Sunday, November 05, 2006

Boso View Express


Normally I only see 255 Units whizzing through our village but on Friday I happened to be changing trains at Sakura when the down afternoon 'Shiosai' came in so I got a good look at one at rest.

Here's 'train-time' for the Choshi bound tokkyu - a quick check along the train and then the guard gets into the rear driving compartment, closes the doors and they are off. To the right, just out of view a battery of four TV monitors to enable him to check the whole length of the train and the button to play the 'hurry up music' to warn passengers that the doors are about to close. Japanese expresses are off within a minute, sometimes even 30 seconds.

Looking at this kind of 'high-tech' hardware I find myself wondering how on earth you would model this stuff in, say, Gauge '0'. I suppose there must be fibre glass techniques if you made a wooden master but how would you even do that convincingly?

Huh! Anyone ever attempted that kind of thing?

3 Comments:

At 3:46 PM, November 06, 2006, Blogger Eddie said...

I have to admit....even this one
is different for Me. I don't know
what to make of a design like this.
It looks like some sort of a
Robo Train. A hint of Science Ficton to it perhaps.

Thank You.
Eddie.

 
At 8:43 AM, November 09, 2006, Blogger Michael said...

Your blog brings back memories. During the 1990s I lived for three years in Nosaka-machi, Chiba Prefecture. As I'm sure you know, the town was consolidated with Yokaichiba City this year to form Sosa City.

Nosaka was and is served by the Yokaichiba train station. I have many pleasant memories of train rides through the countryside while heading to Chiba City and Tokyo.
Thanks for bringing these memories to the fore.

 
At 8:48 AM, November 09, 2006, Blogger Michael said...

P.S. I should add that I have a Web site of photos taken during my time in Japan, www.sliceofjapan.com. I cordially invite you for a visit should you have the time and the inclination.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home