Preserved Electric Locomotive in Hitachi City

Electric locomotive Hitachi Mining Railway Unit 13 is preserved in Hitachi City

Hitachi is known as the city where Hitachi Ltd. was founded. It’s located in the northern part of Ibaraki Prefecture, about 150 kilometers north of Tokyo. The origin of this city was Hitachi Copper Mine discovered in the late 16th century. It was rapidly developed in the early 20th century after introducing machinery such as rock drills, but this historical mine was unfortunately closed in 1981 due to running out of the resources.

Hitachi Mining Railway played an important role in the modernization of Hitachi Copper Mine. This railway was opened in 1908 to transport passengers, materials and resources. Connecting Sukegawa (present Hitachi) and Daiou-in, its total operating length was 5.4 kilometers. The gauge size was 762 millimeters. In 1957, there were 6,500 passengers per day taking this railway, but the route was unfortunately abolished in 1981 for streamlining.

Please look at the top photo. There's an electric locomotive... Unit 13. It's preserved in Nippon Mining Museum in the city. Unit 13 was built by Hitachi in 1926, and had been commissioned as mainly freight trains. It weighs 8,000 kilograms and has two 33 kW direct current motors. The axis arrangement is Ao-Ao. After operating for 34 years, it was retired from the track in 1960. What impressed me most was its pantograph. It looks like a tower. I don’t know how to insulate against current to ensure the safety of the locomotive body to avoid a short circuit. It was a mystery for me. Anyway, I enjoyed observing the precious electric locomotive in the early days.

Pantograph of Unit 13 electric locomotive

Official website, "Nippon Mining Museum": https://www.jx-nmm.com/english/museum/

2025 Sakura Season on the Gotemba Line

Limited express train "Fuji-san (Mt. Fuji)" travels on the Odakyu line

The sakura (cherry) blooming season has already passed in Tokyo, but the front line of sakura blossoms is still traveling up the northern part of Japan. A person traveling to the north with the "sakura front" would be able to enjoy the blossoms for more than two months. On the other hand, the sakura front climbs up mountains as well. I recently visited the foot of Mt. Fuji in Shizuoka Prefecture.

I got off at Suruga-Oyama station on the JR Central Gotemba line. My destination was Fuji Reien (Fuji Cemetery), where my grandma’s grave is situated. When I approached the cemetery, what came into my view was the fully bloomed sakura trees on the slope of mountains. They had light-pink-colored blossoms, which show a vivid contrast with the blue sky and snow-capped Mt. Fuji.

Taking this opportunity, I’m going to update the limited express train, "Fuji-san (Mt. Fuji)", on the Gotemba line. “Fuji-san” starts from Shinjuku terminal on the Odakyu line and is directly operated onto the JR Central Gotemba line. The commissioned model is the EMU Odakyu 60000 series, MSE (Multi Super Express). MSE is basically composed of 10 cars, but one set can be broken up into 6 and 4-car sections to enhance operational flexibility. For Fuji-san train, 6-car trainset is commissioned.

I found a special sticker, “Mocoron”, on the front of MSE. Mocoron is Odakyu’s mascot character. The purpose of the Mocoron sticker is to assist in child-rearing. For that purpose, MSE has a special lavatory equipped with a baby bed.

Fully bloomed sakura trees and snow-capped Mt. Fuji

Preserved Tramcar in the Open-air Architectural Museum

Unit 7514 of the electric car Toei 7500 series is preserved in Koganei City

The Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum is a museum of historic Japanese buildings. It’s located in Koganei City, about 30 kilometers west of the city center of Tokyo. Since the 17th Century, Tokyo has lost many valuable historical buildings because of fires, floods, earthquakes and warfare. In 1993, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government established the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum as the Edo-Tokyo Museum Annex. This museum aims to relocate, reconstruct, preserve, and exhibit historical buildings of great cultural value as well as to pass on these valuable cultural heritages to future generations. For example, public bathhouse “Kodakara-yu” is one of my favorite architectures in the museum (see the photo below).

The exhibitions in the museum are not only architectures. Please look at the top photo. It’s unit 7514 of the electric car Tokyo Metropolitan Government (Toei) 7500 series. The 7500 series was commissioned is 1962 as a middle-sized (12.52-meter-long) double-axle bogie car for the Tokyo tramlines. It has two 60 kW direct current motors, and its maximum operating speed was 40 kilometers per hour. After operating for 16 years, unit 7514 was retired from the track in 1978. Incidentally, unit 7504, which I showed my past post, is a “sister” of this tramcar. You will notice the difference of the body stripe between the two cars. The red-colored stripe of unit 7514 was adopted in 1962 when the 7500 series debuted. On the other hand, the blue-colored stripe of unit 7504 was adopted around the year 1975, when the one-man (without a conductor) operation began.

"Kodakara-yu" (center) in the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum

 

Official information about unit 7514 by the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Museum:

(Please scroll to the bottom of the page)

https://www.tatemonoen.jp/english/restore/intro/outdoor.php

The 12th Generation Sounyan Train

The 12th generation Sounyan Train (westbound) arrives at Izumi-chuo station

On March 31st, Sagami Railway (Sotetsu) launched the 12th generation Sounyan Train. I’m going to show you this new poster train today.

Let me quickly review “Sounyan” to start. He(?) is Sotetsu's mascot character. According to Sotetsu's website, Sounyan is a new species of cat, born on March 10th on the Sotetsu line. He joined Sotetsu in 2014, and has been in charge of public relations. He is good at looking for something new. His hobby is taking photos and eating around. He seems to be a fine young cat, but he has a mental problem as well. People often think that he is a raccoon dog in spite of being a cat. It has been making him feel troubled for long time. What an elaborate profile it is! All living things can't live on sweet words alone.

Joking aside, the purposes of Sounyan Train are to spread charm of the Sotetsu line and to give relaxing to passengers. Trainset 11002 of the EMU 11000 series is used as the 12th generation Sounyan Train. The 11000 series is Sotetsu's commuter train which debuted in 2009. To reduce the manufacturing costs, it has basically common technical specifications with JR East's EMU E233 series.

Please look at the top photo. A stuffed Sounyan is boarding on the driver's cab. That’s so cute, but I’ve seen this somewhere before. Let me see… Odakyu’s “Mocoron”! Incidentally, you can review the 1st, 3rd, 4th, 10th and 11th generation Sounyan (or Sonyan) Trains in my past posts.

The 12th generation Sounyan Train (eastbound) arrives at Yumegaoka station

Official informatiom about the 12th Sounyan Train by Sotetsu (in Japanese):

https://cdn.sotetsu.co.jp/media/2025/pressrelease/pdf/r25-50-rpd.pdf

Serving a Double Purpose on the Odakyu Line

Romancecar "GSE" passes through Odakyu Tama River Bridge

It’s mid-spring in Tokyo. The maximum daytime temperature exceeds 20 degrees Celsius every day. The best season of the year has come! I recently visited the Tama River bank on the Odakyu line.

As soon as I reached the embankment, what jumped into my eyes there was a double-double track railway bridge, "Odakyu Tama River Bridge". Five minutes later, my photo shooting target approached the bridge. It was the EMU Odakyu 70000 series, “Romancecar GSE (Graceful Super Express)”. GSE is the latest model of the Romancecar fleet. It has upper-deck cockpits, so, passengers can enjoy the view ahead from the top car. Furthermore, it has large side windows to secure a clear visual field for passengers. The body color of GSE is "rose vermilion". Please look at the top photo. GSE crossed Tama River, while taking the morning sun backed by the blue sky. Beautiful!

After enjoying the train shooting, I concentrated on another hobby… fossil collection. As I posted before, it’s my lifelong hobby. This time, the riverbed near Odakyu Tama River Railway Bridge was my field. We can observe many fossiliferous beds in the Iimuro Formation, which is the shallow marine sediments deposited about 1.3 to 1.1 million years ago. Please look at the photo below… my prey on that day, “Kagamigai (Dosinia japonica)”. It’s a large and thick rounded bivalve. Welcome back to the earthly world a little more than one million years later.

I served a double purpose on the Odakyu line.

Fossil "Kagamigai (Dosinia japonica)" is found near Odakyu Tama River Bridge