Oigawa Railway

Oigawa Railway – a railway for rail fans with alpine & tea plantation scenes

Oigawa Railway runs along the Oigawa (Oi River) a major river running through Shizuoka Prefecture. The railway was originally built to serve the construction and maintenance of a number of power generation dams and associated equipment (map).

Today the railway only carries passengers, mostly visitors as the area it serves is lightly populated. It is a favourite for rail fans and young families in Japan as it operates a number of steam locomotives and runs “Thomas the Tank Engine” gala days several times a year.

It also has the steepest stretch of rail line in Japan and the only ABT rack system in the country.

The company operates two lines, firstly the Main Line, which connects to the JR Tokaido Main Line at Kanaya and runs to Senzu, and the Ikawa Line which is nicked named the “Minami Alps Line” and runs from Senzu to Ikawa and includes the ABT rack section.

Oigawa Tetsudo Main Line

As well as the steam locomotives (operate on weekends and holidays) the company also operates some Electric Locomotive hauled trains. Also on the main line most of the regular rolling stock used is “heritage” (second and even third hand) including ex-Nankai 21000 series and ex-Tokyu 7200 series and a more recent addition ex-Kintetsu Limited Express 16000 series (which are used for both local and rapid services).

At Shin-Kanaya Station, where Oigawa Tetsudo’s main depot is located you can see many heritage passenger carriages.

Ikawa Line

The Ikawa Line travels into the Southern Alps area in an area that is sparsely populated so this line operates mostly as a tourist line, although its original purpose was to transport workers and materials for building of dams (in particular Nagashima Dam and Ikawa Dam). As already mentioned this line has the only ABT rack system, a method for trains to negotiate steep gradients, in Japan, between ABT Ichishiro and Nagashima Dam stations. This section of line was diverted when the Nagashima Dam was built and the gradient is 1:9 or 11%.

For this section one of three special manufactured electric locomotives is attached to the east end of the train to push / pull the train up / down the gradient. This is the only section of the Ikawa Line which is electrified and these locomotives are restricted to only this part of the line as there is not enough clearance for them on other sections of the line.

All trains on the Ikawa Line are push / pull diesel locomotive hauled (except ABT section) and carriages are trolley type trucks but with glass windows. As clearance is limited all the trains are low height and narrower than conventional trains.

	Main Line	Ikawa Line
Length / km	39.5	25.5
Power	Electrified 1500v DC	Non electrified(*) (*1.5km ABT section only electrified at 1500v DC)
no of stations	20	14
Gauge	1067mm (3ft 6in)	1067mm (3ft 6in) (originally built as 762mm (2ft 6))

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