"Thomas train" travels on the Ooigawa Railway
"Thomas & Friends" is a popular children's television series in the world. It was first broadcasted in the United Kingdom in 1984. In Japan, the television broadcast started in 1990 under the name of "Locomotive Thomas". Needless to say, it became popular rapidly among Japanese children. Catching onto the popularity of this TV series, Fujikyu Railway, for example, opened a theme park, Thomas Land, in 1998. To visit the park, Fujikyu operates a special train named "Thomas Land Train" from Otsuki Terminal.
Ooigawa (or Oigawa) Railway also can't keep their arms crossed in this favorable condition. They launched "Thomas train" in 2014 using a modified steam locomotive (SL) and old passenger coaches. The modified SL namely C11 227 was originally built by Nippon Sharyo in 1942. After being operated on the Japanese National Railways (JNR), it was transferred to Ooigawa Railway in 1975, and modified to Thomas in 2014. Different from "real Thomas", C11 227 has leading wheels and trailing wheels (2-6-4 in Whyte notation). Real Thomas has one dome only; however, C11 227 has both steam and sand domes. Real Thomas pulls only two passenger coaches namely Annie and Clarabel; however, Thomas train on the Ooigawa Railway has 7 passenger coaches (ex-JNR SuHa 43 series). Let's not speak so stiffly. Don't break children's dream!
Thomas train has won great popularity, and is the Saviour for the local private company. It is difficult to get a seat reservation, so, I took photographs from the public road along the track.
Steam locomotive "Thomas (C11 227)" stands at Senzu station yard
Official information about Thomas train on the Ooigawa Railway:
http://oigawa-railway.co.jp/en/thomas.html