The is a rural railway line in

Iwate Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku region of Honshu. It is the second-largest Japanese prefecture at , with a population of 1,210,534 (as of October 1, 2020). Iwate Prefecture borders Aomori Prefecture to the north, Akita Prefectu ...

, Japan, operated by the

East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters ar ...

(JR East). It connects Hanamaki Station in the city of

Hanamaki is a city in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 94,691, and a population density of 100 persons per km², in 37,773 households. The total area of the city is . Hanamaki is famous as the birthplace of Kenji Miyazaw ...

with

Kamaishi Station is a junction railway station in the city of Kamaishi, Iwate, Japan, operated by East Japan Railway Company (JR East) and the Third-sector Sanriku Railway. Lines Kamaishi Station is a terminal station of the JR East Kamaishi Line and is lo ...

in the city of

Kamaishi is a city located on the Sanriku rias coast in Iwate Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 32,609, and a population density of 74 persons per km2, in 16,230 households. The total area of the city is Geography Kamaishi is ...

History

The precursor to the line opened in 1915 as the , a

light railway A light railway is a railway built at lower costs and to lower standards than typical "heavy rail": it uses lighter-weight track, and may have more steep gradients and tight curves to reduce civil engineering costs. These lighter standards all ...

extending 65.4 km from to . The original plan was to link with Kamaishi Mine and Kamaishi Port, but at an altitude of 887m, the mountain pass at Sennintōge prevented immediate expansion eastward to Kamaishi. A

ropeway conveyor A material ropeway, ropeway conveyor (or aerial tramway in the US) is a subtype of gondola lift, from which containers for goods rather than passenger cars are suspended. Description Material ropeways are typically found around large mining co ...

was used to convey goods onward to Ōhashi, from where a 16 km 762mm (2'6") gauge mining railway (which operated between 1915 and 1965) provided the service to Kamaishi. The railway was nationalized in August 1936, and the line became the "Kamaishi Line". Motive power for the line was provided by six JNR Class 231 steam locomotives, built by

Baldwin Locomotive Works The Baldwin Locomotive Works (BLW) was an American manufacturer of railroad locomotives from 1825 to 1951. Originally located in Philadelphia, it moved to nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania, in the early 20th century. The company was for decades ...

in the USA, and numbered 231 to 236. Work started on upgrading and re-gauging the line, and the first section, the 31.2 km from Hanamaki to was regauged to the standard Japanese track gauge of and re-opened from September 1943. The mining railway between and Kamaishi was also upgraded to gauge by October 1944 to meet the urgent need for increased capacity to transport iron ore during the war period, and was named the . The entire 90.2 km line was finally completed between Hanamaki and Kamaishi in June 1950, opening to traffic on 10 October of that year.

Stations

All stations are in

Closed stations

* , between Nitanai and Oyamada, 2.5 km east of Nitanai, opened 25 October 1913, closed 14 March 1985 when the nearby Shin-Hanamaki Station opened.

Rolling stock

Kamaishi Line services are operated using KiHa 110 series diesel trains. From 12 April 2014, a newly formed '' SL Ginga'' " Joyful Train" (

excursion train An excursion train is a chartered train run for a special event or purpose. Examples are trains to major sporting event, trains run for railfans or tourists, and special trains operated by the railway company for employees and prominent customer ...

) began operating on the line at weekends using the restored

JNR Class C58 The Class C58 is a 2-6-2 wheel arrangement steam locomotive type built by the Japanese Government Railways (JGR) and Japanese National Railways (JNR) from 1938 to 1947. A total of 427 Class C58 locomotives were built and designed by Hideo Shima ...

steam locomotive C58 239 together with a train of four modified former KiHa 141 series diesel cars purchased from

JR Hokkaido The is one of the constituent companies of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group), and is often referred to using its official abbreviation of . It operates intercity and local rail services in Hokkaido, Japan. The company introduced Kitaca, a sm ...

(themselves rebuilt from earlier 50 series passenger coaches and made surplus to requirements following the electrification of the

Sasshō Line The is a railway line in Japan operated by Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido), which connects in Sapporo and in Tōbetu, Ishikari District. Its name is made up of two characters from and , the latter of which was the terminus of the l ...

). The diesel cars provide additional power to cope with the line's gradients. The coach design work was overseen by industrial designer

Ken Okuyama Ken Okuyama (born 1959) is a Japanese industrial designer. He is the owner of the Ken Okuyama Design company. Okuyama formerly worked for Pininfarina, designing and supervising projects such as the Enzo Ferrari and Ferrari P4/5. His given name ...

Former rolling stock

Following the full opening of the line in 1950, passenger and freight services on the line were hauled by JNR Class D50 2-8-2 steam locomotives, necessary to negotiate the steep gradients on the line of up 25

‰ Per mille (from Latin , "in each thousand") is an expression that means parts per thousand. Other recognised spellings include per mil, per mill, permil, permill, or permille. The associated sign is written , which looks like a percent ...

. A couple of

JNR Class 8620 The is a type of 2-6-0 steam locomotive built in Japan from 1914 to 1929. It was Japan's first mass-produced passenger locomotive. A total of 672 Class 8620 locomotives were built. Originally they had a symmetry of line with shapely cast iron c ...

steam locomotives were also used for shunting at Kamaishi Station.

2-6-2 steam locomotives were also used on both passenger and freight services running to and from the Yamada Line. Six JNR Class D51 2-8-2 steam locomotives were subsequently transferred to the line, displacing some of the earlier D50s, but steam haulage on the line was entirely replaced by diesel haulage from March 1967. File:JNR 8620 SteamLoco Triple header.jpg, Class 8620 steam locomotives File:Japanese-national-railways-C58-342-20121030.jpg, A preserved Class C58 steam locomotive File:JGR-D50SteamLocomotive.jpg, A Class D50 steam locomotive File:JNR-D51 745 in Jomo-kogen station.jpg, A preserved Class D51 steam locomotive

References

{{East Japan Railway Company Lines Lines of East Japan Railway Company 1067 mm gauge railways in Japan Rail transport in Iwate Prefecture Railway lines opened in 1915