Nogami Railway (abolished 1994)

[bill937ca]

The Nogami Railway was a minor private railway abolished in 1994 with scenes described as being typical of 50 years prior to that. A 11.4 km local private railwlay of this scale was described as being obselete in the late 1960s.

 

Wooden stations, handwritten timetables, wooden platform shelters, vintage equipment....

 

Nice photo article here.  Don't miss page 2!

 

http://tsushima-keibendo.a.la9.jp/kisyuu/nokami1.html

 

http://tsushima-keibendo.a.la9.jp/kisyuu/nokami2.html

 

 

 

Edited November 12, 2016 by bill937ca

[Densha]

Very nice! I really like the narrow loading gauge and short car length. Including the scenery, this may be amongst the best inspirational interurban line I have found for modelling.

 

Now only if there was more information on the web about the freight activities on this line. According to several websites, there were apparently freight services on this line until 1972, when these were abolished. Except for a rare picture of a flat car, I've yet to come across any imagery of these freight activities though.

[kvp]

I've found this on wikipedia:

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/野上電気鉄道

貨車[編集]

ト10形

11 -南海電鉄自社製貨車を同社から購入し1972年に入線。紀伊野上駅常備の砕石輸送用事業用貨車。

チ10t形

11・12 -南海電鉄自社製貨車を同社から購入し1972年に入線。重根駅常備のレール輸送用事業用貨車。

廃線時にはこのほかに廃車貨車が2両、資材置き場として姿を留めていた。1両はトチ3、残る1両は番号不明の無蓋車であった。

So one ballast car, two rail transport flatcars one material storage (box) car and one open car. It looks like mow equipment only. I would guess if they had any revenue freight it was private owner box and flatcars, mostly 2 axles. An older passenger motor car could handle 2 or 3 of these. (both as dedicated freight and as mixed passenger/goods)

 

I also found one picture that had a nankai bo-bo centercab locomotive with two open cars and a caboose/boxcar combo and the text under it mentioned this line.

[velotrain]

Short 1960 train including a lead car with end luggage platforms, and a boxcar

 

http://umemado.blogspot.com/2010/08/blog-post_22.html

 

 

This site has many more images of the above stock, and one with the train from the boxcar end

 

http://drfc-ob.com/wp/archives/date/2008/11

 

 

Low-sided gond, and a Hoki in the background

 

http://blog.livedoor.jp/nainen60/archives/65840021.html

 

 

Another site showing a steel-sided, 4-wheel gond,

as well as a yard track plan - before the final days

 

http://cedarben.blog.so-net.ne.jp/2010-08-29

 

 

No freight, but some fine vintage shots - the last one is particularly interesting

 

http://www.localline.jpn.com/06kinki/nogami/nogami.html

 

 

A site with quality images of several / many lines, including three of the yard

 

http://shiotsu.blog.so-net.ne.jp/archive/c316193-3

 

 

More period images

 

http://c5557.photoland-aris.com/nogami1978.htm

 

 

kvp - I saw the bo-bo centercab images also, but believe the date given was the mid-90's, so was uncertain of their validity.

 

 

[marknewton]

I have a Neko book on the Nogami Railway. According to it, the line had one freight loco, a simple 4-wheel box motor on a Brill 21E truck. It carried the number "3".

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Densha]

Ah, very nice! That must be 野上電鉄デワ3 then. If you do a Google search with that search term, at least one photo should pop up.

[Sacto1985]

I believe that this railway's western terminus was next to Kainan Station on the JR West Kisei Line, a couple of stations south of JR West Wakayama Station. It's not a surprise you see pictures of these trains going by mikan orchids since this is the heart of the mikan growing region on Wakayama Prefecture.

[velotrain]

Ah, very nice! That must be 野上電鉄デワ3 then. If you do a Google search with that search term, at least one photo should pop up.

 

That's a sound theory, but . . . . .

 

A few images of the Chōshi Dentetsu mini steeplecab #3 are among the results, but no box cab.

[Kabutoni]

Sometimes, a search beyond only images will also find you images. Very small ones, but still:

- http://page9.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/k207879588

- http://page22.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/l338388662

 

Looks like a similar unit that used to run on the Akita Kotsu network, as well as the one in the heritage fleet of Shizutetsu (sans European style buffers).

[Densha]

A few images of the Chōshi Dentetsu mini steeplecab #3 are among the results, but no box cab.

That's strange. It disappeared in my search results as well now. Just a few hours ago it still was there. Anyway, it showed the same loco as in the pictures Toni linked to.

[kvp]

Actually that is a cargo tram and even the Hakone Tozan had one. They were once popular on tram networks and many smaller lines got them when they became surplus. The brill frame indicates that they were possibly rebuilt older wooden body passenger trams as purpose built ones had much simplier suspensions that looked more like freight cars.

[velotrain]

To my eyes the engine in the second photo appears longer, and it seems to be hauling some rolling stock the Nogami Railway didn't own - it looks more like an industrial railway?

 

I can't translate the page, so don't know what the text is.

[marknewton]

It's the same box motor that's illustrated in the book. I no longer have a desktop computer or scanner, so in the morning I'll try to take a photo of the page in the book and post it.

 

As for the box motor having a Brill 21E truck, I disagree with the suggestion that it's a rebuild of a passenger car. There were many box motors/freight cars in Japan built new with 21Es.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[velotrain]

Mark - I'm sure the first photo is the same as the book, but don't know how you could ID what's shown in the second photo based on the angle and lack of detail. 

 

It looks to be distinctly longer than the wagons it's hauling, and I'm not sure that would be true if it was the same box motor.

[bill937ca]

Here are all four videos from RVDRV (including P-3 posted earlier) dating from 1989-1990 showing flat front interurbans equipped for floor loading only, token-coil exchanges, wooden cross-bean catenary supports and views inside the repair shops.  This line has been described as a relic of 1960s Japan.

 

P-1

 

P-2

 

P-3

 

P-4

Edited March 14, 2017 by bill937ca

[marknewton]

If you were modelling in 1/80th scale, you could modify some of these cars to represent Nogami Railway cars, as some were sold by Chitetsu to Nogami when the Imizu and Sasazu lines were closed:

 

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10455126

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.