Human Renaissance (Music)

The Tigers played Baroque Pop in their album 'Human Renaissance'.

It was inspired from the Bee Gees and the Beatles.

'Endless Rain' is one of the songs of the album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXHb0vGnaQE

'The Glorious World' is also introduced with an orchestra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT2fu1kZxSo

The Tigers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tigers_(Japanese_band)

The Latvian Railway history museum in Riga

There is a good railway museum in Riga, the capital of Latvia (Latvijas dzelzceļa vēstures muzejā).

http://www.railwaymuseum.lv/index-eng.htm

In your pocket also offers interesting infomation.

http://www.inyourpocket.com/latvia/riga/sightseeing/museums/Latvian-Railway-Museum_11203v

We could see rainbow by chance from the riverside of Daugava.


 

The museum located near the Stone Bridge.

 

DL and SL

 

Mobile crane

 

Former Soviet-build DL

 

DL

 

Snowplow 

 

Elektrichka

 

AnArmored coach (At first it was built for Eastern Chinese Railway!! During WW2 it was given to the USSR Armny)

 

A prisoner coach (it seemed to be built in Stalin era)

 

Type T3 (former German type 52)

 

DL

 

Narrow guage rail-truck

 

 

Tickets

Narrow guage loco

 

If you hava a chance, it is a good place for see and feel Latvian Railway history. They offers good DVD for Banitis.

 

(2013/3/21)

Tram of Trieste and Cafe Bianca

      Tram in Trieste (Tram di Opicina Linea 2) is one of the most unique tramway system in the world. It looks like a normal tram at the city centre. However, a cable loco pulls and down the tram from the town to the hill.

At Opicina station

At the city centre of Trieste

The promenade for Miramare 

 Detail might be seen on the official website.
 (http://www.tramdeopcina.it/tram/pages/tt2engl.htm).

There is also a good promotion video of the tram
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1grKGr3EsyY&feature=player_detailpage)

Lastly, the tram runs into village near the border with Slovenia. 


In the past, there was the tram network in Trieste. Only one route left. Some of the fleets can be seen at the railway museum along the Seaside.
(http://www.museoferroviariotrieste.it/)
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFS1a09zLwg)

At the museum

You can find some interesting photos there


        I often travelled former Austria-Hungary Empire with Julie (Kenji Sawada) songs. His song 'Cafe Bianca' makes you feel slightly 60's taste.. You can also feel Adrian sea-breath from Cafe Bianca.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xT2-jP0hT6Q




(2013/03/13)

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)

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)