Kobe Dentetsu - Shinkaichi to Sanda

[miyakoji]

Here's a nice zenmen tenbou video by HINTEL1824TRAIN of Kobe Dentetsu's service from Shinkaichi Station to Sanda Station.  This is via their Arima and Sanda lines, and at Sanda Station you can transfer to JR West.

 

[westfalen]

I rode the line last November, it's an interesting line with some very steep grades.

[Kabutoni]

Ah yes, Kobe Electric Railway. One of my 'best of' companies in Japan. A very under-appreciated company with quite a number of old EMU from the sixties and seventies running around, still.

 

P.s. I still have some plans and datasheets lying around for an add-on for OpenTTD (simulation game) for the Kobe Dentetsu. The only problem is realising it, since the Kobe railway had a lot of shuffling of rolling stock numbers and parts... OpenTTD isn't very forgiving when it comes to combining rolling stock and interchanging carriages, so something very creative needs to be done here. Ah well, something to think about when I actually start working on it. ;)

[Nick_Burman]

Fun! A mountain railway which thinks it is a commuter carrier, or a commuter carrier which thinks it is a mountain railway, take your pick...grades which would make many European operators think about adding a rack rail...trainsets obviously geared for power, not for speed....despite urbanization it is still quite a scenic line, especially in fall colours. The "back to front" (trailing) junction to the line to Woody Town Chuo is also a surprise, one would expect it to face towards Kobe. Are there cab rides available for the other branches?

 

 

Cheers NB

[bikkuri bahn]

Are there cab rides available for the other branches?

 

Ao (ah-oh) Line (from Shinkaichi):

 

*Grades can be up to 50 permils (5%)

*if you want to sound like a local yokel, call it "Shintetsu" (神鉄)...

[westfalen]

Are there cab rides available for the other branches?

 

 

Cheers NB

Here is the video I took on my trip in November 2011 of the short branch line from Arima-Guchi to Arima-Onsen and Woody Town Chuo to Sanda.

 

I was looking at my railway atlas for something to fill in the afternoon after spending the morning videoing the industrial narrow gauge at the Sumitomo Steel Tube Works at Amagasaki and the Kobe Dentetsu looked like a nice round about way back to Osaka and was a line I had never been on, when I saw a station named Woody Town Chuo I couldn't pass up a side trip there.

 

 

[Nick_Burman]

Thanks again folks for the videos - now I don't even need to go and ride the line! The Ao line is even more interesting that the Sanda line...

 

Some interesting details on the signalling...Shintetsu seems to be the only railway I know of who uses signals with their targets centered on the post. From a modelling point of view this is good, it means that one can just use ordinary US 3-aspect and 2-aspect signals (especially if one is freelancing like me). The bad news is the spread of the new generation of distant signals with rectangular targets - nobody makes them in N scale...

 

Cheers NB

[Mudkip Orange]

The "back to front" (trailing) junction to the line to Woody Town Chuo is also a surprise, one would expect it to face towards Kobe.

 

Makes sense. If you're going to Osaka or Kyoto by far the fastest route is going to be to jump on the Fukuchiyama Line. Through-running everything from WOODY TOWN CHUO to Sanda allows for a single-transfer ride to either Kobe or Osaka.

[Gordon Werner]

5-car trains ... as @Kabutonimentioned were mixed and matched as needed.