Steam Locomotive in Japan (1970s)

There are lots of attractive video, which can be seen via Youtube.

C62, in 1971 Niseko , Hokkaido

C56 in 1972, Kobumi-line, Yamanashi-Nagano prefecture

C56 in Yasukuni-Shinto shrine in 1970s

C62 of 1996 in Hokkaido.




Now, Japan and Taiwan team up for steam train tourism.


CK124 (Japanese C12) and CK101 in Taiwan of 2012

（CK124 Source: Wikipedia)

There are some detailed articles about the tourism alliance.

Taiwan Today

Taipei Times

Groupsounds and the end of Steam Locomotive era was synchronising in Japanese society in the late 1960's and the early 1970s.

It was nostalgic memory about Japanese glorious days.
Gin-No-Kusari

(2013/08/24)

Lupin DMU in Hokkaido, Japan

 

DMU type Kiha-54 522, which was painted with  Lupin III,  runs between Kushiro and Nemuro, Hokkaido(northern island of Japan.

 

Lupin III (ルパン三世)  is one of the most famous Japanese manga series and the animation programmes and movies. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupin_III

The fiste original programme was bloadcasted in 1968.

 

There is a cutey woman called 'Fujiko' in the booking office of  Hamanaka-station.

 

 

 

She is a sexy heroine, but sometime does down main character Lupin the third ;)

 

The music of the animation programme is also cool and Jazzy.

 

Main character  Lupin waits for you at the platform of Hamanaka-station. The author was born in the town. Information about Hamanaka-tonw is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamanaka,_Hokkaido

 

 

JR(Japan railway)Hokkaido offers the information with English.

http://www2.jrhokkaido.co.jp/global/index.html

 

(2013/03/08)

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)