Tokyo General Rolling Stock Summer Fair 2011

[gmat]

I went to the Summer Fair at the Tokyo General Rolling Stock Depot on Saturday.
I took about 400 pics and will try to post it here over the next few days.

There wasn't a long line waiting to go in like the other two that I visited last year, but there was a steady stream of people coming in.


Summer Vacation Fair. Tokyo General Rolling Stock Center, I think.


I have no idea what this says. Probably 'Please be careful and don't do anything dangerous.'


Name plate for the facility.


Get your name tags for your kids here. Good idea.




Scouts handing out complimentary fans. There was also an info sheet.


I had no idea what this sign said and it lead to a line that I followed without knowing where it lead to. It turned out that you could ride a Yamanote Line train from the underground garage through an automatic wash rack and back. It crept along and took about 15 minutes.


The cafeteria was open for service. Menu list.


I went to the Yokota AB Friendship Day Festival the week before and there were rows of porta toilets. Most of the Maintenance buildings here that had areas open to the public had the toilet facilities open.






Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Signs says that balloon twisters will make animal figures for kids in the afternoon.




Even preserved cars get love.


Maintenance bays.


Air conditioning blowers.






Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

No commentary as i don't know what I'm shooting.

























Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

I should have taken a wider shot to give context on where I shot this. You can se the spot of yellow on a previous pic.












Another air conditioning hose.




























Best wishes,
grant

[gmat]

This is the line that I followed. A guy with a similar sign is behind me at the end of the line. I didn't look promising as the line seemed to go nowhere.


Best wishes,
Grant

[cteno4]

as usual grant, great stuff! thanks mucho!

jeff

[KenS]

Yes,  great photos. I've enjoyed the few shop open house days I've been to in North America.  It's great to see the equivalent in Japan.

Such a clean shop.  I'm used to grimy brick buildings that probably still have coal dust in the corners. 

[bikkuri bahn]

Such a clean shop.

Shops servicing EMUs tend to be clean.  Different story with diesels, all that oil...

[gmat]

Went out and tried to shoot DR. Yellow, but it never showed. I think it only runs twice a month and the third date might be if it doesn't make one of the other two. Anyway lots of shooting, but not much interesting save a Rinkai line train with the first and last cars painted up.

Back to the Family day. The total pic count was over 493. Spent about 4 hours uploading the rest of the pics to Photobucket and then transferring it to a separate folder.

Waiting in line.








There were two or three cars used.


Diehard fans shooting videos out the back window.


Posing for a photo buff.


Panel open to provide access to controls used to open and close the door. The staff member who was outside the door also rode inside for the short ride.












































Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Continuing on the tour. Looking east, towards the opposite side of the building from the entrance to the underground garage.















Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Going to the end, we entered another bay in which space had been cleared and blue sheeting laid for families to rest and eat.





I did a 360 for guys who want more details. Much of it should be familiar to anyone working in a machine shop/maintenance environment.

































Best Wishes,
Grant

[bikkuri bahn]

Like those pics in the second set.  Interesting that there is an underground coach yard.  The built up area you visited was formerly called the Oi Plant, but was renamed and combined with the Yamanote Line yards to form the Tokyo General Rolling Stock Center in 2004.

Former Oi Plant area:

source

Car washing area to the left:

*source same as above

[gmat]

What's a Family Day without toy trains.
Plarail including Thomas the Train. No N-gauge as far as I could see, here or any other place that I was able to get to before time ran out.
It's up the stairs.






Trying to get a good pic, I snapped this scene four times at least. Only the kid with the light green shirt is different.




The guy with the cap kept getting into the picture.








In the same room.






Going out the opposite side and ending up here, across from the restrooms seen earlier.


Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Thanks, BikkuriBahn. Nice to know and nice to know more about what I see and shoot.

Thanks again,
Grant

[gmat]

Moving on.

The cafeteria, doing very brisk business.

Too tell the truth, aside from the novelty of eating what rail workers eat where they eat, I think that the food is the same as any company or government cafeteria. I wonder if each sign shows where to line up to get the dish that you want.


Air conditioning housings(?) stacked up outside.


Best wishes,
Grant

[bikkuri bahn]

Too tell the truth, aside from the novelty of eating what rail workers eat where they eat, I think that the food is the same as any company or government cafeteria

Yup, though these places are efficient at serving large numbers of people in short periods of time, exactly as at this event.  The usual curry rice, ramen, katsudon, and the now seemingly obligatory "runny egg omelets" dish (yuck!)  .  The hiyashi chuka sounds nice, especially in this season.

[gmat]

No prizes for guessing what this says.

Another section for kids.

Iron on stickers for T-shirts, but now closed up.


Trains and ships in bottles.











Making a scroll to hold stickers or pictures.




Easy ways to print a postcard.


Watch a ship and train in  bottle being made.


Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Section on Pantographs, including letting kids operate one, making it go up and down.















Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Looking back.










Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

We end up at the other side of the large bay. Looking outside, you can see a line of trains with the Yokosuka line one as if waiting to roll into the bay.


































Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Red for Holiday train.


Destination sign reads Holiday Train for Akashina.


Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Why BikkuriBahn stays away from these things.


Continuing photos of the left side of the empty bay seen earlier.








If only one side has an attachment, these might be torque wrenches.


Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Kind of repetitive part.  I took lots of continuous shots of the stamper and drill in operation.













































Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

More.






































Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Slightly different perspective.





















Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Again.
































Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Side shot of the specially painted 185 series.



This train was running back and forth on a short section of track but I ran out of time before I could shoot it properly.










Sobu line cars.


Small garden. Gourd vines.






Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Rolling crane.


Nice touch with the seats outside the restrooms.


























Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

One more spot for the kiddies.
You go to the pool and fish for a plastic globe. Then you go around to the other side and chose a clear bag with a plastic fish in water. Then reach in the box to get a ticket for one of the small dolls. At least that's what I think is happening.








Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

They had a stand up pachinko-type game but they were putting it away. It's near 15:00, time to close up.


























Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

When I had more time and opportunity to be at Shinjuku Station, I often shot the Kintaro diesel passing southwards at 12:00, but since the earthquake, its schedule is less regular. It seems to miss the 12:00 slot more often these days, especially on the weekends. Taken at nearly 15:00. Kintaro is the young boy wielding an ax.
























Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Parts department, I guess.











They apparently had a line set up for a mini train, but i was too late to see it.






Best wishes,
Grant

[gmat]

Special Occasion/Anniversary plates for Rinkai Line trains.








This section was selling goods for the Rinkai Line, I believe.

Dress up as a stationmaster aand have your photo taken. Wonder if adults can get their photos taken?

A train set. Is it N scale?


Rinkaru the dolphin is the character for the Rinkai Line.


Hi,Rinkaru here. Glad to make your acquaintance. Please come to Odaiba on the Rinkai Line.


The green face on the poster behind is Gatchapin, from the Ponki Kids, a long running kids show. If you know The Killers, it was in the Japan music video that they made. If you really know, the popular JPop singer Namie Amuro was a member in their morning TV show, along with Ran Ran Suzuki, both dressed in rabbit costumes when they were teens and before she became a superstar.  


Link to Gatchapin.
http://toyboxdx.com/phorum/read.php?1,129232

Badges.




Produce and specialty food from Fukushima including Aizu-Wakamatsu.







People dressed as clowns twisting balloons into animals. This was at the spot seen in the beginning.


The End. Whew!!!

Best wishes,
Grant

[linkey]

Grant,

Thank you for providing these photos and it looks like it was a very interesting day out to look into these facilities.

[KenS]

Great photos, Grant, as always.  Thanks for posting.

[Shashinka]

I'm glad I'm not the only person on the planet who actually does 5S.

[gmat]

Thank you linkey, KenS andMonrail Cat,
Your thanks and comments are greatly appreciated. There are a few more Family Days coming up in the Fall, but my new lessons on Saturday will put a kibosh to adequately shooting some of them

Best wishes,
Grant

[miyakoji]

great pics, thanks gmat

I especially like those pictures of the traction motors.  There's that sort of bracket thing that I suppose is designed to break at a certain torque level, so other components aren't damaged.  Anyone know what that's called in English or in Japanese?  Some farm machinery has a shear pin or shear bolt on the PTO shaft that serves the same purpose.

[westfalen]

Great photos as usual.

[gmat]

Thank you miyakoji and westfalen.
I'll keep an eye out for details like that and try to shoot better photo next time.

Best wishes,
Grant