Shiranuka line
| Shiranuka line | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Diesel railcar of the type KiHa 56 in Hokushin (1983)
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| Route length: | 33.1 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1067 mm ( cape track ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 16 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 300 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dual track : | No | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Shiranuka Line ( Japanese 白 糠 線 , Shiranuka-sen ) was a railway line in the east of the Japanese island of Hokkaidō . It was only in operation for 19 years, from 1964 to 1983.
description
The Shiranuka Line was a 33.1 km long branch line in the sub-prefecture of Kushiro , which branched off from the main Nemuro line at Shiranuka station and ran north through the Charo Valley to Hokushin. The line was cape gauge , single track and not electrified. A total of eight train stations and stops on demand were served. With the exception of Shiranuka, none were manned.
history
Before the Pacific War , there were plans to open up the northern part of the municipality of Shiranuka with an east-west running route that would have connected Mashū on the Senmō main line with Ashoro on the Abashiri main line . In 1952, instead, planning began for a south-north line in the Charo Valley, which was also included in the appendix to the revised Railway Construction Act the following year. There were 64,000 hectares of forest resources and deposits of around 320 million tons of high-quality hard coal along the planned route . Several mining companies opened mines, but the extracted coal had to be transported by truck, which resulted in higher costs and made it difficult to increase the output.
Construction work on the railway began in June 1958, but progressed rather slowly. On October 7, 1964, the Japanese State Railways opened the 25.2 km long section from Shiranuka to Kami-Charo. The mine located there was then able to expand its production capacity to the maximum. Almost all of the coal was now transported by rail. The replacement of rafting by freight trains, which was also planned , did not materialize and the timber was instead transported by lorry. On September 8, 1972, the route was extended by 7.9 km from Kami-Charo to Hokushin.
The original plan was to connect the Shiranuka Line, which ends in Hokushin, with the Aioi Line at Kitami-Aioi , which would have required the construction of a 5.2 km long tunnel, among other things. The corresponding project was approved in August 1967. However, in the late 1960s, the population began to shrink rapidly after several coal mines in the Charo Valley had to close. The railway project was no longer profitable under these conditions and the Ministry of Transport finally gave up in 1972.
After the last mine was closed, the state railway stopped freight traffic on October 1, 1978 due to lack of demand. A youth camp provided additional passenger traffic with special trains in the summer season, but it became apparent that the route would be closed because it had a very low cost recovery rate outside of the season . Based on the law passed in 1980 to reorganize the state railway finances, the state railway and city authorities agreed to replace the railway line with a bus line. The shutdown took place on October 23, 1983.
List of train stations
| Surname | km | Connecting lines | location | place |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shiranuka ( 白 糠 ) | 0.0 | Nemuro main line | Coord. | Shiranuka |
| Kami-Shiranuka ( 上 白 糠 ) | 6.0 | Coord. | ||
| Kyōei ( 共 栄 ) | 9.5 | Coord. | ||
| Charo ( 茶 路 ) | 11.8 | Coord. | ||
| Nuibetsu ( 縫 別 ) | 19.3 | Coord. | ||
| Kami-Charo ( 上 茶 路 ) | 25.2 | Coord. | ||
| Shimo-Hokushin ( 下 北 進 ) | 30.7 | Coord. | ||
| Hokushin ( 北 進 ) | 33.1 | Coord. |
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Seishi Moriguchi: 鉄 道 未成 線 を 歩 く （国 鉄 編） . JTB Publishing, Tokyo 2002, ISBN 978-4-533-04208-9 , pp. 25-27 .
- ↑ a b c Fumihiko Suzuki: 特定 地方 交通線 の 実 態 と 問題 を 現 地 に 見 る 26 白 糠 線 . In: Railway Journal . No. 201 . Seibidō Shuppan, Tokyo 1983, p. 64-69 .
- ↑ Kiyoshi Chiba: わ が 町 の 白 糠 線 は バ ス に 転 換 し た . In: Un'yu to keizai . tape 3 , no. 11 . Un'yu Chōsakyoku, Tokyo 1983, p. 23-27 .
- ↑ a b Tetsu Ishino (Ed.): 停車場 変 遷 大 辞典 国 鉄 ・ JR 編 (station change directory JNR / JR) . JTB, Tokyo 1998, ISBN 4-533-02980-9 , pp. 250 .
- ↑ Tetsu Ishino (Ed.): 停車場 変 遷 大 辞典 国 鉄 ・ JR 編 (station change directory JNR / JR) . JTB, Tokyo 1998, ISBN 4-533-02980-9 , pp. 251 .
Map with all coordinates: