steam in Tokyo

Busy week first night out I head to Ginza, Tokyo's equivalent of Piccadilly, just upscaled.

First thing I find, this fascinating 2-6-4t standing on a display surrounded by more neon than I could imagine.
Apologies for the quality it was taken by iPhone, but will return with camera this weekend !

 

What a contrast - a piece of heritage surrounded by such modernity

 

A good and not too long excursion is to take JR to Kamakura, then the Enoden along the coast, and then back by the Shonan monorail (suspended, more fun that the saddle type) from Enoshima to Ofuna, and back to Tokyo on JR. No steam but the Enoden is ridiculously photogenic.

 

Thanks for that, I am leaving today (only had 1 day spare from work), but did make it to the Tokyo Transport Museum, hopefully next time I will have a full weekend to explore further, Japans countryside looks great and there is regular, mainline steam I noticed many adverts for around the JR stations.

 

Here's a few pictures of the Toyko Railway Musuem, Saitama .. about 1 hours by Metro from Tokyo mainstation, at the terminal station of Omiya, it is 1 stop further by the smaller metro (known as the New Shuttle) to the railway museum.

THE RAILWAY MUSEUM

The collection is laid out very well and includes no less than 5 driving simulators, including a moving simulator of the footplate of a steam locomotive (the regular, whistle, brakes etc all have a responding sound effect controlled by the person in the driving seat !, applying the brakes slows the cab ride video and the vibrating cab, and opening the regulator too fast induces wheel slip and vibration !!!



The collection starts off witht first steam locomotive in Japan (appropriately numbered No 1) a 2-4-0T, which is a product of Newton Le Willows, Vulcan Foundry no 614 of 1871

Right behind it sits Manning Wardle 815 of 1881 and 0-6-0T numbered 1292.



The collection includes an American product of Philadelphia in 1880 as well as moving onto Japanese locomotives developed through the 1940's including some impressive 4-6-2s.

Moving more modern the focus naturally shifts towards the development of the Bullet train. The High Speed concept actually dates to a 1940's (empirical plan) to run from Tokyo to Singapore via South Korea and China using high speed steam and electric, but WW2 ended that plan. The Shinkansen dates to 1964, the original Bullet trains being now in the museum, yet steam continued in Japan until 1975.


The Shinkansen runs alongside the suburban lines around Tokyo on separate tracks (Shinkansens being std gauge, the rest of the network being 3ft 6, I didnt see any dual gauge track)... the Shinkansen is certainly frequent, they were running past every few minutes from various destinations during my time there. My return from Omiya to Tokyo was somewhat faster, by taking the Shinkansen (1500 yen, about £12) back to Tokyo in around 30 minutes.



Finally a couple of pictures of the 2-6-4T at Shimbashi..

oh and a taxi with a difference..

 

Thanks for the pics. Bizarrely, the scenic Hakone Yumoto - Gora line (another day trip from Tokyo, by Odakyu from Shinjuku or JR/Shinkanesn to Odawara) is also standard gauge.

 

The museum at Umekoji is also well worth a look.

RailPictureLibrary | Japanese Heritage Railways