was a freight

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

Japanese National Railways The abbreviated JNR or , was the business entity that operated Japan's national railway network from 1949 to 1987. Network Railways As of June 1, 1949, the date of establishment of JNR, it operated of narrow gauge () railways in all 46 pref ...

located in

Saiwai-ku, Kawasaki is one of the 7 wards of the city of Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2010, the ward had an estimated population of 153,255 and a density of 15,250 persons per km². The total area was 10.05 km². Geography Saiwai Ward is loca ...

Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The freight terminal was the end of a 1.7-kilometer branchline of the

Nambu Line The Nambu Line ( ja, 南武線,) is a Japanese railway line which connects Tachikawa Station in Tachikawa, Tokyo and Kawasaki Station in Kawasaki, Kanagawa. For most of its length, it parallels the Tama River, the natural border between Tokyo and ...

from Yakō Station.

History

For the opening of its first lines on March 9, 1927, Nambu Railway (as called until its nationalization in 1944) built two terminals in Kawasaki:

Kawasaki Station Kawasaki station may refer to: *Kawasaki-juku ( ja, 川崎宿, Kawasaki-shuku, Kawasaki lodging), a Tōkaidō waystation in Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan *Kawasaki Station ( ja, 川崎駅, Kawasaki-eki, Kawasaki Station, a train station of ...

for passengers and Kawasaki-Gashi Freight Terminal for freight. Kawasaki-Gashi Freight Terminal was built on the bank of the

Tama River The is a major river in Yamanashi, Kanagawa and Tokyo Prefectures on Honshū, Japan. It is officially classified as a Class 1 river by the Japanese government. Its total length is , and the total of the river's basin area spans . The river ...

to provide connection between railway and water transport. It would have been economical if the freight terminal had been connected directly from Kawasaki Station, but the railway could not acquire lands for this route. Initially Kawasaki-Gashi Freight Terminal mainly handled

gravel Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gravel is classifi ...

as freight. The gravel was dug from riverbed of the upper Tama River, transported by train, transferred to

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

s or boats at this terminal, and shipped to consumers along the

Tokyo Bay is a bay located in the southern Kantō region of Japan, and spans the coasts of Tokyo, Kanagawa Prefecture, and Chiba Prefecture. Tokyo Bay is connected to the Pacific Ocean by the Uraga Channel. The Tokyo Bay region is both the most populous a ...

. For this purpose the terminal was equipped with a quay with funnels to drop bulk freight. Nearby industries including Kawasaki Plant of Tokyo Rope Mfg. also used the station. During the World War Two, freight included military supplies.Harada, ''supra'', p. 58 Kawasaki-Gashi Freight Terminal was closed on May 25, 1972 following the decline of use resulted from expansion of rail and road network in the Tokyo Bay area, as well as the closure of the Tokyo Rope plant in 1969. The station might have been dormant from 1970 as some sources claim the closing in that year.

Green belt

The site of the freight terminal and the branchline was converted to a green belt named in 1976. It provides recreational enjoyment for residents of housing complex on the Tokyo Rope plant site.

References

External links

Japan City Plans: Omori
(University of Texas Libraries) - A 1946 U.S. Army map showing the freight terminal ::The "freight line" comes from the lower left corner towards the riverbank where small yard (i.e. the freight terminal) and inlets exist. {{coord, 35.538896, 139.69628, display=title, type:landmark_scale:3000 Railway stations in Kanagawa Prefecture Railway stations in Japan opened in 1927 Railway stations closed in 1972 Defunct railway stations in Japan Nambu Line