Wonderful photos in that link! And is that line steep! If I see it right, the pushers are rack locomotives with third-rail supply, aint' they? I've never seen such a combination!
And those three and four locomotives after each other - are they permanently coupled?
As for the above photo: what is a battery car needed for behind an electric? *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
A battery car is for the non-electric area. They changed the loco to a steam engine some 200 miles from Tokyo as the rest of the rail was not yet supplied with electricity.
It was a kind of mismanagement of resources, not unusual for a developing economy back then. For instance, we were able to build Zero fighters which dominated the air from 1940 to 1941. Nevertheless, its parts factories and assembly lines were not connected by paved motorways. They used horses and cows to haul the parts. I will become a patissier, God willing.
Must be system Abt - from the photos, hard to say, maybe a double Abt. Below, from left to right: rack for the Riggenbach, Strub, Abt (triple version), and Locher systems:
What I found very strange is an electric rack railway where electricity comes from a third rail on one side of the rails, rather than overhead wire.
A battery car is for the non-electric area... It was a kind of mismanagement of resources
Until recently, in Hungary, there were passenger trains pulled by Russian-built locomotives that lacked electric train-heating/board electricity generators - thus generator cars were used.
However, if the train first came from the capital Budapest pulled by an electric locomotive, and had to continue unelectrified, the generator car was only put on the train with the diesel (just this happens on the image above). Then again, I'm speculating, maybe the battery car on your train was charged from the overhead wire during the first 300 km? *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
That pass is also very very beautiful when you drive. Over the pass, there is a famous resort by the name of Karuizawa, which John Lennon and Yoko Ono loved.
Peace. I will become a patissier, God willing.
