Tramway museum in Brussels

  Museum of Brussels Urban Transport seems to be one of the biggest tram museum in Europe. We can enjoy not only normal exhibition but also heritage tram-riding into the town.

 

 

There is a combination ticket with visiting museum and historic tram-trip. 



It is possible to ride the tram from some station which the historic vehicles run through.

 

 

Tourist Tramway also run about 40km occasionally (see official website).

 

 

 

 Tram depot style museum offers also the opportunity of looking historic buses.

 

 

There are various non-revenue equipment. It looks like the special car for cleaning railroad.

 

Brussels public transport system has changed dynamically rather than Japanese one. In other words, scrap and build is effective to save money for maintain of whole regional transportation of 2.6 million population. The combination between previous tram and new underground network have same tariff system and offer convenient transfer in the underground stations. Some abandoned tram lines were replaced with metro or integrated to 'Pre-metro'.

 

 In the city centre, the tram runs into the underground network. Some of them are called 'Pre-metro', because the network is considered to conversion the real metro system in advance.  

 



 

Anyway, it is worth to visit Brussels if you are interested in transport systems.

http://www.trammuseumbrussels.be/

(2013/2/28)

 

 

 

Blue Commets in the 1960s of Japan

People often feel nostalgia for the golden age.

For Japanese, the 1960's was one of the significant epoc in their history.

People could recover from dark memory of surrendering WW2 and

get miracle economic development.

Some groups such as the Blue Commets and the Peanuts tried to sell their recoad abroad.  The Blue Commets was originally a support band for solo singer.

The Blue Commets became one of the earliest Japanese beat band in the 1960s by chance. Because the singer, which the group should support, was late for delaying train. They had no choice but to sing without main vocal. The performance got over the footlights. It was a chance to step up their activities.

Blue Commets in The Ed Sullivan Show

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7MtMqCKLBk

(20/Feb/2013)

Hokkaido narrow-gauge preserved railcar

The scene of Hokkaido, which located in Northern Japan, looks like somewhere in Eastern Europe.

 

There were a lot of small narrow gauge networks in Hokkaido until the 1960s.

Hokkaido is a frontier in Japan against Russia and many people migrated after Meiji-resolution. There were no good roads in the rural area, therefore, it was necessary to build narrow-gauge with low-costing operation. After motorisation, the networks were  totally abandoned except 'Maruseppu' park's one.

Sometimes the SL/DL runs inside the park. If you are interested in this park, it is better to contact with Engaru-town near Abashiri in advance.


http://engaru.jp/kankou_info/maruseppu/sinrin-kouen/ikoinomori.html

(Japanese only)

Contact address: shokou^engaru.jp : please change from ^ to @ due to avoiding spams

 

However, we can see preserved locos and DMUs.

For example, in Bekkai-town (roughly 40 km from Nemuro-Nakashibetsu Airport), there are one DMU and DL.

DMU

DL

Ruin of the turn-table

Ruin of the depot

There are some amazing pictures taken in 1968, when the 762mm line still run.

http://homepage3.nifty.com/m_horikoshi/3KaniKidou/_Rk_01_bekkai.htm
(Japanese only)

This HP uploaded great valuable pictures of the other narrow-gauges in Eastern Hokkaido.

http://omotetsu.art.coocan.jp/hamanaka01.htm
(Japanese only but worth to see)


(08/Feb/2013)