Nankai Koya - Namba to Gokurakubashi

[miyakoji]

This 1 hour 23 minute video is by the youtube contributor HINTEL1824TRAIN, whose works I don't recall seeing here before.  Very enjoyable, although I don't know if I should grin or cringe at the noises it makes climbing to the last station!

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/P93F71vVbKs" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/P93F71vVbKs</a>

[westfalen]

I definitely have to do this line again on a future trip. By the time I got down there last November it was dark and raining. The outer extremities of some of the private lines in the Kansai region are so far removed from their downtown terminals it's sometimes hard to imagine they are the same railway.

[miyakoji]

The outer extremities of some of the private lines in the Kansai region are so far removed from their downtown terminals it's sometimes hard to imagine they are the same railway.

That's a good point, I'd never thought of it.  The Koya Line is 64.5km, Tobu's Isesaki Line is a whopping 114.5km.  I'd say Asakusa is as urban as the Tennoji area, but I don't think the line's northern areas are quite as removed as Gokurakubashi.  Seibu's Shinjuku and Ikebukuro Lines are a little shorter than the Koya Line and definitely do not end up in such isolated areas.

[bikkuri bahn]

The Kansai region is much more hemmed in by mountain and hilly regions than the Kanto Plain, so there are many private railway lines that have routes that go from dense urban environments to rather more rural surroundings in rather short time.  One example is the Yamato River gorge area that forms a gap between the Ikoma and Kongo Mountain Ranges, and is used by three separate lines (JR West Kansai Main Line, Kintetsu Osaka Main Line, Kintetsu Minami Osaka Line) to connect the Osaka and Nara plains (the old Kawachi and Yamato regions).  Even the route between Osaka and Kyoto, in feudal times, was considered quite a journey, and later the railways (JR/Hankyu/Keihan) were squeezed by circumstances of geography into a relatively narrow area in the vicinity of Yamazaki/Yahata at the confluence of the Kizu, Uji, and Katsura Rivers (which form the Yodo River).  Makes for very interesting and enjoyable train riding even on half-day outings.

[Nick_Burman]

This 1 hour 23 minute video is by the youtube contributor HINTEL1824TRAIN, whose works I don't recall seeing here before.  Very enjoyable, although I don't know if I should grin or cringe at the noises it makes climbing to the last station!

Only now I found the time to comment on this one... in my case I grinned all the way up to the summit. I find it impossible not to associate mountain railroading to the sound of squealing flanges and humming traction motors. Here in Brazil we have some main lines (!) which resemble a bit the Koya line and the sound of up to 6 EMD diesels on notch 8 + freight cars groaning on the curves has to be heard to be believed.

Now for a question...why the heck does Nankai post such odd speed limits on its lines? I've seen several restriction plates with 33 and 43 indications, why not 30 and 40...or 35 and 45?

Cheers NB

[stevenh]

Any chance those speed limits match a relevant value in miles?
Otherwise could they match a throttle notch?

[bikkuri bahn]

Now for a question...why the heck does Nankai post such odd speed limits on its lines? I've seen several restriction plates with 33 and 43 indications, why not 30 and 40...or 35 and 45?

I think its a matter of Nankai posting unmodified the speeds based on calculations of curvature, cant and grade, without rounding down to the nearest 5 or 10.