Serving a Double Purpose on the Chuo Line

EMU JR East E353 series passes through Tamagawa Bridge 

There is a proverb in Japanese that says "isseki nicho (killing two birds with one stone)". I’m not a native English speaker, so, I didn't know until recently that this proverb was originated in England. I’m going to post a topic about this proverb today… but, “serving a double purpose” is better, because I don’t want to kill birds.

Enough with the preamble. Let's head to the main topic. I recently visited Tamagawa Bridge on the JR East Chuo line for the first time in three years. What for? First, I wanted to shoot the Chuo line trains passing through the bridge. Please look at the top photo. That’s the EMU JR East E353 series, a limited express, “Azusa”. It has a special air suspension type tilting system to pass through tight curves in the mountain areas keeping at high speed. The maximum operating speed of the E353 series is 130 kilometers per hour. Cool!

After enjoying the train shooting, I concentrated on another hobby… fossil collection. As I posted before, it’s my lifelong hobby. I have been visiting fossil localities in the metropolitan area since I was a boy. The riverbed near Tamagawa Bridge is one of my favorite localities. We can observe the fossiliferous beds of the Renkoji Formation, young shallow marine sediments, deposited about 1.3 million years ago. Please look at the photo below… my prey on that day, “Akanishi (Rapana venosa)”. The spikes on the conch are cool!

I served a double purpose on the Chuo line.

Fossil "Akanishi (Rapana venosa)" is found near Tamagawa Bridge

Official information about the EMU E353 series by JR East:

https://www.jreast.co.jp/multi/en/traininformation/azusa_kaiji/index.html

Official information about the EMU E353 series by J-TREC (in Japanese):

https://www.j-trec.co.jp/company/070/04/jtr04_100-105.pdf

Classic Diesel Railcar on the Ryugasaki Line

Unit KiHa 532 of the Diesel railcar Kantetsu KiHa 532 series

I thought that I had already described all of the trains in the metropolitan area in this blog, but there are still some left. The description of trains in this area is endless. Today, I am going to show you one of such rolling stock, diesel railcar 532 series on the Ryugasaki line in Ryugasaki City.

To start, let me quickly review Ryugasaki City and the Ryugasaki line. Ryugasaki City in Ibaraki Prefecture is located some 50 kilometers northeast of Tokyo, and has been developed as a commuter city since the 1970's. The Ryugasaki line of Kanto Railway Company (Kantetsu) is a 4.5-kilometer-long route connecting Sanuki and Ryugasaki stations in Ryugasaki City. The track is un-electrified and single. Diesel railcars are operated every half an hour.

Now, let's head to the main topic. I found a classic vehicle on the line. It's unit KiHa 532 of the diesel railcar Kantetsu KiHa 532 series (see the top photo). This model was commissioned for the Ryugasaki line in 1981. The body was newly manufactured by Niigara Tekko, but the apparatuses were reused of the ex-JNR’s KiHa 20 series. Only one unit is operated on the line. To my delight, Kantetsu discloses the timetable of the KiHa 532 series on their website. It’s often operated on Saturday, and useful for train-spotters like me to avoid bearing a grudge, “I went to the Ryugasaki line, but the KiHa 532 was NOT operated today.” I could fully enjoy this train including nostalgic interior (see the photo below).

Interior of the KiHa 532 series

Offcial information about the rollingstock of Kanto Railway (in Japanese):

https://www.kantetsu.co.jp/train/traincar

Keisei Skyliner AE Series: Over 50 Million Passengers

EMU Keisei AE series, Skyliner, displays a gold-colored commemoration sticker

It’s a little bit old news, but the passengers of the 3rd generation Keisei Skyliner exceeded 50 million on June 9th last year. I'm going to bring up this topic today. 

Let's take a quick look at Skyliner to start. It’s an airport access train between the city center of Tokyo and New Tokyo International (Narita) Airport. The current Skyliner, namely the EMU AE series, was commissioned in 2010 to replace the old model, the AE100 series. The AE series is an EMU for 1,435-millimeter-gauge and 1,500 V DC track. A total of 8 trainsets, 64 cars, were built by Nippon Sharyo and Tokyu Sharyo. One trainset is composed of 6 motorcars and 2 trailers (6M2T). The electric control system is an IGBT-VVVF (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor - variable frequency drive) inverter with 175kW induction motors. The AE series is able to travel with a 160 kilometers per hour maximum speed, which is the fastest in Japan except the Shinkansen vehicles.

The AE series reached 20 million passengers in September, 2016. It then achieved 25 million passengers in November, 2017 and 45 million passengers in October, 2023. The period between the 45 millionth and the 50 millionth passengers (June, 2024) was only 8 months. Keisei Electric Railway held a commemoration ceremony at Narita Airport Terminal 1 station. The 50 millionth passenger was a Japanese mother with her two little daughters. Currently, one trainset of the AE series, namely trainset AE2, has a gold-colored commemoration sticker on the front of the train. Congratulations on the 50 million passengers!

Side body of the "50 million passengers" commemorative Skyliner

Official information about Keisei Skyliner:

https://www.keisei.co.jp/keisei/tetudou/skyliner/us/skyliner/index.php

Official information about the 50 million passengers of the EMU Keisei AE series (in Japanese):

https://www.keisei.co.jp/cms/files/keisei/MASTER/0110/JhGckcB5.pdf

The 55th Anniversary of Tora-san

"The 55th anniversary of Tora-san" train arrives at Shibamata station

“Otoko wa Tsurai yo (It's Tough Being a Man)” is a Japanese film series released from 1969 to 1995 starring Atsumi Kiyoshi. The main character, Tora-san, played by Atsumi, is a kind-hearted vagabond who is always unlucky in love. Tora-san is a street vendor, encountering his madonnas in many places and creating innocent ruckuses. Tora-san is an unlikely hero, because he is lazy and poorly educated. Nevertheless, he is a hero among local people, because they respect Tora-san’s human kindness. Tora-san’s family home was in Shibamata on the Keisei-Kanamachi line. There is a bronze statue of Tora-san in front of Shibamata station (see the photo below).  

Shibamata celebrated the 55th anniversary of Tora-san last year. In commemoration, Keisei Electric Railway operates the anniversary train until March 23rd, 2025. We can see a celebratory plate of "the 55th anniversary of Tora-san" on the front of the anniversary train, trainset 3668 of the EMU 3600 series. This plate celebrates "the 115th anniversary of Keisei Electri c Railway" as well. The 4-car anniversary train slowly passes through Tora-san’s mother town (see the top photo).

Incidentally, the EMU Keisei 3600 series is a standard commuter train commissioned in 1982. A total of 9 trainsets, 54 cars, were built by Tokyu Sharyo and Nippon Sharyo. Currently, 2 trainsets, 10 cars, are still operated. It originally had a field chopper electric control system; but trainset 3668 was modified to the GTO-VVVF (Gate turn-off thyristor-variable frequency drive) electric control system in 1999. It’s a rare train.

Bronze statue of Tora-san in front of Shibamata station

Official information about the 55th anniversary of Tora-san by Keisei (in Japanese):

https://www.keisei.co.jp/cms/files/keisei/MASTER/0110/Pwy4ScrH.pdf

Aerial Tramway for Pilgrims

Tairyuji Ropeway in Tokushima Prefecture, Shikoku Island

Shikoku is the fourth largest island of Japan. It's located about 800 kilometers west of Tokyo. The Shikoku Pilgrimage is a unique experience visiting 88 Buddhist temples on this island. The temples are located throughout the island, and walking the entire route from one temple to the next adds up to a journey of more than 1,400 kilometers. You may anticipate it will be challenging, but please don’t worry. You are allowed to use public transportations, if you want.

Tairyuji in Tokushima Prefecture is a good example. This temple is located near the steep mountain summit, 618 meters above sea level. To visit this mountain temple, Tairyuji Ropeway is convenient. The route was opened in 1992 by Shikoku Cable Company. It's a four-cables cross type aerial tramway. Connecting Washinosato and Sancho stations, its route length is 2,775 meters. The height difference between the two stations is 422 meters. Its maximum inclination is 30 degrees. Swiss made gondolas are operated every 20 minutes. It takes about 10 minutes to go one way. Each gondola can accommodate up to 101 passengers.

There are 2 struts on the route. The height of the first strut is 42 meters, which is the tallest in the world. I observed this giant structure on the way to the temple. I could also see the mountain summit was lightly dusted with snow that morning due to the cold weather. Incidentally, I was not a pilgrim, just a tourist. I’m wimp, so, I don’t want to join the 1,400-kilometer-long pilgrimage.

The first strut of Tairyuji Ropeway

Official website, Tairyuji Ropeway (in Japanese):

http://www.shikoku-cable.co.jp/tairyuji/index.html