The Usui Toge Railway of the Shin-Etsu Line, 1893–1997 Roderick A

Features Impact of Railways on Japanese Society & Culture

The Usui Toge Railway of the Shin-etsu Line, 1893–1997 Roderick A. Smith

most train trips have been significantly on the low-cost mass production end of Introduction speeded up. I wonder if our colleagues the market, with British Airways as one of in Japan will now turn to the integration its major customers. His company pro- One Sunday in late May 1995, I found of transport systems and the improvement duces about 25 million stainless steel myself in Tokyo with a rest day and a spare of door-to-door times? items a month at about US10¢ a piece of day on a weekly all-lines Japan Rail Pass. On a bill board near Tokyo Eki, a British which 40% goes to both the EC and the With a minimum of planning, I set out on diesel InterCity125, with its distinctive USA. No manufacturing is now done in a triangular journey (Fig. 1) linking Tokyo, wedge shaped front, was being used to Japan, the current production units are in Nagoya, Nagano and Tokyo. I had no advertise Castor Mild cigarettes; perhaps the Philippines and China, with Viet Nam particular purpose, other than to relax in it is fortunate that the associated logo was being eyed as the next base. However, the Green (First Class) Cars of Japan’s not, ‘Smoking Clean’! I departed on the all is not lost and I was gratified to see an excellent railway system, and to watch the Hikari 105 shinkansen exactly on sched- advertisement for Range Rovers in the on- scenery go by on a day of the week when ule at 08:31—all the trains I used departed board copy of L&G, JR Central’s in-house the rail service in the UK varies from ter- and arrived exactly on time. magazine. The 4.6SH model costing rible to non-existent. As we pulled out from a brief stop at Shin ‘only’ ¥6.95 million (about £53,000 at the Looking back at the notes I made at the Yokohama, my Japanese neighbour struck prevailing exchange rate). time, I see I departed from my mother-in- up a conversation, which became ani- With only the one intermediate stop, law’s home in Mishuku, in Setagaya-ku, mated when I said I came from Sheffield. the 366 km to Nagoya was smoothly ac- at 07:30, allowing an hour for the dozen It turned out that he ran his family’s cut- complished at an average speed of 194.4 or so kilometers to Tokyo Eki (Tokyo Cen- lery business, started way back in 1871 km/h, giving me about 30 minutes before tral Station) reached via the Shin soon after the start of Japan’s moderniza- my connection on the run to Matsumoto Tamagawa subway and the Yamanote tion, in the Gifu area by his great grand- and Nagano by Shinano express. This Line. In the almost 25 years since I first father, and helped along by several visits stretch on the Chuo and Shinonoi Lines is visited Japan, the journey time for this to Sheffield to pick up technical know- over twisting narrow gauge and, some- short distance has not improved, although how. The company today concentrates times, single track. Motive power was a

Figure 1 The Tokyo-Nagoya-Nagano-Tokyo Journey Figure 2 Japanese Railway Map of 1894

28 Japan Railway & Transport Review • September 1997 Copyright © 1997 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Series 381 tilting EMU, which covered the Shinkansen for a swift return to Ueno Sta- from Tokyo to the north-coast seaport of 250.8 km at a very respectable average tion in Tokyo. From there I completed an Naoetsu. The railway joined Yokokawa, speed of 84 km/h, including seven inter- anti-clockwise circuit of the Yamanote on the Tokyo side, with Karuizawa on the mediate stops. Line to Shibuya and arrived back in Naoetsu side, both places being terminal After a 20-minute break in Nagano, I Mishuku at about 18:45, after a trip of stations before the link was built. The Usui boarded the 14:19 Asama express EMU approximately 860 km lasting 10 hours Toge (Usui Pass) between these two places bound for Ueno Station in Tokyo. The and 45 minutes. had long been considered as the greatest departure was enlivened by a large party My experience of the Shin-etsu Line stimu- natural barrier in Japan, although it was bidding farewell to a honeymoon couple. lated me to sift through piles of papers crossed by the Nakasendo route between The noisy crowd produced a mixture of back in Sheffield until I located two half- Tokyo and Kyoto. It consisted entirely of tears and cheers before the obviously remembered items; an article by S. high hills rising one above the other. embarrassed and tired couple were al- Kikkawa (also known as S. Yoshikawa) Yokokawa is 384 m (1260 ft) above sea lowed to sink into their seats. Soon after from Engineering of 19 October 1894, and level, while Karuizawa is on a plain at 939 our departure, signs of the construction a paper from the Minutes of the Proceed- m (3080 ft). The problem to be solved was of a new adjacent railway were appar- ings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, to connect these two points, which are only ent—suddenly I understood. The new line 1894–95 by C. A. W. Pownell. What fol- 9.3 km (5.75 miles) apart in a direct line. was the Hokuriku Shinkansen being built lows is culled largely from these two for the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics. sources. Possible routes In my hastily drawn-up plan, I had not From 1885, various surveys were made realized I would be travelling on the fa- Brief History of of proposed routes relying on adhesion, mous Usui Toge Railway, under threat of the Usui Toge Railway and naturally these involved long detours closure on the completion of the new to limit the gradients. In 1889, W. A. C. shinkansen. The line is famous for its very The problem Pownell, an English yatoi, or hired gov- steep gradients on the descent to Figure 2 shows the railway map of Japan ernment foreign employee, and then Prin- Yokokawa (sometimes pronounced in 1894. The section we are concerned cipal Engineer to the Japanese Imperial Yokogawa), and sure enough at with, the so-called Usui Toge Railway, was Government Railways, suggested a line Karuizawa, two locomotives were added built to fill a difficult gap in the main line limited to 1 in 40, some 15.25 miles long at the front of our train to provide addi- tional braking power. The next 11.2 km took 27 minutes, the average of 25 km/h Figure 3 Proposed Routes for Usui Toge being significantly slower than the morning’s run on the Tokaido Shinkansen. As we passed between two tunnels, I glimpsed a large brick-built viaduct on an abandoned line on the right hand side. Such a structure is most unusual in Japan, and again my memory was jogged back to articles I had read of early Japanese A railway history. Yokokawa However, to complete my triangle first. At the bottom of the steeply-inclined sec- B tion, the locomotives were removed at Yokokawa Station, where the noodle and popular kamameshi bento (rice, veg- etables and meat steamed in a pottery C crock) sellers lined up on the platform A Wami route edge and bowed to our train as we de- B Iriyama route parted. I continued as far as Takasaki C Nakao route Karuizawa where I transferred to the Joetsu

and estimated to cost some ¥2 million or route followed the Nakasendo road, in needed to build this large viaduct. The about £300,000 at the old exchange rate. those years little more than a track, down piers were designed to resist an earth- In the following year, Messrs M. Sengoku the Nakao valley from Karuizawa, thence quake acceleration of 4 ft/s2, according and S. Kikkawa were sent to Europe to via Sakamoto to Yokokawa. This was the to the formulas of Prof. John Milne, the investigate the various traction systems shortest route at 11.2 km, but with 26 tun- so-called Father of Japanese earthquake used on mountain railways. They were nels totalling 4.6 km (Fig. 3). engineering. This was estimated as 50% particularly impressed by the Abt rack- These alternatives were referred to T. R. higher than the accelerations that de- and-pinion system used on the then re- Shewinton, consulting Engineer in Lon- stroyed the Kiso Bridge during the great cently-opened (1885) Harz Mountain don to the Japanese Imperial Government earthquake of 1891; but at 0.125 gal, it Railway in Germany, which would per- Railways. After resurveys, the Nakao seems small compared to the horizontal mit steeper gradients and therefore a more route was eventually chosen due to the accelerations of 0.83 gal measured dur- direct route. Various alternative schemes several advantages it offered in the align- ing the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake were investigated. ment of the tunnels, the reduction in the in Kobe. The first, the Wami route was the most lengths of required viaducts and its prox- The inclined 1-in-15 sections of track, southern of the three principal contend- imity to the Nakasendo road which al- 2.45- and 2.41-miles long, were laid with ers. It left the Karuizawa Plain via the lowed access for the engineers and rack rails on cross steel sleepers, with a Wami Pass, then linked the villages of materials. passing point about halfway up the other- Onga, Akahama and Arai before reach- wise single line of 7-miles length. The ing Yokokawa. The length was 12.3 km Construction cost, was almost exactly the same as with more than half at a 1 in 15 (6.7%) Construction, began in June 1891 under Pownell's original estimate of £300,000, incline and with 17 tunnels totalling 3.7 the direction of Mr E. Honma, with Mr S. perhaps £15 million at present prices. km. The central Iriyama route left Kikkawa as assistant. Altogether 26 tun- This total included the purchase of four Karuizawa via Mt Manacho, and then nels and 18 viaducts were needed, the special engines and rolling stock at dropped down to Yokokawa via Akahama. largest being the impressive Usui Viaduct £63,000, the expensive Abt rack (Fig. 5) This route was slightly shorter than the (Fig. 4), consisting of four spans of 60-ft at £3000 per mile and the cost of the tun- first, but had more tunnels occupying a arches, the highest being 106 ft above the nelling at £113,000. The works were shorter total length. The northerly Nakao river bed. Some 2,300,000 bricks were largely completed by the end of 1892.

Steam Traction

Four engines were initially ordered from the Esslingen company in Germany. The 0-6-0 coupled side tank locomotives (Fig. 6) of the Abt combination type were shipped to Tokyo where they were assembled at the Shimbashi Works and de- livered to the line in January 1893. The ordering, delivery and testing of these locomotives was carried out under the direction of Francis H. Trevithick, grandson of Richard Trevithick of Cornwall, who had come to Japan in 1876 and was ap- pointed Superintendent of the Tokyo Shimbashi Works in 1878. After many trials, the line was opened to the public on 1 April 1893. The performance of the locomotives was Figure 4 The Usui Viaduct under Construction (Transportation Museum) initially somewhat disappointing. Their

30 Japan Railway & Transport Review • September 1997 Copyright © 1997 EJRCF. All rights reserved. small heating surfaces limited the loads they could haul up the incline to about Figure 5 The Abt Rack System 65% of what had been expected. The best that could be achieved was 60 to 70 tons at 4.7 miles per hour. Furthermore, inef- ficient combustion, combined with the slow speed, caused a smoke problem, particularly in the tunnels. To decrease this, some of the locomotives were con- verted to burn a mixture of oil and coal. Three more-powerful locomotives were ordered from the same manufacturer, but there are reports that they were eventually replaced by locomotives from Beyer Peacock in Britain. The line continued to be steam worked until 1912. In this year, the line was electrified with electric locomotives imported again from AEG/ Esslingen in Germany.

Figure 6 Longitudinal Section of 0-6-0 Tank Locomotive for Usui Toge Railway

Electrification the results were very disappointing. More successful overseas; in Switzerland, single Dwindling coal supplies, the promise of powerful Brown Boveri locomotives were units of up to 1200 hp, supplied by high- cheap hydro-electric power and general ordered and interesting attempts were voltage overhead equipment, had no dif- technical achievement, led to several ex- made to build locomotives in Japan. Cop- ficulty in hauling loads of up to 300 tons periments on electrification early this cen- ies of the AEG locomotives were as- over very mountainous terrain. However, tury in Japan. Therefore, it is not surprising sembled at the Government Railway the existing civil engineering works on the that the poor performance of steam loco- Works at Omiya in northern Tokyo, using Usui Toge Railway, seemed to preclude motives on the Usui Toge Railway controllers imported from AEG, pumps the use of overhead high-tension wires, prompted thoughts on the improvements from GE and ancilliary motors from En- and efforts were concentrated on using that electric traction might bring. Gov- glish Electric. Local input was provided more powerful locomotives as much as ernment contracts were placed with AEG by Shibaura Engineering. By 1919, four- possible. Maschinenfabrik, Esslingen, Germany, to teen of these locomotives had been sup- After much discussion, in 1924, Brown provide twelve 40-ton electric locomo- plied, capable of producing 630 hp, but Boveri was instructed to build two loco- tives, rated at 630 hp and capable of ne- with the weight increased to 61 tons. motives capable of hauling loads of up to gotiating the line at speeds of up to 16 Once again, performance proved to be 160 tons up the rack at 15.5 km/h, with a km/h, thus reducing transit times to 40 less than anticipated. Operating costs tractive effort of 12,000 kg, adhesion to minutes. Power supplies came from were very high, hauled loads were small be shared 2/3 on the rails and 1/3 on the Curtiss-GE of the USA, who constructed (77 tons) and severe wear on the driving rack. Interestingly, these locomotives used a power plant housing a 3-phase 1000- pinions and rack, meant that both had to a dual-current collection system, the third kW steam turbine. Power was supplied be replaced at frequent intervals. It was rail being replaced by overhead wires in to the locomotives via a third rail at 600 reported that as much as 20 mm was worn areas posing no safety hazard. volts DC, after transformation and rectifi- from the pinion teeth in seven months of cation by equipment also supplied by service. The system was reappraised in End of Abt rack system AEG. Batteries were housed at each end view of these weaknesses and in the light Various improvements were made to the of the line in case of power failures, and of the success of 1500-volt systems then traction equipment over the years, but steam locomotives remained on stand-by. in use in the coastal regions of Japan. Elec- operations remained slow; by the early The system was completed in 1912, but tric traction was also proving to be very 1960s, the Usui Toge was one of the few remaining trunk lines in the world using the Abt rack system. Rather than making more incremental improvement, radical reconstruction was undertaken. Alterna- tive routes were examined again but the 14-km increase in length required to ease the gradient to 1 in 40 was too expensive. A new adhesion line was built almost following the original alignment and this opened in 1963. It operated at speeds of up to 35 km/h attained by new EF 63 electric locomotives and rolling stock. Double-tracking was finally achieved in 1966 by mostly rebuilding the original alignment.

Class 10,000 AEG/Esslingen electric locomotive on Usui Toge Railway (Transportation Museum)

32 Japan Railway & Transport Review • September 1997 Copyright © 1997 EJRCF. All rights reserved. of Cultural Properties to the Minister of Accidents Conclusion Education, Science and Culture, as an important cultural asset of historical sig- The line operated safely throughout the The Usui Toge Railway has always been nificance. This viaduct, which would years but there were several accidents at- more than a tourist attraction. In its early easily blend in with English railway land- tributable to the steep gradient and the days, it established an important link with scape, reminds us of the role played at mountainous terrain that the line passed the northern regions, from which rice was the beginning of this project by British through. In one of the most noteworthy, exported, while imported and locally engineers, in particular, C. A. W. Pownell on 13 July 1902, a mixed-traffic train was manufactured goods travelled to the prov- and Francis Trevithick. The line was built ascending the inclined section when a inces in the opposite direction. in the period of transition from the depen- steam explosion occurred, probably due to The Nagano Winter Olympic Games are dence on imported yatoi know-how to a faulty weld. The locomotive footplate due to be held in February 1998, and reliance on indigenous skills. In 1893, was blasted by steam, blowing the two fire- many people from all over the world will Richard F. Trevithick, the brother of men off the train. The driver struggled to travel north west from Tokyo to reach the Francis, supervised the building of the first apply the emergency brakes, but the train various sports sites. This is a challenge steam locomotive in Japan, at Kobe started to roll back down the slope, gather- too many for the Usui Toge. Over the last Works. He also trained many Japanese ing momentum. The passengers included few years, a second substitute line, north engineers who became leading figures in Baron Mori, President and Technical Di- of the original route has been built, in the Japan’s railways. rector of the private Japan Railway Com- form of the Hokuriku Shinkansen. Test The Usui Toge Railway was one of the last pany, together with his son. The Baron, runs have been made on long 1-in-33 gra- major projects in Japan in which foreign from his knowledge of the line, anticipated dients, much less than the original Abt engineers were directly employed, before immediate disaster, and urged his fellow rack, but the steepest of any shinkansen the great flowering of Japanese railway passengers to jump from the train. Most line built so far. Asama E2 Series technology which has produced so many were paralyzed by fear and refused to shinkansen will replace the narrow-gauge fine achievements in the latter half of this move. The Baron jumped, but fell under line services on the Shin-etsu Line be- century. I the wheels and was killed; his son smashed tween Tokyo Ueno and Nagano. Journey into the portal of a tunnel and was also times between these points will be halved Acknowledgements killed. One passenger survived jumping to 80 minutes and the book will finally I would like to thank Yayoi Yamanoi Smith for trans- from the train without serious injury and close on the famous Usui Toge Railway, lating the original Japanese texts on which some of managed to walk back to Karuizawa Sta- which will be replaced by a bus service. this article is based. tion. Meanwhile, the driver had stayed at JR East will continue to operate commuter his post and succeeded in operating the trains from Takasaki to Yokokawa, while Figure notes brake. After the train had rolled back some the section between Karuizawa and Figs. 2,5,6 Reproduced from Engineering, Vol. LVIII, 2 km, it eventually stopped, much to the Shinonoi will be transferred to a semi- July/Dec., 1894 relief of the remaining passengers. public company called the Shinano Rail- Fig. 3 Reproduced from Bulletin of Japan Transpor- A much worse disaster happened in 1950. way Co. tation Association, Vol. 9, No. 5, 1908 During the late evening of 8 June, a large On 14 May 1993, the four-span brick arch landslide occurred, burying part of the of the Usui Viaduct was recommended by line. A large gang of men was assembled the Japanese Council for the Protection at the site and cleanup operations started. Early the following morning, a much larger slip, estimated at a volume of about Roderick A. Smith 7000 m3 of earth and rocks, engulfed 73 people, not only members of the emer- Professor Roderick A. Smith is the Royal Academy of Engineering/British Rail Research Professor at gency gang, but also occupants of eight the University of Sheffield, and Chairman of the Advanced Railway Research Centre. He was a Fellow of Queens’ College, University of Cambridge from 1975 to 1988. He is the author of nearly 200 company houses adjacent to the site. articles, papers and books on the fatigue of metals, crowd engineering and latterly, railway engineer- Some of these people were rescued, but ing. He has been a regular visitor to Japan since 1975, conducting research on Japanese railways. the eventual death toll reached 50 with 29 people seriously injured.