Ōigawa Railway Ikawa Line

Ikawa Line
File:Oigawa-Ikawa-Line-by-System-ABT.jpg 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

Legend 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 x20px 9.9 Abt Ichishiro-1990 x20px Dai-Kajima Tunnel x20px Ōkashima -1990 File:BSicon ELCl.svg No.2 Ōigawa Bridge 137 m x20px x20px x20px 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) x20px 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

• 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

• Oku-oi Rainbow Bridge on Oigawa railway.jpg

  Okuoi Rainbow Bridge

• Ikawasen2.jpg

  Mountainous terrain

• Abt rack rail 02.jpg

  Abt rack rail

See also

• List of railway lines in Japan

References

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

External links

• Official website (Japanese)