Rail in Japan
Branch member Sholto Thomas brought us Rail in Japan for our January meeting. The images were taken over two trips, covering rail journeys from the furthest northern island of Hokkaido all the way to the southern tip at Kagoshima. We saw a huge variety of high speed Shinkansen, medium distance units, suburban units, standard gauge, 3’6” gauge, Maglev and steam haulage. And making the point of ‘rail’, rather than just railways – the presentation included trams. Shinjuku station in Tokyo is the busiest in the world serving in excess of five million customers – a week! 53 platforms spread over several levels, from the subway – up to the Shinkansen platforms. The seats on longer distance trains automatically turn to face the direction of travel. Most of the country is served by Japan Rail (JR) but some local services are in the hands of independent operators. Steam locomotives will appear on secondary main lines hauling heritage services. Every member of staff across the whole public transport network, including the firemen and drivers of steam locomotives wear white gloves and point out, often reciting verbally, things like signals, speed limits, where to stop (inch perfect!) in stations, train safe when departing a station. Japan has a pretty decent safety record – we could see why.