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| Diesel rail-car Kominato Railway KiHa 200 series Ichihara is a small city in Chiba Prefecture, some 80 kilometers east of Tokyo. I recently visited a nature park, named Ichihara Quad Forest, in the city for strolling. It provided me with a change as there was not much opportunity to have fun during the COVID-19 calamity. I found carp streamers at the entrance of the park. A carp streamer is a symbol of power for children to grow up. Parents celebrate their children's birth and pray for their healthy growth by putting up carp-shaped banners in their villages. The carps were whipping in the gentle breeze. To visit this nature park, the nearest railway station is Tsukizaki on the Kominato Railway. Kominato is a small private railway line opened in 1925. There are 18 stations over a total operating length of 39.1 kilometers. The track is 1,067 millimeter-size single and non-electrified. Nostalgic diesel rail cars, namely the KiHa 200 series, are the main fleet on the track. 14 units in total were built from 1961 to 1977 by Nippon Sharyo. They are currently rather old, but still maintained in good condition. This rail car has a Shinko Engineering's 180PS/1500rpm diesel engine with a hydraulic transmission system. Its maximum speed is 95 kilometers per hour. For your information, on April 24th, Kominato launched a second-hand diesel railcar on their track. It's the ex-JR East KiHa 40 series once operated on the Ban-etsu West line. I'm going to report on this Kominato's new diesel rail car in the near future.  Official movies of Kominato Railway: |