The , or for short, is a Japanese

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

line in

Shizuoka Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Shizuoka Prefecture has a population of 3,555,818 and has a geographic area of . Shizuoka Prefecture borders Kanagawa Prefecture to the east, Yamanashi Pref ...

, paralleling the north coast of

Lake Hamana is a brackish lagoon in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Formerly a true lake, it is now connected to the Pacific Ocean by a channel. As an internal body of water, it is considered Japan's tenth-largest lake (by area). It spans the boundaries of th ...

between Kakegawa Station in Kakegawa and Shinjohara Station in Kosai. This is the only railway line of .

History

The

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 pre ...

was built as an alternative route for the Tokaido Main Line and in particular as a backup for the bridge over

, which was considered potentially vulnerable to weather disruption. The Japanese military also supported the project as the new line would be less vulnerable to coastal attack than the existing section of the Tokaido Main Line. Operations began on April 17, 1935, between and . Construction work progressed in the opposite direction with the connecting with on December 1, 1936. This line was extended to by April 1, 1938, and the two lines were connected on June 1, 1940. The line was used as a detour for the Tokaido Main Line following damage to it caused by the Tōnankai earthquake in December 1944 and military actions in July 1945. Steam locomotives ceased service on the line in 1971, and all scheduled freight services were discontinued from 1984. Operations of the former Futamata Line were taken over by the third-sector company Tenryū Hamanako Railroad in 1987, the same year Japanese National Railways was

privatized Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

. Thirty-six features of the line (including bridges and station buildings) are registered tangible cultural properties of Japan.

Former connecting lines

* Tenryu-Futamata station – Construction started on a 35 km line to Chubu-Tenryu on the

Iida Line The is a Japanese railway line connecting Toyohashi Station in Toyohashi, Aichi with Tatsuno Station in Tatsuno, Nagano, operated by Central Japan Railway Company (JR Central). The line links eastern Aichi Prefecture and southern Nagano Pr ...

in 1967. Proposed to involve 20 bridges and 14 tunnels, about 13 km of roadbed, and about 50% of the overall work had been completed when construction was abandoned in 1980. * Kanasashi station – The 26 km 762mm gauge line from Entetsu Hamamatsu station on the Enshu Railway Line to Okuyama opened between 1914 and 1923. The 8 km Entetsu Hamamatsu - Hikuma section was electrified at 600 VDC in 1950, the line closing in 1963/4.

Description

*Track: Single *Power: Internal Combustion (Diesel) *

Railway signalling Railway signalling (), or railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormous weight ...

: Simplified automatic

Stations

References

This article incorporates material from the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia.

External links