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Yeah, pretty fancy.  The one with the brass flower on the front was the engine for carting the emperor around.

 

The cars that look like lionel dump cars must be ore cars.  They have those big bases with a smaller hopper, so I'm guessing they are for something heavier than coal.  

 

I haven't been to a hobby shop, but there are these stores called Yodobashi Camera, which are multi-floor stores with all kinds of electronics.  There are a couple train sections, all N and HO, one area is lower level kid stuff, the other is the better stuff.

 

Trains:

 

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Trains:

 

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The better trains:

 

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This sign says "Techan World" in the black letters:

 

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Hi Charlie, haha, I don't know how to read that "luck you."  I don't travel much, but I am a softy when it comes to being away from my little daughter.  This kinda sucks to be honest, but there are small chances for some fun.

 

Hi Charles, yeah, there are a lot of those anime kind of characters everywhere here.  I haven't seen one drop of tagging.

 

Hi George, no O at all.  The guy that took me around never really heard of it, but knows of HO and N.

 

Hi Mack,  Yes, there are train fans everywhere I suppose.  But, techan doesn't have any better connotation then foamer to be sure, so that is the same too.  Tetsudo means railway (literally iron road I think), that is the first part of the word "te" and chan is used instead of "san" when you refer to someone close to you, e.g., "Pete-chan" instead of Pete-san" if Pete is your really close friend. So techan means really close friends with the railroad.

 

I took the N700 Shinkansen today, but couldn't get any good pics.  Here are some stock pics of the exterior: 

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Here are a couple shots from inside.  Nothing real special here.  Acela is nicer imo, even though slower: 

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A shot of the countryside somewhere between Osaka and Tokyo: 

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I am lucky enough to be staying a The Tokyo Station Hotel, which has been under reconstruction/refurbishment since 2006.  It just reopened at the beginning of this month.

 

A view from my room: 

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South side:

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South side entrance to the station:

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Whatever you call this, the main entrance?  I don't know if you can even go in this way:

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This third story corner is where my room is, see photo from inside above.  The hotel is only 3 stories, which is odd being in the middle of Tokyo:

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The renovation seems to have been quite an undertaking.  At some point the roof was changed (well, I think it was "changed" by some bombs during WWII, and then reconstructed in a simpler, cheaper manner), and the recent renovation included redoing the third floor upward to get the roof back to original. Note the top of the next photo, which shows the difference (you cannot read these, I just snapped pictures of framed illustrations in the hallways, but you can get the point): 

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They also put in earthquake isolation structures, see bottom shot (you can't read these photos, but note the columns under the building, those isolate the building from the earth somehow):

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This shows some more earthquake protection:

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A pic of the old post war roof: 

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A few pictures of the original (it says 1919 in the caption): 

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Arigato gozaimasu!

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Originally Posted by Seacoast:

I do not think you would see to much O scale,  to big For the smaller homes.

Absolutely!  Anyone who has ever been inside a Japanese home will understand this full well.  It's amazing that there's even a market for HO and Z in Japan given the typical home's space limitations.  My guess is that there are a good number of train clubs on a local and regional level.

 

Thanks for those photos, Jeff!  Very interesting!  Of course, train travel is a common form of public transportation in most every part of the world outside the U.S., so it stands to reason that there would attract considerable interest as a hobby pursuit.

Last edited by Allan Miller

Those are enjoyable photos, thank you for posting them.

 

Coincidently Umekoji first opened as a steam museum forty years ago this month.  About a year prior to that I visited there when it was still a working roundhouse, though with only a few locomotives assigned;  because of its proximity to Kyoto [ Central ], many locos, mostly non-steam, used it as a layover point though.  Here are a pair of photos, taken on a very gloomy day.  Things have certainly changed in the interval !

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Steinzeit, see, now there is a great part of this forum.  That you have photos from this place from so long ago is simply awesome.

 

Speaking of awesome, there is a new museum, The Hara Model Railway Museum, in Yokohama.  I went there today.  No photos allowed though.  It was KILLING me not to be able to take pictures.  This place is amazing.  I could go on and on about the place and its founder and owner of the collection, but check out the website http://www.hara-mrm.com/english/index.html.  And check out their youtube video:

 

 

 

In the video, they walk into a room with the glass cases, what they don't show on the video, it the right side wall, which includes many US engines, (by makers I do not know), PRR S1, C&O Allegheny, a Dryfus Hudson and matching passenger cars, a Western Maryland Shay, all in mostly 1:30 scale and some in 1:48 scale.  He has some old Lionel postwar and prewar.  Dude's like 93 years old.  They were showing some of his films, he says he is one of the first techan.

 

Here's another video, showing the opening ceremony.  Kind neat to see toy trains presented in this way.

 

Last edited by pennsy484
Originally Posted by pennsy484:

Speaking of awesome, there is a new museum, The Hara Model Railway Museum, in Yokohama.  I went there today.  No photos allowed though.  It was KILLING me not to be able to take pictures.  This place is amazing. 

 

Amazing indeed!  Very cool!  No photos allowed though?  See, the York Meet is not alone in that regard.   However, I can understand the reasoning of the museum folks in that regard.

 

I assume the layout we see running is HO scale?

 

Thanks for a series of very intriguing posts!  Enjoy the remainder of your stay in Japan.

I took this shot from the conference room of the firm where I was meeting people (before they got there, heehee).  This is the working end of the station.  Note the station building on the right, a shinkansen train entering at the top, and another at the station at 9 o'clock on the picture.

 

I noticed on the train ride back from the museum today that the mainline is 8 tracks.  So many trains, it is completely confusing.  I wonder what its like in China, must be even more.

 

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I was stationed in Japan in 1957. It was my last year before discharge and I had 30 days leave stored up which I used to ride trains. Mainline all steam, most commute electric. First class Fukuoka to Tokyo, $17 U.S. Beautiful old cars with varnished wood interiors with a vase and fresh flower on the wall between each seat.  Food, for me, was a box purchased through the window. I still remember my first experience with that green "horse radish" - OMG!

 

Hundreds of slides (lost in a flood :<( ) taken with my new PX purchased Leica M3. The PX at Johnson was 5 stories high. Lots of bargains. Tenshodo shop was there on the Ginsa.  I think its still in the same location.

Last edited by zhyachts

Noted on the tape of the 4-6-4 under steam, that she had silver or white marks on the wheels. Is this for decoration or for a functional purpose? The Rio Grande narrow gauge freight equipment had similar marks on their wheels, but I presume that was to preclude sticking brake shoes and flat wheels.  Any thoughts?

      The 4-6-4's whistle would have been right at home on a Burlington S4 4-6-4!

Hello Spence,  thank you.  It was a good trip.  Actually it was last year, but I just recently added some pics once I realized I had not lost all the pics from the trip as I had feared!

 

Hello Mark.  Yeah, I always wonder about those white marks.  I have no idea what they are for, measuring something I guess.  Maybe the real-world railroaders here would know.  The whistle does sound great.  I find these engines to be very classy looking too.

Last edited by pennsy484

Mark and pennsy484,

 

Generally those "white marks" are placed on tired wheels in order to detect if the tire ever slips on the wheel center. The line or stripe is painted across the joint between the tire and wheel center, in a continuous pattern. Thus if the tire ever slips the slightest amount, an inspector would quickly notice the "stair step" in the painted line. 

 

I did notice, however, that the Engine Truck also had the white stripes. Are the Engine Truck wheels tired also?

Ahhh, that makes sense. Having seen a picture of a Northern Pacific A class 4-8-4 with a slipped driver tire hanging on the rods, could well imagine the catastrophic results of a slipped tire at 80 mph! The engine truck (I am practicing: "engine truck", "engine truck"; have almost completely replaced "lead truck" in my lexicon!!) appears to have solid wheels, but maybe those wheels were tired, in some odd cost-savings effort.   

Dynamite photos and wonderful thread.  Brought back pleasant memories as I rode in one of the wood passenger cars when I traveled from Gotemba (back side of Mt. Fuji) to Tokyo.  At different stations Japanese practiced their English on me.  They also let me know how proud they were that song Sukiyaki was selling so well in the US.

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