Ōigawa Railway Ikawa Line

Ikawa Line

A carriage for Ikawa Line
Overview
Type Heavy rail
Locale Shizuoka Prefecture
Termini Senzu
Ikawa
Stations 14
Operation
Opened 1935
Operator(s) Ōigawa Railway
Technical
Line length 25.5 km (15.8 mi)
Track gauge 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)
Abt rack system on 1.5 km (0.93 mi) portion
Electrification 1,500 V DC overhead
Ikawa Line
Ōigawa Main Line
0.0 Senzu
1.1 Kawane-Ryōgoku
2.4 Sawama
Sumata River
3.9 Domoto
5.8 Kawane-Koyama
No. 9 Signal Tunnel 440 m
No. 10 Signal Tunnel 393 m
7.5 Okuizumi
Ōi River
Kawane Ichishiro Station-1990
former line-1990
9.9 Abt Ichishiro-1990
Dai-Kajima Tunnel
Ōkashima -1990

No.2 Ōigawa Bridge 137 m
Ōi River
11.4 Nagashima Dam
Yosekura Tunnel 293 m
Kawane-Karasawa Station
12.6 Hiranda
Hirata Tunnel(new) 673 m
Hirata Tunnel(old)
Inuma Station
Okuōi Rainbow Bridge
Lake Sesso
13.9 Okuōikojō
Lake Sesso
tunnel 3
15.5 Sessokyō-Onsen
17.8 Omori
Sekinosawa Bridge100 m
tunnel 5
20.5 Kanzō
No. 2 Misakubo Tunnel 264 m
(23.4) Kamekubo-1971
tunnel 13
25.5 Ikawa
Ikawa dam (closed to public)
26.6 Dohira Station-1971

The Ikawa Line (井川線 Ikawa-sen) of the Ōigawa Railway is the only rack-and-pinion railway currently operating in Japan.

The line commences at Senzu Station in Kawanehon, Shizuoka, the end station of the Ōigawa Main Line, and terminates at Ikawa Station in Aoi-ku, Shizuoka, Shizuoka Prefecture. The line has 61 tunnels and 51 bridges along its 25.5 kilometer length.

History

The Ikawa line began operations on March 20, 1935, as a private line for the Ōigawa Electric Company, to carry workers and materials upstream to facilitate dam construction. The single track line was originally constructed with 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) narrow gauge; however, in order to have dual usage with carriages on the Senzu-Shinrin Line (now closed) a third rail was added the following year for the Japanese standard gauge (1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)). In 1954, the line was extended under the aegis of the Chubu Electric Power Company to facilitate the construction of the Ōigawa Dam. Railway operations were spun out of Chubu Electric into a separate company in 1959, with the foundation of the Ōigawa Railway Company. With the completion of the Nagashima Dam, a portion of the line had to be re-routed along a 1.5 km section with a maximum gradient of 9% (~1 in 11). This required the installation of an Abt rack system on October 2, 1990. An automatic train stop system was installed at the end of March 2009.

The line runs through an isolated mountain area with no cities or towns, and has a very small population density. Most of the passengers are tourists visiting one of the hot spring resorts along the line, or alpinists and hikers heading for the peaks of the Southern Alps National Park.

Former connecting lines

Stations

Name Distance (km) Connections Location
Senzu 千頭 0.0 Ōigawa Railway Ōigawa Main Line Shizuoka Kawanehon,
Haibara District
Kawane-Ryōgoku 川根両国 1.1  
Sawama 沢間 2.4  
Domoto 土本 3.9  
Kawane-Koyama 川根小山 5.8  
Okuizumi 奥泉 7.5  
Abt Ichishiro アプトいちしろ 9.9  
Nagashima Dam 長島ダム 11.4  
Hiranda ひらんだ 12.6  
Okuōikojō 奥大井湖上 13.9  
Sessokyō-Onsen 接岨峡温泉 15.5  
Omori 尾盛 17.8  
Kanzō 閑蔵 20.5   Aoi-ku, Shizuoka
Ikawa 井川 25.5  

See also

References

This article incorporates material from the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia

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