Rasuchijin Railway Association

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Here's a little history lesson for a railway preservation group I like to called, 'The Studio Ghibli of Railway Preservation'.
In 1971, a group called All Japan Small Locomotive Study Group, brought back a small locomotive from Taiwan, they overhaul it in mid 72 and started operating at various places, that locomotive is No.3(the blue one). All Japan Small Locomotive Study Group main headquarters was a small 800 meter industrial line in Itoigawa Niigata Prefecture, the industrial line was named the Toyo Activated Clay Company Line. The small group operated at the industrial line which became the last narrow gauge industrial railway in Japan, in 1972, the All Small Locomotive Study Group became the Rasuchijin Railway Association and took over the operation. From 1972 till 1982, most of the activities were done at the small industrial line, in 1978, RASS brought back No.6(the red one) from Japan and was restored by the Oigawa Railway. The biggest event for RASS was renting their locomotives to Portopia 81' an exposition, which cause a series of unmaintenance for the steam locomotives for the past 7 months, which RASS sued, but failed. With that they did a light overhaul to the locomotives, because 1982 will be the closure of the Toyo Activated Clay Company line, ending over 100 years of light railways in Japan. A final farewell driving party was held, and after that, it was all over.
A year later, in 1983, they built their first steam locomotive, a vertical boiler named Muff Potter.
RASS stored 3 and 6 to the Oigawa Railway until they find a new location, which took them 11 years, until 1993, where a ranch in Narita Chiba Prefecture would be their new location. So through the mid 90s construction and operation started again for the small group, and RASS today is still building those tracks, they've planned for 1.2km of track.
For the pass 40 years, they were no strangers to T.V. since back then it was a new thing to do for the 70s, and to this day they're still famous on NHK. My favorite is Japan Railway Journal and Cool Japan, which they're feature in.
The reason why I called them 'The Studio Ghibli of Railway Preservation', is that it wasn't for them, no one in Japan would preserve small 2 foot gauge steam locomotives in the near future. They're pretty popular in Japan, but unknown outside of Japan, mostly because they're pretty private, they have a twitter account and a blog site. They don't have a Facebook or there own railway website, so they're pretty private, I'm facebook friends with one who volunteers in his spared time.
I don't want to diss anyone, but I respect RASS 100%, their newest locomotive No.7 Ginger is my favorite locomotive. I don't really like it when you called a 2 foot(610mm) gauge locomotive cute, to me is like an insult, but I don't say anything cause I'm not that type of person(this happens on Facebook as well). I just don't like it, and I know it's your opinion and I respect that. Of course I called the line 'RASS', 'Makiba Line', and Narita Dream Farm Line, I don't called it Narita Yume Bokujo narrow gauge railway, which is cringy in my opinion.
And now here's something really honest I want to say, I don't really like it when you put TTTE reference on the locomotives, when I found this part of the Forum, I was glad to find a forum to talk about real steam locomotives. I'm a pretty serious person and I do get grumpy a lot, so I want serious discussions about steam locomotives and so forth. 
DalaGStanator I don't know where did you got your info on RASS, but that's not the right source to find them if you're using wikipedia, for anyone that wants to learn about RASS for their locomotives. PM me and I'll answer them, note that RASS is building a new steam locomotive, we might a full view of the locomotive in spring.
In a mean time, here's some photos of RASS in the early days and in the 21st century.
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  • DalaGStanator, Super
Dillon, do you belong to that association?
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I wish but no, I did long research about them for a couple of months.
(This post was last modified: 12-22-2020, 11:23 PM by Super.)
[-] The following 2 users Like Dillon_Trinh's post:
  • DalaGStanator, Super



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