Horinouchi Railway
| Horinouchi Railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route length: | 14.8 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 606 mm / 762 mm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Horinouchi Railway ( Japanese 堀 之 内 軌道 , Horinouchi kidō ) was a narrow-gauge overland tram on the Japanese island of Honshū . It ran from 1899 to 1935 in the area of today's cities of Kikugawa and Omaezaki in Shizuoka Prefecture , the route was 14.8 km long.
history
On August 19, 1899, the local railway company Kitō Basha Tetsudō ( 城東 馬車 鉄 道 ) took a horse-drawn tram line from Horinouchi Station (now Kikugawa Station ) to Minamiyama. The route was initially 9.4 km long and had the unusual track width of 606 mm. The plan was to convert it into a steam tram , but high prices for coal during the First World War prevented this project. The company changed its name twice within a short time, on January 28, 1917 to Omaezaki Kidō ( 御前 崎 軌道 ) and on November 28, 1921 to Horinouchi Kidō ( 堀 之 内 軌道 ). Finally, in February 1922, it merged with the Shizuoka Denryoku electricity company .
Despite this partnership, the line was not electrified. A local engineering factory had business relationships with the Deutz engine factory in Cologne , which is why the railway company imported six small diesel locomotives of the ML128 and ML132 series. This was followed by a gradual change of gauge to 762 mm and on December 29, 1923, the extension to Ikeshinden, with which it reached its maximum length of 14.8 km. While the railroad helped boost local industry, automobiles soon proved to be more efficient. The railway was stopped on May 10, 1935 and replaced by a bus line.
literature
- Keisuke Imao: 日本 鉄 道 旅行 地 図 帳 (Japan Rail Travel Atlas ) . tape 7 Tōkai. Shinchosha, Tokyo 2008, ISBN 978-4-10-790025-8 , pp. 32 .
- Yasuo Wakuda: 私 鉄 史 ハ ン ド ブ ッ ク (manual of private railways) . Denkisha Kenkyūkai, Chiyoda 1993, ISBN 978-4-88548-065-2 , pp. 114 .