In some ways, with the old wooden beams and the narrow gage tracks, some stations on the Enoden are reminiscent of some old West train stations, of course without the coal and water feeds that Western trains needed. Some of the train cars are modeled on the earlier cars of the line, as well, although with modern instrumentation and controls.
When the next train came, it was time for a quick ride. This is a short clip for the first leg from Hase, going to Gokurakuji station, one stop towards Enoshima, to give you a feel for what the ride was like. We didn’t actually get all the way to Enoshima, one of the stops before then looked interesting, a town called Shichirigahama, which turned out to be a very nice town indeed.
Oh, and notice the care that the conductor uses, there are specific gestures to each instrument, which work as mnemonics that the conductor uses to make sure that each item in his checklist is complete. The combination of hand and eye motion and examination of the control settings at the same time gives the conductor stronger reinforcement than simply moving his eyes to check the controls. My Japanese teacher used a similar approach to teach us how to write kanji characters, one of the steps was writing the character in the air while speaking the stroke numbers aloud. “Muscle memory” helps the “main memory”.
As always, there are more photos on my portfolio site.
