Type Heavy rail Opened 1935 Line length 25.5 km (15.8 mi) | Stations 14 Operator(s) Ōigawa Railway Locale Shizuoka Prefecture | |
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Track gauge 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)
Abt rack system on 1.5 km (0.93 mi) portion Terminis Senzu Station, Ikawa Station | ||
The Ikawa Line (井川線, Ikawa-sen) of the Ōigawa Railway is the only rack-and-pinion railway currently operating in Japan.
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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
