Seibu & JR trains running the layout

A cuple of customers enjoyed the layout running their Seibu and JR trains soon after the Golden Week.
JR 183-1000 series limited express train.





Not easy to take a nice pic of running trains.





A F-class electric locomotive used to work for Seibu freight trains. Only Seibu owned some F-class electric locomotives as a private railway company at that time in Japan. But freight transportation demand has been decreasing little by little, I have not heard any newer F-class locomotives have been made after this series.




Hayaokidori website

Georgetown Loop railway

An old railway construted for freight trains was transferred a sight seeing one in Colorado U.S.A I love the fantastic whitsle and the slow speed even walking human beings can chase!



When I check the train carefully, I find some freight cars without roofs and ones for transport animals! Wonder if I were told I should get on the one for animals judged my weight lol....

Perhaps thisis their website?


Hayaokidori website

Tulips are in bloom at GW

Tulips in our flowerpots are in bloom this Golden Week. It has been warmer than usual and we did not have so much snow as usual this previous winter. I guess they are why.

Hayaokidori website

ETC - Electric Toll Collection system in Japan

They say a special deal is now available for those "usual" cars which hold an ETC system. Huge cars like tracks, buses are exception.

You only need to pay 1,000 yen when you drive rural/country toll roads on Sats, Suns and national holidays. But this does not seem so simple, while I try to check the fee through this site ( Sorry, only in Japanese! ), it says

Hachioji (Tokyo) --> Toyoshina : 1,000 yen
Nagoya --> Toyoshina : 1,950 yen
Suita (Osaka) --> Toyoshina : 2,250 yen

It does not seem that 1,000 yen applied to every case. Anyway perhaps this could be a good news that now cheper fee is available. But on the other hand, ferries seem to have hard time due to this price competition. Some ferries might be out of service in the near future because some ferry companies won't find there's any business profits any more. JR (Japan Rail ) won't care the old lines along the new Shinkansen (bullet train ) line when it will get in service.
Probably I guess if we get some convenient services, we might lose something else. There won't be wide choices available any more, then.

Hayaokidori website

Rail cleaning cars

I bought some rail cleaning cars at a web shop in the United States.








I subscribed myself at the newsletter of the web shop. They notify that they would provide some discount web coup'ons to their newsletter subscribers in a limited time. This limited offer got my attention and I had an access to their website to purchase some rail cleaning cars. Lucky it was just when Yen started stronger and stronger against the U.S. dollars, so my credit card was not charged so much even including its delivery cost :-)
Many American guests in my place have told me that post office delivery in the states sometimes does not work good. It might be late on time too much, sometimes the luggage might be broken! I was a little bit nervous because of that informations my guests gave me. But it was alright this time. :-)
Cleaning cars in this pic were sent from a delivery center in Illinois where Chicago is located.



The ones in this pic were sent from a delivery center in Nevada where Las Vegas is located.
　I have purchased some rail cleaning cars through some auctions but it was not timely, sometimes I missed to purchase ones. So I decided to get some from the manufacturer directly. Now I don't need to worry about rail cleaning cars for a while, I got a couple of them this time.


Hayaokidori website

Self-service train !?!?!?

Found this English description at the closest train station. It explains how to get on and off trains driven without a conductor. Local trains here are a lot often in service without a conductor. We call this kind of trains "One-man" trains because the driver has to do the work all by him/herself.　
This sign says "Self-service train" for it. I am not sure if this were a correct expression or not. English is not my mother tongue, so I am not really qualified to mention anything but sounds as if I need to drive the train! lol....

I had better ask it to someone whose mother tongue is English.
　
Hayaokidori website

PC in the garden

When you get older and older, you are to have a pair of far sighted eyes :(. This may cause it harder to work on computer. Maybe there's no way of it because usually there are many documents and books around when you work on computer in the house. Additionally you would like to save your time, then you try to type as quick as possible, which also might cause some stress on you.
Since we got a wireless LAN connection back in last December and I have already had a laptop PC, so why don't I work on computer in the garden?　

This is a lot easier and less stress!　

　It's so much easier to work on computer outdoor rather than in the house which feels too tight. I don't get so much sore shoulder like as when I work on computer in the house. I can take fresh air as much as I want, sunshine filtering through foliage helps to look at the monitor when I type something.
The only bothering thing is I need to move the table follwoing the shade when the sun goes on! But I guess this could be a good exercise to me lol....

Perhaps it will be my daily matter to type in the garden for a while.

Hayaokidori website