Photo gallery
Railways in Japan
Shinkansen, freight trains and colourful railcars

Who doesn’t know him, the Shinkansen, the Japanese bullet train, which was built for the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo and introduce the high-speed era on rails. But did you know that all the Shinkansen lines and train categories have their own names? On the Tokaido Shinkansen (Tokyo - Osaka) are driving Nozomi のぞみ (wish or hope), Hiraki ひかり (light) and Kodama こだま (echo), while on the Tohoku Shinkansen (Tokyo - Aomori) you can enter in a Hayabusa はやぶさ (peregrine falcon), Hayate はやて (stormy wind), Komachi こまち, Yamabiko やまびこ (mountain echo), Nasuno なすの (field in Nasu) or Tsubasa つばさ (wing) train and on the Hokuriku Shinkansen (Tokyo -) Takasaki - Kanazawa you encounter the Kagayaki かがやき (gloss), Hakutaka はくたか (night hawk) and Tsurugi つるぎ (sword). Or do you know that the Shinkansen gauge is different from the standard Japanese track? The express trains on them were also given with euphonious names like the Aizu, Kuroshio, Yamatoji, Shiokaze, Fujikawa, Azusa, Shirasagi or Kumagawa to just to mention some. Japan's trains, and this applies also to freight trains, are running absolutely punctual on time and despite overtakings of express trains at the stations where the slower passengers trains make a regular traffic stop.

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Japan's railways offer even more. Many of the lines are run by private railway companies, which offer train services all over the country in addition to the former state railways (JR). If the passenger uses on his journey several companies, he must pay the ticket fee for each line directly to the operating railway company. A ticket can only be purchased at the ticket counter, or, on trains and stations with small traffic, the payment can be done in cash at the train driver in the train itself.

As a special treat, on some lines steam trains in the scheduled regular service as an express train are offered to improve the service and as a tourist magnet, which the passenger can use with a normal ticket plus the seat reservation. Japan Rail Pass holders can use the steam trains of JR (Oigawa-Honsen, Mooka and Chichibu are private !) for free with their Japan Rail Pass. The obligatory seat reservation must be made, however, is also free of charge. What a service, in Japan the customer still feels like a king. The reservation is necessary, since trains hauled by a steam locomotive are generally very well accepted and used, where they fulfill a supraregional traffic function. These steam trains are even provided together with the "normal" trains in the electronic timetable system and can be recognized very quickly by a different color and the addition SL. Each train category has its own color.

In the same colorful way presents the rolling stock. The enormous variety of different series of railcars or motor coaches in passenger transport astonishes the railway fanciers, whether on the Shinkansen routes or the local and express service on the Japanese standard tracks. Nearly every electrically operated service is driven by another model. Unfortunately, all passenger trains are driven by motor coaches. The enthusiast for locomotives has to put his focus only on freight trains whose network isn’t that comprehensive as passenger traffic, or on the steam trains that are always conducted with the chimney in front. Drop of bitterness: the last night trains "Hanamasu" and "Cassiopeia" are shut with the opening of the Hokkaido Shinkansen. Only the "Sunrise Seto" (Tokyo to Takamatsu) and the "Sunrise Izumo" (Tokyo to Matsue and Izumo) remain in night connecting service.

Following on from the picture gallery, there are explanations and requirements. Further pages can be found on the subject of railways, train and locomotives.

Some Photos have a corresponding Video clip. If you prefer to see motion instead of a HD image then you should switch to Video to photo summary. There you will find videos which are listed in the same sequence as the photos and which are uploaded to the Internet. Please note that as starting sequence only the videos with Japanese trains are selected, including steam trains You are welcome to modify as to your personal preference and then rebuild the overview again.

Photographs and pictures of locomotives and trains of other countries are collected in separate galleries. Diesel and electric locomotives, trains and motor coaches, railway companies in national and cross-border traffic on foreign (European) country tracks are presented for Germany, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia and Sri Lanka in national galleries due to the amount of available pictures. All other countries are summarized in the international photo gallery. The steam locomotives mustn’t be missing, but they have as well their own national galleries, one is reserved for German steam trains, another for Japanese steam train operations. Although there are only 3 operational steam locomotives in Sri Lanka, they have their own gallery, because an organized journey will cause a lot of beautiful pictures in a magnificent landscape. Chinese factory and coal mine railways were also spun off and joined together in its China winter steam gallery, because the amount of available photos is simply too intensive to show them in the regular steam locomotive gallery. All other steam locomotives and trains pictures are joined together in the worldwide photo gallery.

If your operating system doesn’t build the photo gallery, but instead displays a warning that restricts the display of active content, allow the blocked risk. The navigation, the selection menus of the photo gallery as well as the control of the gallery pages are completely written in javascript, which triggers the browser to display this warning. Furthermore, since version 3.0 the entire screen is designed in container technology with a maximum of 5 areas, which are set visible or kept hidden depending on the screen width. Same width also determines how many shots can be shown in a row and automatically adjusts to it when you refresh the screen, similar to your Windows Explorer. Due to the variable structure of the gallery, unfortunately, no headings can be given any longer, which area will be displayed next. The photo gallery itself as one on the 5 subsections is displayed with dynpro subscreen technology, means that in the screen encircled container 2 other containers are connected in the top left position. One of these sub-container shows as transparent background image the Japanese EF66-118 in Kakegawa; the other container contains the text. The wallpaper in the background is fixed with 100% x-axis and 100% y-axis and 3050 pixels, the text container calculates its depth itself. Depending to your screen configuration, one container is displayed deeper than the other, so there it at the bottom an overpowering beyond the edge of one of the containers. In normal cases the wallpaper should finish deeper than the text.

The pictures of the photo gallery are extremely compressed to 165 * 110 pixels, thus very fuzzy, but this is the intention. By clicking the frame you will get the actual size with an image resolution of 2250 * 1500 pixels and the detailed data to the picture. You can click the graphics right away, the second screen will open, but it may be that your Internet browser will load all the photos in the gallery before the single photo is activated in the zoom. Also note that your computer may issue a warning about active elements in the background. Without activation and during charging, the zoom screen remains black, which is not a program error, it is just the background color. Please be patient. How the photo description is structured and which possibilities you have in operating the system, is shortly summarized in the guidance to the photo.

Railway fans are welcome to contribute additional data, since the author doesn’t consider himself a professional for example concerning classes or history of a locomotive. Through our link summary you can access to other interesting galleries and presentations on the topic of steam locomotive and railway on the Internet. Webmasters, companies, railway stations, associations, museums, clubs, organizations, who like to be linked to our list, we offer the chance to cross reference by exchanging links to your presentation. Would you like to participate ?

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