Friday Night Steam

We're off to Japan tonight!

 Sit back and enjoy some amazing scenery!

Published on Jul 23, 2016
Japan is a country well known for its fast and modern electric trains, especially the Shinkansen, the world's first high-speed railway. But there are a few lines with regular steam operations. The JNR (Japanese National Railways) have given up steam operations in December 1975, and from then SL (also the Japanese abbrevation for Steam Locomotive) have been running on the Oigawa Railway. In the late 1980s, there was a boom with several more SL coming into service. But although steam trains are very popular among railfans in Japan, the sale from tickets alone is not enough to cover their costs, and so [2C2] C 62 3 in Hokkaido was not overhauled in 1995, now standing as a static display at Naebo Works in Sapporo. The seven main routes with regular steam operations are all normal railways (no museum railways with steam only as in Europe and America), and they have added the SL to generate extra traffic along their normally quite rural - although sometimes electrified - lines. Two museums have small railways inside their premises, Meiji-Mura and Umekoji, which are described below. All these lines have a gauge of 1067 mm (3'6"). Static SL can be seen quite often all over the country.
There are also very many small railways with narrow gauge (762 mm or less) in Japan with steam locomotives, mostly operating as a circle line in theme parks. One of them is the Narita Yume Bokujo Railway. More about these railways below.
Reservations: All trains listed here only have reserved seats. Reservations can be made at JR travel centers or ticket windows (midori no madoguchi) throughout the country (for Chichibu and Mooka: at JR East only). Normally reservations can be made one month before and I strongly recommend to reserve well in advance.
Days of operations: Only the Oigawa has a daily steam train. The other lines are running normally at weekends and on public holidays between the middle of March and the end of October or even November; Mooka is running throughout the year. Many lines run more often or even daily during Golden Week (29 April to 5 May) and the summer holiday season. If I know the days of operation, I have given them here; however if there are no dates given for one month, then it does not necessarly mean that there are no steam trains running in that period. Older dates are not deleted to show the pattern of operation.

Source: Bangla Natok HD