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| Bad Railfan PR--in Japan, of all places! https://rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29638 |
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| Author: | Alexander D. Mitchell IV [ Mon Jun 21, 2010 11:31 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Bad Railfan PR--in Japan, of all places! |
Just sent to me by a fellow railfan specializing in Japanese anime and rails: http://www.japantoday.com/category/kuch ... ir-welcome Railway geeks wearing out their welcome “Hey! This car is for us train geeks, not you regular passengers. Take a walk.” The occasion was Sunday, Jan 24, the final day before the old blue Model 209 passenger cars on the Keihin Tohoku/Negishi Line that runs between Ofuna, Kanagawa Prefecture and Omiya, Saitama Prefecture, were to be put into retirement. It seems that a group of the railway fans out for a last, nostalgic ride attempted to commandeer cars on the train. “Even though the train was just running as normal, the hobbyists rudely ordered regular passengers as if they had the run of the place,” a reporter for a national daily tells Friday (July 2). “I suppose they wanted a clean shot of the cars that wasn’t cluttered with people, and were determined to get their way,” a train spotter in his 40s explains. As a result of the growing number of unpleasant incidents, Friday reports that these “densha otaku” (train geeks, aka trainspotters), once referred to affectionately as “Tettchan,” have a new and less flattering name—“tetsu-tori,” an amalgamation of “tetsudo” (railway) and “toru,” (to shoot or take a photo). Friday lists a chronology of hobbyist-related mishaps, including one fatality, over the past decade. The numbers appear to be on the increase, with eight incidents occurring in the first five months of 2010 alone. Last February, about 10 men clambered into a restricted area adjacent to the JR Kansai Line tracks to shoot the Asuka express, causing six train runs to be delayed and inconveniencing some 3,500 passengers. [more at the link above] |
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