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Tobu Kinugawa Line

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Type
  
Heavy rail

Line length
  
16.2 km (10.1 mi)

Owner
  
Tobu Railway

Locale
  
Tochigi Prefecture

Track gauge
  
1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)

Tobu Kinugawa Line httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Electrification
  
1,500 V DC, overhead catenary

Terminis
  
Shimo-Imaichi Station, Shin-Fujiwara Station

Tobu kinugawa line


The Tobu Kinugawa Line (東武鬼怒川線, Tōbu Kinugawa-sen) is a 16.2 km long Japanese railway line from Shimo-Imaichi Station to Shin-Fujiwara Station in Nikkō, Tochigi. It is owned and operated by the private railway operator Tobu Railway.

Contents

At Shimo-Imaichi Station it connects with the Tobu Nikko Line. At Shin-Fujiwara Station it connects with the Yagan Railway Aizu Kinugawa Line. Some trains goes beyond the Aizu Kinugawa Line terminus at Aizu-Kōgen Oze-guchi Station onto the Aizu Railway Aizu Line.

The line runs surcharged, reserved-seat limited express services from and to Asakusa and Shinjuku in Tokyo.

The whole line is electrified at 1,500 V DC, but it is single tracked except for a 0.8 km double-tracked section at Kinugawa-Onsen Station.

History

  • 1915: Fujiwara Tramway (藤原軌道株式会社, Fujiwara Kidō Kabushiki-gaisha) was licensed to build a 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) gauge steam-hauled tramway. It was renamed Shimotsuke Tramway (下野軌道株式会社, Shimotsuke Kidō Kabushiki-gaisha) in the same year.
  • 2 January 1917: A 3.6-mile (5.8 km) section from Daiya-gawa Hokugan Station to Kinugawa Nangan Station was opened. The line was extended a further 2.5 miles (4.0 km) the same year.
  • March 1919: Ōhara Station to Shimotaki Station section was opened.
  • October 1919: Daiya Mukō Imaichi Station to Shin-Imaichi Station section was opened.
  • 1 January 1920: Shimotaki Station to Fujiwara Station section was open to complete the whole 10.9-mile (17.5 km) line.
  • 6 June 1921: The company name was renamed Shimotsuke Electric Railway Co., Ltd. (下野電気鉄道株式会社, Shimotsuke Denki Tetsudō Kabushiki-gaisha).
  • 9 March 1922: The whole line was electrified at 600 V DC.
  • April 1927: The corporate headquarters was relocated to the Tobu Railway headquarters in Tokyo.
  • 22 October 1929: 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge operation began on all the line.
  • 1931: The voltage was raised to 1,500 V.
  • 1 May 1943: Shimotsuke Electric Railway was bought out by Tobu Railway. The line became Tobu Kinugawa Line.
  • 9 October 1986: Yagan Railway Aizu Kinugawa Line through service began.
  • 12 October 1990: Aizu Railway Aizu Line through service to Aizu Tajima Station began.
  • 18 March 2006: New Kinugawa services to/from Shinjuku commence.

    • From 17 March 2012, station numbering was introduced on all Tobu lines, with Tobu Kinugawa Line stations adopting the prefix "TN" in orange.

    Steam-hauled services

    Tobu has borrowed former JNR Class C11 steam locomotive C11 207 from JR Hokkaido for use on the 12.4 km section of the Kinugawa Line between Shimo-Imaichi and Kinugawa-Onsen stations from 10 August 2017. Turntables will also be installed at Shimo-Imaichi and Kinugawa-Onsen to turn the locomotive in service. A two-stall engine shed is also being constructed for the steam loco at Shimo-Imaichi.

    New station

    A new station called Tobu World Square Station is scheduled to open between Kosagoe and Kinugawa-Onsen on 22 July 2017 to serve the nearby Tobu World Square theme park. From this date, Tobu World Square Station will be numbered "TN-55", and the station numbers for Kinugawa-Onsen to Shin-Fujiwara will be adjusted accordingly.

    References

    Tobu Kinugawa Line Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA