Ikawa Line

Ikawa Line
Ikawa Line
	A train on the Ikawa Line
Overview
Locale	Shizuoka Prefecture
Termini	Senzu; Ikawa;
Stations	14
Service
Type	Heavy rail
Operator(s)	Ōigawa Railway
History
Opened	1935; 89 years ago
Technical
Line length	25.5 km (15.8 mi); 1.5 km (0.93 mi) rack portion
Track gauge	1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in); (Abt rack system)
Electrification	1,500 V DC overhead; (rack portion only)
Route map
	Legend
	closed
	1990
	closed
	1990
	closed
	1971
	closed
	1971

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 edit

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 edit

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 edit

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			Aoi-ku, Shizuoka