The Usui Toge Railway of the Shin-Etsu Line, 1893–1997 Roderick A
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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 Copyright © 1997 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Japan Railway & Transport Review • September 1997 29 Impact of Railways on Japanese Society & Culture 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.