Japan Set Development

[dandan]

Any experts on the history of Japanese railways here?

I am looking for information on Japanese passenger cars, especially (but not only) from the steam age. I have found many names and pictures on the Japanese Wikipedia and on sites selling model railways. But I find it very hard to obtain any kind of concrete information on what models were the most common in what era and for what usage. In particular, I am looking for the following:

1. Passenger cars from the early period (before 1900). I read somewhere that a fatal accident in 1926 played a major role in making the transition from wooden to steel cars. What did the earlier wooden cars look like?

2. Express passenger cars from the interwar period. What are some famous express trains from that time and what locomotives pulled what kind of cars for them?

[krtaylor]

I know I've got no idea. Most of what I found was, as you mentioned, model railways. Good enough for gameplay, but not if you're seeking true historical accuracy.

[dandan]

I do not need super-detailed and accurate information. The aim is just to include a larger variety of passenger cars into the set, without completely screwing up the history. But even that seems not so easy...

[Sylf]

I'm no expert, but here goes anyway, based on what I read on here, here, and some personal stories.

First passenger rail service in Japan in 1872 was done using 2-axle 5.4-meter cars, imported from England. Total of 58 cars were imported.

First large scale use of bogie cars came in 1889, when 56 of them were imported from England, as well as 18 of them were produced domestically.

1910 saw some major unification of railroad companies, and brought standardized passenger cars, such as type HOHA12000 (1910) and NAHA22000 (1920).

As you said, steel cars came into play in 1926 with type OHA31. All cars up to this point were 17-meters long. After 1928, the standard became 20-meters.

The use of standalone passenger cars started declining after 1956, replaced by EMU and DMU. I'm sure you can find lots about these, so I won't go into details.

Even though the production of wooden cars mostly stopped after 1926, the use of it did not end until mid 1950's.

Between 1910 and 1950s, there also were 3-axle per bogie cars for first-class passenger cars. (Sorry, no specific model number here.)

In 1958, they built type 20 sleeper cars - the first type of passenger car known as Blue Train. (type 12, type 14 and type 24 to follow the tradition of Blue Train.)

Type 50 is probably the last of standard passenger cars, designed in 1977.

JR East is the only company after JNR break-up who introduced a passenger car, type E26.

[dandan]

Thanks a lot, Sylf! I had also found that Wikipedia page in the meantime, but could not make too much sense of it with Google translate. This summary really helps. I'll keep looking around and eventually I should be able to create a nice assortment of new passenger cars for the set.

[b_jonas]

I'd like to report a bug about the Japanese Landscape set.

This newGRF replaces graphics for foundations (walls under buildings on sloped tiles, terraces). It, however, does not replace such foundations on half-tile rail squares. This is probably because those kinds of foundations were added in a later version of OpenTTD.

The attached screenshot illustrates the problem. This is a temperate climate game using OpenTTD version 1.1.3-RC1, with Japanese Landscape Set v1.1a loaded, but no other newGRF. You can see both the Japanese and the original foundations.

[V453000 :)]

I think that is an openttd issue as it happens in MARS too for example.

[FooBar]

Openttd added these foundations years ago, but after these sets were released. So it's due to openttd, but not an openttd issue. The only solution is to live with it or to expand these sets.

[Emperor Jake]

Those foundations don't clash too much anyway, they fit together reasonably well. I know of a certain concrete style foundation set and a brick foundation set that look awful with the stone diagonal walls.

[ISA]

Hello
Messed around with Japan set grf's and have a question as I haven't played much with this set.
Is there any reason for having TTRS like roads in this set or its intentional? Or they change to modern in later years?
There is also a screen shot one page pack where roads are shown!
But so far what I've see I like very much! Thanks for the info!

[dandan]

1) The next version will have different foundations anyway. But I will check before the release whether this glitch is really fixed. Thanks for reporting it.

2) The TTRS roads are only until 1950 (or 1945, can't remember right now). Like with all road sets, you will only see the change if you reload your game or reset NewGRFs.

[ISA]

2) The TTRS roads are only until 1950 (or 1945, can't remember right now). Like with all road sets, you will only see the change if you reload your game or reset NewGRFs.

Thanks for clearing up.

[ssvh.net]

Hi,

i found a small bug.
The yellow and the bordeaux colored DEO 900 have different passenger capacities.

Cheers
Stephan

[ssvh.net]

Hello dandan,

how is the development of the Japan Set doing? Do you have a "release date" or some screenshots?

Cheers
Stephan

[ISA]

Don't want be rude, but did You need double post for that?

[Toni Babelony]

Hello all,

Since I started playing OpenTTD again over LAN (it's more fun that way) with the Japan Set, I decided to see if my help is needed with the development of the Japan Set again. It's a bit of a strange thing to do, maybe it's nostalgia, but I'm ready for

I'm sorry to say that I have not the intention to make huge updates every time like I used to, but I can do requests, data research on trains and optimising things. Next to that, I'm not really interested in animating steamers, but more in adding sounds, adding new trams, adding new station buildings and things like that. You know, the stuff I did before, but at a much slower pace (I now kinda have a life of some sorts).

I look forward to work with you guys again!

Best regards,

Toni

[NekoMaster]

I think the shinkansens could use some cool loud air horns.

[dandan]

Toni!!! Great to have you back. That's the best news the Japan Set has had in a while.

There has been a lot of progress behind the scenes actually and I was going to release the new version soon. However, I am still waiting for some steamer sprites from DanMacK *cough*, but it seems he currently does not have time to work on them. I am also working on the stations, but progress is slow at the moment and will be even slower for the next couple of weeks. So, no, I do not have a release date right now, only the famous "soon" (TM).

Toni, I will PM you with some development stuff.

@sshv.net: Thanks for the bug report. That one had already been fixed in the meantime.

[NekoMaster]

Do Japanese train stations come with parking? If they do maybe we could add parking lot tiles that match the roads in Japan Set

[dandan]

Do Japanese train stations come with parking? If they do maybe we could add parking lot tiles that match the roads in Japan Set

Yes, I have already drawn some parking lots.

I don't have good screenshots of anything to show right now, but when I get around to it, I will post some.