travel

Thomas the Tank Engine locomotive coming to Japan in 2014

5 Comments
By Oona McGee

Thomas the Tank Engine has a huge following in Japan. Known here as Kikansha Tomasu, literally Tank Engine Thomas, the cheeky train and his group of hard-working friends are so popular they even have their own amusement park and a hotel dedicated to them with unique, train carriage-themed rooms.

Now Japanese fans are looking forward to their biggest present yet: a chance to ride on a fully-working Thomas the Tank Engine steam locomotive -- down the hills and round the bends of the Oigawa Line in Shizuoka Prefecture.

The Oigawa Railway is famous throughout Japan for its unusual steam locomotives. The line runs through isolated mountain areas, mostly carrying passengers to one of the hot spring resorts in the area or to the vicinity of the Southern Alps National Park. The scenery along the line is stunning.

In the summer of 2013, one of the locomotives was dressed up as “SL-kun”, a boyish character named SL, for steam locomotive.

In the summer of 2014, the C11-227 steam locomotive will be chugging through the tea fields as Thomas, thanks to a unique collaboration with the Japanese distribution company Sony Creative Products Inc. The video below of SL-kun gives us an idea of what lies in store for Thomas.

At the Senzu Station terminal, the JNR Class 9600 will be dressed up as Thomas’ Japanese friend, Hiro (photo above left).

Visitors can take a ride on Thomas starting this summer, as he runs the 37.2-kilometer route every day for about two months between Shinkanaya Station in Shimada and Senzu Station in Kawane-Honcho.

Source: Narinari

Read more stories from RocketNews24. -- University students start a JK fan club -- 21 themed Japanese hotel rooms that you won’t believe -- Winter Luxury at its Finest: The Kotatsu Train

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5 Comments
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My god did you see that video, that is the scariest idea of Thomas I have EVER seen. Did they even watch the show?

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They haven't done Thomas yet, they are doing it this upcoming summer. So the train in the video was not Thomas. I'm pretty sure it was however the Oigawa tetsudo (I've ridden it). So I'm guessing the train in the video was SL-kun:

In the summer of 2013, one of the locomotives was dressed up as “SL-kun”, a boyish character named SL, for steam locomotive.

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It says that in 2013 the train was done up as SL-kun, not one of the Thomas-faced trains, that's happening in 2014. I can imagine that train with a plastic Thomas face chugging along the track... and that looks like a nice route.

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The facial expression on that train says it all... Oh Gawd, how embarrassing....

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I wonder why that show is popular in Japan.

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