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are the mainstays of Japanese railways todaydenshaIt's fair to say that Furthermore, on lines where electricity for electric trains cannot be supplied (non-electrified lines), diesel railcars ("kisuisha") that run on diesel fuel are used.
On the other hand, although they have almost completely disappeared in recent years, during the era of the Japanese National Railways (JNR) before the establishment of JR, there were trains in various regions where a powered "locomotive""pulled unpowered "passenger cars.
Electric trains and diesel railcars are self-propelled vehicles, so they are not typically pulled by locomotives for commercial operation, with very few exceptions. However, on the Tohoku Main Line during the JNR (Japanese National Railways) era, there was a train with a rather unusual formation for its time: a locomotive pulling passenger cars, with a diesel railcar coupled to the rear and pulled along with it. Its name was... well, it was a regular train so it didn't have a specific nickname, but its train number was "539".
The introduction of coupled passenger and diesel trains
The "peculiar 539 train" was introduced to the Tohoku Main Line in October 1968, during the so-called "Yon-San-To" timetable revision (539 is simply the train number, so there was a "not-so-peculiar 539 train" before that). It departed Morioka Station in Iwate Prefecture at 7:10 a.m., traveled north along the Tohoku Main Line (this section is now the Iwate Galaxy Railway Line), and arrived at its final destination, Numakunai Station (now Iwate-Numakunai Station), at 7:53 a.m. The journey time from start to finish was 43 minutes, and the distance was 32 km, making it a relatively short train for a major trunk line at the time. The train number 539 alone indicates that this train was a passenger train pulled by a locomotive.
From Morioka Station until arriving at Kōma Station at 7:36, there was a train that ran coupled to train 539. This train was called train 927D, and upon arriving at Kōma Station, it was detached from train 539. After seeing off train 539, which departed Kōma Station at 7:40, it departed Kōma Station at 7:44, entered the Hanawa Line, and arrived at Ōdate Station in Akita Prefecture at 10:33. Train numbers ending in D indicate that the train is operated by a diesel multiple unit (DMU).
Judging from the train numbers, it appears that trains 539 and 927D are trains consisting of a locomotive pulling passenger cars and a diesel railcar coupled together, running from Morioka Station to Kōma Station. And that is indeed the case.
Train 539 composition
The formation of trains 539 and 927D around 1978 was as follows:
Leading the train is the ED75 electric locomotive. This type of locomotive was widely used on the Joban Line and Tohoku Main Line to pull everything from local trains to express trains and freight trains, and could be considered the main locomotive of the Tohoku region at the time.
Four passenger cars followed behind the locomotive. These were passenger cars such as the Suhafu 42, Oha 47, Suha 43, and Ohafu 61. All of them are passenger cars known as "old-style passenger cars."
This is the train that runs directly from Morioka Station to Numamiya Station
Behind the passenger cars, three diesel railcars, which are normally self-propelled and therefore do not need to be pulled by a locomotive, were coupled together and ran with the train until Kōma Station. These railcars included the KiHa 52, KiHa 55, and KiHaUni 26 series.
The Kihauni 26 was a type of railcar that carried not only passengers but also mail and luggage, and it seems that a Kihauni was attached to the rear of this train as a rule. Between Morioka Station and Kōma Station, the diesel railcar's engine was running (presumably to supply electricity for lighting, etc.), but it was idling, and the locomotive at the front pulled both the railcar and the passenger cars. It was only after being detached from train 539 at Kōma Station that it began to move under its own power and headed towards Ōdate Station on the Hanawa Line as train 927D.
■A Story About Mixed Trains Until 1982, mixed trains of passenger cars and diesel railcars pulled by ED75 locomotives operated on the Tohoku Main Line. Train 539, departing Morioka at 7:11, had its last three cars detached at Kōma Station; the passenger train continued to Numakunai, while the three diesel railcars became the Hanawa Line train 927D bound for Ōdate. Why not try recreating this with TOMIX?https://t.co/bXVuunsRcwpic.twitter.com/kwRqXNbYP0
— TOMIX Official Public Relations: Tateishi Ayame (Railway Girl) (@tateishi_ayame) October 7, 2024
Why did this strange train formation come into being?
As of 1968, local trains on the Tohoku Main Line running through Iwate Prefecture were mainly operated with passenger cars. On the other hand, most local trains on the Hanawa Line, except for the morning and evening rush hours, were operated with diesel railcars. Therefore, it is not particularly strange that train 539 is a passenger train and train 927D is a diesel railcar train.
However, even during the Japanese National Railways era, when many trains that seem unimaginable today were in operation, it is said that there were no other examples of trains operating in this manner, with passenger cars coupled to diesel railcars. Why were these two trains coupled together for part of the journey?
When two trains bound for different destinations are coupled together, the time they occupy the tracks is shorter than when the two trains run separately, which has the advantage of making it easier to increase the number of trains. In fact, in the Tohoku region at the time, many trains, mainly express trains, were operated that split into two midway through their journey or merged into one train. Some trains , such as the express train "Rikuchu" that connected Sendai Station in Miyagi Prefecture and Miyako Station in Iwate Prefecture (and at times as far as Akita Station in Akita Prefecture), had such a complex route and midway splitting and merging that they are still talked about today.
It is thought that the combined passenger and diesel railcar trains also came into existence in a similar fashion. At the time, before the Tohoku Shinkansen opened, the Tohoku Main Line was a major artery with frequent traffic of local trains, express trains, limited express trains, and even freight trains. During the morning rush hour, there was either not enough capacity to run the local trains on the Tohoku Main Line and the local trains that ran directly from Morioka Station to the Hanawa Line via the Tohoku Main Line separately, or it was judged that it would be more efficient to run them coupled together, which is how the trains with their unusual formations came into being, running as far as Kōma Station, where the Hanawa Line branches off.
The existence of trains consisting of passenger cars and diesel railcars was apparently well-known among railway enthusiasts, and the late Shunzō Miyawaki, a renowned travel writer, also wrote in his book "The Longest One-Way Ticket Journey" that he had planned to ride and photograph this train in 1978. However, the overnight sleeper express "Yuzuru" that he took to travel from Ueno Station in Tokyo to Morioka Station was delayed by nearly two hours, so he ended up missing the 7:11 AM departure of trains 539 and 927D from Morioka Station. As an aside, the reason for the delay of the "Yuzuru" was that a freight train's locomotive broke down at Ayase Station, which is on the Jōban Line and within Tokyo, blocking the tracks for a long time, which was extremely unfortunate for Miyawaki.
A locomotive, passenger car, and diesel railcar train still in operation today
Trains consisting of both passenger cars and diesel railcars have disappeared from the November 1982 timetable. While a diesel railcar train on the Hanawa Line remained in almost the same form as before the timetable revision, with train 1927D departing Morioka at 7:10 and arriving in Odate at 10:30, train 539 on the Tohoku Main Line disappeared, and a new passenger train, train 529, departing Morioka at 7:04 and arriving in Kita-Fukuoka (now Ninohe) at 8:33, was introduced at a similar time.
This timetable revision was implemented in conjunction with the full-scale opening of the Tohoku Shinkansen. In the process of streamlining train operations on the parallel Tohoku Main Line following the opening of the Shinkansen, it was likely determined that it was no longer necessary to operate these trains coupled with diesel railcars that ran directly to the Hanawa Line.
However, trains consisting of a locomotive, passenger cars, and diesel railcars are still in operation for a completely different purpose. One such example is the "Stove Train" operated by the Tsugaru Railway, a private railway in Aomori Prefecture, during the winter months. As the name suggests, potbelly stoves are lit inside the passenger cars.
A separate stove train ticket is required to ride the stove train, so a diesel railcar, the same type used on regular trains, is coupled with the passenger cars for passengers who do not need a stove. This is how the current train with its unusual configuration of a diesel locomotive, passenger cars, and diesel railcar was born (unlike the former Tohoku Main Line train 539, the diesel railcar is not detached midway).
the Tsugaru Railway's stove train is a diesel locomotive, followed by two passenger cars, and the last car is a railcar.
In recent years, stove trains have been operated without the use of locomotives, with passenger cars being pulled by diesel railcars, but this is also a rare form of operation nationwide
A stove train pulled by a diesel railcar
For more information on the charms of the Tsugaru Railway, please see this article
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