and the steady flow of freight on some routes means that I’m excited about making my way to the country again to have a better look at the railways, as well as my first visit to points north of Tokyo.

One site that I check on a regular basis, that keeps me enthused about the railway network in Japan, is the Engrishy titled Train’s Memory 鉄道写真. A couple of recent updates have included some very nice looking locations and trains, for example: here, here and here. Encouraging stuff.

Hopefully I’ll get something better than the last trip…

Built in 1973, ED 76 class Bo-2-Bo No. ED 76 61 of the Kyushu Railway Company awaits its next duty at Nagasaki, Japan, on May 9th 2001. These locomotives were built for service on the southern island of Kyushu and were originally allocated to Moji, Oita and Kagoshima.