BAGDContext CSM

This was my best find in Japan. It’s a modern sign, printed on plastic film, for display on the front of an engine. It’s usually back-lit for special effect. I believe that it is for the Kaiji Limited Express, a seasonal service between Tokyo, Shinjoku, and Mount Fuji…

Here’s a Japanese blog that shows the train, and sign at its best

http://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/fujibusa2005/14410193.html

The trains…

And the sign, in situ..

And an LED version on a more modern train (not so good)

And, here are some stills from youtube…

I found this in Japan…a hand-printed poster for some kind of railway event. The text seems to be the return ticket…who knows?

This is an image from a series of pictures of abandoned railway stations in Saudi Arabia…

The picture is by the German artist photographer, Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, who headed to Saudi Arabia to photograph former railway stations the Ottoman empire, lost in the desert for decades.

You can see some of  the images, here

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2016/sep/16/ursula-schulz-dornburg-railway-stations-saudi-arabia#img-2

This is from a small collection of black and white commercial illustration from Britain after WW2…it’s the kind of thing that went into newspapers and magazines. Here’s an image of the Midland Pullman.

I’ve already posted about the Japanese fast trains of the 1950s with their punchy paint-jobs and sleek body-work. Here are some pictures of the train in Tokyo Railway Museum.

1950s Streamlining • Japan + USA

We purchased a couple of these water bottles at Tokyo station before setting off.

Here’s an idea for an invisible train…

The Japanese are at the forefront of tryig to develop technologies of opticl disturbance…in Star Trek, these would be called cloaking devices. It is literally the stuff of science-fiction, at the moment.

In practical terms, their most successful efforts are based on reflective surfaces and stealth geometry.

This is a computer generated image of an invisible train.

I guess they would tidy up the interface between track and carriage. All those boxes need hiding.

Personally, I like looking at trains. Making them invisible seems a bit pointless.

Still it does look pretty cool.

I recently posted a diagram of the Tokyo metro system…here’s an improved (eg rationalised) version. Still pretty amazing.

Actually, the reality is pretty straightforward.

We’ve just returned from a trip to Japan…amazing. Needless to say, the trains were terrific. At the Railway Museum, Tokyo, we saw the original model Shinkansen (1964).