Recently, there have been some train cars that we cannot help taking photos, such as specially painted cars, among those that we usually use every day. Under the circumstances, I took photos of some train cars that have just interesting appearance or run through a nostalgic scene. Please check them out!
(1) Medetai Train (Happy Train)
Kada line (whose travel distance is 9.6 kilometers) of Nankai Electric Railway Corporation, linking Kinokawa Station to Kada Station in Wakayama Prefecture, has the nickname of “Kada Fish Line.” The train cars running on the line are named “Medetai Densha” in which “tai” in the word Medetai is a sea bream and is a fish representative of the area Kada. The cars running on the line are the breams swimming on the railroad. You will surely become happy if you ride on the train.
Now, 4 kinds of the Medetai Densha cars run: A pink train named “Sachi” appeared in 2016, then followed by a blue train named “Kai,” a red train named “Nana,” a daughter of Sachi and Kai, and a black train named “Kashira,” a brother of Sachi, in 2017, 2019, and 2021, respectively.
I’d like to introduce about Sachi, Kai, and Kashira.
Kai (blue train)
Kai is the husband of Sachi and the father of Nana. The appearance and the interior of the car are the same color blue to produce comfortableness and excitement as if you were in the sea.
Sachi (pink train)
The pink of this train expresses the color of sea bream, which is a typical fish obtained in Kada. Unfortunately, I cannot introduce the interior of this train because I couldn’t ride on the train, but I could take the photos of its appearance when the train and the train on which I rode met and parted at a station.
Kashira (black train)
Kashira is a brother of Sachi. The car body is black, and the interior is elaborate.
Hojo Railway
The railway exists in the central part of Hyogo Prefecture. It has a distance of 13.6 kilometers linking Ao Station to Hojomachi Station in Hyogo Prefecture; it takes 22 minutes between the starting station and the terminal; and there are 8 stations on the line. The train line is run by a third-sector railway company with investments by Hyogo Prefecture and others, and uses the railway route of the old Japanese National Railway. The railway cars running are diesel motor cars or diesel railcars, of which there are 4 kinds. Only one kind of railcar runs each day, and so the car that I took photos of was only one, the Flower-3. One railcar runs back and forth between Ao Station and Hojomachi Station each day. In this section, I’d like to put photos of the railcar running in various places, various stations, and scenes around stations.
Route Map
The stations we visited were the 4 stations of Osa, Harima-Shimosato, Hokkeguchi, and Tahara. Please check out station buildings enveloped in a nostalgic atmosphere, carefree rural views, one railcar running in short steps in a natural state to feel a warmer mood.
The Flower-3 has a green body on which “Neppy” which is an image character (a heavenly maiden-shaped) of Kasai City and sunflowers which are the city flower of Ono City are painted.
Osa Station
The station building is a wooden one-storied structure built in 1915. The platform has a masonry work structure and was made in the same year as the station building. The station building and the stone platform were designated as a registered tangible cultural property of Japan in 2014. Stone statues of a stationmaster, children, and a frog stand on the platform, and parent swallows were feeding insects to their kids in the waiting room. We saw beautiful flowers beside the tracks.
Harima-Shimosato Station
The wooden station building was bult in 1917, which was also designated as a registered tangible cultural property of Japan in 2014 as Osa Station. There is a stone garden using 40 tons of stones beside the platform. An old wooden bench was put on the platform, and you can feel a passing cool breeze when you sit on the bench.
There are fields of Chinese milk vetch (a kind of clover) near the station, and we saw the railcar running through the fields toward Harama-Shimosato Station.
Hokkeguchi Station
The wooden station building was built in 1915, which is also designated as a registered tangible cultural property of Japan in 2014 as the two stations above. There is a popular bakery in the station building, and I heard that there are some people coming to buy the bread of this store from a distance using the railway or their cars. Unfortunately, the day we visited was a regular closed day of the shop. A pagoda model, which is a scaled-down three-storied pagoda of a temple near the station, stood next to the station building. The old platform exists, but it is not used now; instead, passengers use a new platform. The Hojo Railway employs basically a single track, but only in this station, a double track is set up.
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Three-Storied Pagoda Seen from Platform
Tahara Station
The station opened in 1919. The waiting room on the platform was made by the volunteer activities of university students from this area. The station is small and there are many big trees around the station, and so the station disappears sometimes in the trees. There is a small forest with the thick leaves of big trees, and I took photos of the railcar passing through there. It looked as if the car was passing through a tunnel.
What do you think about these trains and stations? I can understand that the company persons and the local people promote the railway operations by thinking hard about various things in both railways. In Hojo Railway, we keenly feel how the local people love the railway, how the local people rely on the railway, and how the local people prize the railway, from the fact that the local people carefully clean the station building, the platform, and places around the station in each station; that the local people or companies made facilities including the station building and a waiting room without compensation; a local person works as a stationmaster as a volunteer activity; and the local people take the lead in doing social events in the station building. We can enjoy the characteristic views in 4 seasons, for example, cherry trees grow near some stations, sunflower fields are widespread, or a very big ginkgo tree stands.
I haven’t ridden on Sachi and Nana, and I heard that a new train will make his/her debut this July in Medetai Densha. I’d like to visit both railways again!
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