You Can Do As You Wish @todayintokyo, It Depends On How Much Of A Hint You Want To Give. ;)

ICE 3 (Gen.1)

After visiting Karlsruhe Palace, I had a bit of time while waiting for a (packed) regional train South to wander around the station. There was quite a lot going on, as on top of the local traffic from S-Bahns to REs, busy intercity lines to Freiburg and Basel, Stuttgart and Munich, Mannheim and Frankfurt meet here. A chance to see my favourite German high-speed train: the Baureihe 403 ICE 3.

Entering service in 2000, over 10 years after the first InterCity Expresses, the ICE 3 was a revolution in European high-speed rail. These were the first 300 km/h-capable trains that weren't of a "power car & carriages" layout, using distributed traction (motors all along the unit) like Shinkansen trains. And a sleek shape to boot! They were designed by Alexander Neumeister, who also penned the 500 Series Shinkansen. Hmm, maybe that's why.

The ICE 3 would be the first example of Siemens's Velaro series, which would be an export hit: the Netherlands, Spain, China and Russia purchased this model. The type received a redesign in the late 2000s that I could only describe as "more beefy": the Velaro D was taken up by Germany, Turkey and Eurostar.

Arashio-beya

The quickest way to witness some sumo wrestling is probably to watch a morning practice session in a stable (though we'd probably use the word "club" in Europe). Arashio-beya in Tôkyô is one such stable, with the nearly-daily practice watchable from the street.

On some days, wrestlers may come out to meet the spectators and pose for some photos. This happened on the day I was there.

While researching for this post, it appeared that these two wrestlers may be among the stable's most successful. Arashio-beya was founded in 2002, and has had four wrestlers reach the top division as sekitori. Their first one is retired and now manages the stable, and their second was Wakatakakage, who won their first major tournament in March 2022 - and who probably is pictured left (I'm confident it is him based on other photos, but I'm couching it slightly just in case I'm wrong). Wakatakakage is the youngest of three brothers who all wrestle for Arashio-beya, and one of his brothers is the third sekitori from the stable. The fourth and most recent is Kôtokuzan, probably pictured right.

For someone who knows absolutely nothing about sumo, looking back at that morning, it's neat to think I was in the presence of people who would fulfill their ambitions.

Running around Koblenz station the other evening, I couldn't resist the cute message on this local train. Instead of a deadpan "depot" or "not taking passengers", this train is "going to bed"!

Sangaku Sunday #2

As the tags in a reblog by @todayintokyo indicated, I waffled about what we'll do in this series in the first post without really defining its main object!

Sangaku are wooden tablets on display at Shintô shrines or Buddhist temples in Japan, featuring geometry problems and their solutions, usually without proof. They started appearing in the Edo period, a particular time for the Japanese people and Japanese scientists. The votive role of these tablets has been debated as far back as the Edo period, as indicated by Meijizen who wrote in 1673:

"There appears to be a trend these days, of mathematical problems on display at shrines. If they were true votive tablets (ema), they should contain a prayer of some sort. Lacking that, one wonders what they are for, other than to celebrate the mathematical genius of their authors. Their meaning eludes me."

I feel the debate on their religious role is overrated. If you look at some food offerings at shrines today, I don't think you'll find a prayer on the bottle of tea or pack of rice, as the prayer is made at the time of offering. It likely is the same for sangaku tablets, which went on display with other offerings. But, as Meijizen hinted, they did have another purpose.

Until we expand on that, below the cut is the solution of last weekend's problem.

Place the point H on the line between A and C1 so that the distance between A and C1 is equal to r2. As the lines (AC1) and (BC2) are both perpendicular to the line (AB), they are parallel, and since AH=BC2=r2, HABC2 is a parallelogram with two right angles: it's a rectangle.

So the length we want, AB, is equal to HC2. The triangle HC1C2 has a right angle at the vertex H, so we can use Pythagoras's theorem:

HC1² + HC2² = C1C2²

In this equality, two lengths are known: C1C2=r1+r2, and

HC1 = AC1-AH = r1-r2 (assuming r1>r2, if not just switch the roles of r1 and r2)

Thus, HC2² = (r1+r2)²-(r1-r2)² = 4 r1 r2 after expanding both expressions (e.g. (r1+r2)² = (r1+r2)x(r1+r2) = r1² + 2 r1 r2 + r2²).

Taking the square root yields the result.

On the JR Nara line

Uji city and the the building on the 10-yen coin can be accessed by train from Kyôto by going roughly a third of the way to Nara. Other famous sites near the line are Fushimi Inari Taisha (Inari stop), and the studios of Kyoto Animation, famous for the music and sports anime K-On and Free! (Kohata stop).

The most recent type on the route is the 221 Series, and it's already getting on a bit, introduced in 1989. It won one of the Japan Railfan Club's two main new train design awards, the Laurel Prize, the following year. The 221 is used on the fastest Miyakokji Rapid services, which do the Kyôto to Nara run in under 45 minutes.

Green 103 Series sets can also be seen. This is the oldest type still in active JR service (if not, it's close), as it was introduced in 1963. In 2016, when I first visited Japan, I was living near Paris, and some Métro and suburban lines were running trains of a similar age, if not older, and these were atrocious in hot weather - no air conditioning, and ventilation only provided by opening windows! The RATP MP 59 used on Métro line 11 was stinky to boot; it was withdrawn just before the Games, no wonder! Point is, the 103 doesn't have air con either, but is at least trying...

Also in Portsmouth harbour in August 2012, also not powered by aircraft engines: the Italian Navy's training ship Amerigo Vespucci.

As explained in Oceanliner Designs' video on the ill-fated Kobenhavn, even after steam had become the prime mover of the world's warships, navies still valued sailors who could operate a fully-rigged sailing ship. Hence training vessels were still built with sail in mind, and are still in use in that capacity today, such as France's Belem, built in 1896, which recently carried the Olympic torch from Greece to Marseille, and Italy's Amerigo Vespucci, built in 1930, which also carried the Olympic torch for the Rome games in 1960, and is basically on a perpetual world tour.

Funnels are clearly visible on this side view, as, like most sailing ships today, other engines are provided, at least for safety when the wind cannot be used. In fact, the Amerigo Vespucci's Diesel engines received a serious upgrade not long after these photos were taken in 2012.

Speaking of 2012, that was the year the replica of the Bounty sank in a hurricane. It too was a sailing ship with Diesel back-ups, and Brick Immortar has a full video on the incident, which includes one of the daftest quotes I have ever heard - I struggle to believe the narrators could say it with a straight face -, with the captain claiming, in the context of sailing near a hurricane, that "a ship is safer at sea than in port."

A few views of the Saar and Mosel rivers in Germany, which recently burst their banks due to heavy rain. The lower levels of the multi-lane motorway through Saarbrucken (second picture) were underwater, and the historic towns of Trier (top) and Cochem (below), which I have fond memories of, were flooded too.

Hoping that the communities can recover soon.

Expo 70 Japanese Garden

While most of the pavilions of the 1970 World Expo at Osaka were demolished, a very large exhibit was preserved: the Japanese garden. Located in the North of the enormous Commemoration Park, it's designed as a stroll through the ages, with four sections inspired by different periods, Ancient, Medieval, Modern (Edo period) and Contemporary - kind of like the zones from The Crystal Maze, just without the puzzles and Richard O'Brien.

From rock gardens to ponds and rolling hills, from a bamboo grove to wisteria and maple trees, it hits the notes you'd expect from a summary of Japanese landscape styling, but allows one plenty of room to contemplate each tableau - I'm emphasised how big the overall park is, but the Japanese garden alone covers 26 hectares.

One of the few gripes I have with Koishikawa Kôrakuen, my favourite garden in Tokyo, is that some buildings are close and large enough to appear in the background. With the Expo pavilions gone however, most views in this park don't have that problem. Only the Tower of the Sun and the Osaka Wheel are able to rise above the park in this view towards the South.

A couple of quick-fire photos from the boat on a recent ride on the Canal de la Marne au Rhin. Picture sharpness isn't always fantastic when it's a rather fast reaction situation, but I still like this duck!

A Belgian Série 13 loco with freight, crossing a viaduct in North-Eastern France. The 13s are very flexible but do not support 15 kV, so the loco will be changed at the German or Swiss border if its cargo continues on.

Châteaubriant: a regional rail hard border

Rennes and Nantes, the largest cities in the Western tip of France, could have three direct rail routes connecting them. The one via Redon has always been used in this role; a second, via Laval and Angers, was ridiculously long until the high-speed line to Laval opened and 200 km/h-capable units were adapted for use on it; and a third... has been cut off at Châteaubriant.

The irony is, the Châteaubriant route would be the shortest in distance, at just over 120 km in length, in a fairly simple North-South direction. The trouble is, the line wasn't built with the traffic between the two cities in mind, is mainly single track, and has some steep inclines (1.5% is steep for a train). As such, it has always seen modest levels of traffic, and since the 1980s, it had been falling into disrepair in parts, and become abandoned in others.

The Nantes side saw a resurrection in the early 2010s: the line was electrified and, in 2014, tram-trains began operating. We've seen a tram-train on this blog before, but this service is only technically a tram-train, as it only uses a tram line parallel to the urban tram for a few kilometres inside Nantes, and only making one stop on that stretch. The Alstom Citadis Dualis (SNCF class U 53500) units are effectively regional trains in tram clothing, and are the only tram-trains in France to have onboard toilets.

But in France, local trains are managed by the administrative regions, and Nantes to Châteaubriant is under the authority of Pays de la Loire, so the electric wires, renovated stations and new trains went no higher. Worse, the line has been cut in half by a platform link, as shown above - and a photo on this webpage seems to indicate they used to be joined. So the Rennes side, managed by Bretagne region, has remained without electric power. I remember the stark contrast between the two sides of the regional border when I visited in early 2020: to Nantes, modern infrastructure and trains; to Rennes... nothing, and tracks that were starting to be overgrown!

It turns out the line was indeed closed for repair works at the time, and in 2021, Rennes to Châteaubriant reopened, with first-generation bi-mode Bombardier AGC (B 82500) sets, which only use Diesel power on this route, operating a peak-only service.

In conclusion, the Rennes-Châteaubriant-Nantes route has always been in the shadow of the slightly longer route via Redon, as the latter provided good connections to other major towns on the South Brittany coast: Vannes, Lorient and Quimper. The Châteaubriant route was never double-tracked, and today is a striking illustration of regionalisation, with different levels of investment on either side of the border, and through service now impossible.