Jump to content

Japanese Trams


Guest bill937ca

Recommended Posts

Guest bill937ca

As I will soon (within the next two weeks) be posting photos of revised my tram line and my mainline elevated operation, I'd thought I'd give you some info on Japanese trams.

 

 

The days of citywide tram systems in the major cities like Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kobe and Kyoto are gone.  But trams continue to run in about 14 cities.  The largest systems are in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Kochi.

 

Most trams like most Japanese buses are center or rear entrance and front exit. Passengers take zone claim on boarding the car and pay at the front on leaving the tram.

 

Model trams are available from Modemo in N gauge and on occasion have been available from Kato.  There are also a couple of European suppliers of modern cars operated in Europe and Japan.

 

Tomix makes a system of track covers that allows you to pave straight, or (103mm, 140mm, 177mm)  curved track as tram track. This system also allows you to create 90 degree crossovers, 140-30 switches for sidings either right or left and a safety island type loading stop. And that's what I'm doing today.

 

There are cars up to 80 years old of Hankai Tramway's 160 series running today on the Hankai Tramway's three lines in Osaka.

 

 

 

More to come....

Link to comment
Guest bill937ca

In Nagasaki along a modern street.

 

 

Notice the traffic stays off the tracks.  Stops like that stop can be created with kits from Greenmax.

Link to comment
Guest bill937ca

Hiroshima is the largest tram system in Japan.  Outside the main JR terminal is a three track stub end terminal.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEPYec2S3Lo&feature=related

 

Stub end terminal track plan at JR station:

 

http://tawamu.web2.jp/shindensha5/img004.gif

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEqXl5wqqaY&feature=related

 

Hiroshima runs modern cars and veterans of many long years.

 

Link to comment
Martijn Meerts

I've checked the movies here again the past few days. After getting my S.K.I.P Go II recently, and the Yuko Go, and many others, I've started thinking about some tram modules. Initial idea would be to have 1 terminal station, 1 relatively large station, a few small stops in between, and a hidden storage area/return loop.

 

For the terminal station, I really like:

img004.gif

 

And for the large station I was thinking something like:

img003.gif

 

 

The nice thing about these trams is that you can have quite a bit of track, and go completely wild both with rural scenery as well as very urban scenery. Trams could travel through quiet area's, make a turn, and end up in a busy street, or drive straight through someone's backyard. There's just a lot of charm in those trams, especially the Hiroshima trams look great with old and new right next to each other.

 

The modules could also be built in such a way that they can be used as standalone modules, but also as a combination with other modules, like for example my Tokyo Station idea ;)

 

Hmm.. I really should move to some cheap town in the US and get a large house with a massive basement, I'm getting way too many modules if I'm to build everything I want to build =)

Link to comment

Another good thing about Japanese trams is that they travel well. Here are some views of Nagasaki 1054, originally Sendai 120. It is now in the collection of the Sydney Tramway Museum, of which I am a member.

 

y6on7s.jpg

 

 

y94khl.jpg

 

 

y94khm.jpg

 

 

y94khp.jpg

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Link to comment
alpineaustralia

Absolutely great museum.

My little boy and I had a great time there only a few weeks ago.

We saw the Sendai / Nagasaki tram but it was cramped up in the shed.

Good to see it out and about.

 

Here are some of my photos from that day....

post-29-13569921974343_thumb.jpg

post-29-13569921974935_thumb.jpg

post-29-135699219754_thumb.jpg

Link to comment

Glad you and the young bloke enjoyed your visit, AA. Sorry you missed seeing Madam Butterfly out and about. 1054 is used in traffic once a month, but  on the day I took these photos I'd spent the morning adjusting the brakes and doing a few other odd jobs. Once I 'd finished I took her out for a test trip to make sure everything was okay.

 

If you let me know  before you visit, I can always arrange to have her outside the shed and available for traffic.

 

And that's a very nice photo of 1979 at Railway Square, BTW.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Link to comment
alpineaustralia

I'd love to take you up on that offer Mark.

My soon to be 5 years old is obsessed with Japanese trains, other trains, trams and buses - in that order.

Do you drive the trams yourself?

Link to comment

I'd love to take you up on that offer Mark.

My soon to be 5 years old is obsessed with Japanese trains, other trains, trams and buses - in that order.

Do you drive the trams yourself?

 

Sorry for the long delay in replying, I haven't visited this board for a while!

 

I'm not on the traffic roster at Loftus, so I'm qualified as a "shed driver". I can run the cars when empty only, which suits me, as I'm mainly involved in maintenance and restoration. But the offer still stands, we expect to have a big event day early in 2009, when the newly restored Sydney J car returns to traffic. I'll keep you posted!

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

Link to comment

Japanese tram photos on nycsubway.org 

 

http://world.nycsubway.org/asia-oceania/japan.html

 

Currently images of the Tokyo Metro are being added daily.  These images are number 224 and up to 381 (as of today).  Here's a couple of examples:

 

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?93555

 

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?93508

 

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?93446

Link to comment

Japanese tram photos on nycsubway.org 

 

http://world.nycsubway.org/asia-oceania/japan.html

 

Currently images of the Tokyo Metro are being added daily.  These images are number 224 and up to 381 (as of today).  Here's a couple of examples:

 

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?93555

 

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?93508

 

http://world.nycsubway.org/perl/show?93446

 

I swear I just saw this post on the J-trains group today  ??? My brain now hurts.

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...