Ikawa Line
A train on the Ikawa Line
Overview
LocaleShizuoka Prefecture
Termini
Stations14
Service
TypeHeavy rail
Operator(s)Ōigawa Railway
History
Opened1935 (1935)
Technical
Line length25.5 km (15.8 mi)
1.5 km (0.93 mi) rack portion
Track gauge1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)
(Abt rack system)
Electrification1,500 V DC overhead
(rack portion only)
Route map
km
Ōigawa Main Line
0.0
 Senzu
1.1
 Kawane-Ryōgoku
2.4
 Sawama
Sumata River
3.9
 Domoto
5.8
 Kawane-Koyama
Signal Tunnel No. 9
440 m
Signal Tunnel No. 10
393 m
7.5
 Okuizumi
Ōi River
 Kawane Ichishiro
(
closed
1990
)
former line (
closed
1990
)
9.9
 Abt Ichishiro
Dai-Kajima Tunnel
 Ōkashima
Ōigawa Bridge No. 2
Ōi River
11.4
 Nagashima Dam
Yosekura Tunnel
 Kawane-Karasawa
12.6
 Hiranda
Hirata Tunnel
old│new
 Inuma
Okuōi Rainbow Bridge
Lake Sesso
13.9
 Okuōikojō
Lake Sesso
tunnel 3
15.5
 Sessokyō-Onsen
17.8
 Omori
Sekinosawa Bridge
100 m
tunnel 5
20.5
 Kanzō
Misakubo Tunnel No. 2
264 m
23.4
 Kamekubo
(
closed
1971
)
tunnel 13
25.5
 Ikawa
Ikawa Dam
26.6
 Dohira
(
closed
1971
)
km
Electrified rack section

The Ikawa Line (井川線, Ikawa-sen) is a railway line of the Ōigawa Railway. It runs from Senzu Station in Kawanehon, Shizuoka, the end station of the Ōigawa Main Line, and terminates at Ikawa Station in Aoi-ku, Shizuoka. The line has 61 tunnels and 51 bridges along its 25.5 kilometer length and includes the only rack-and-pinion railway section currently operating in Japan.

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

  • Sawama station - the 762mm gauge Sen-to forest railway, consisting of a 36km 'main line', branches 6km and 4km long and a 1.4km cableway, operated between 1934 and 1968.

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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ikawa line.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.