Japanese National Railway's Shihoro Line

The Shihoro Line was a specified local line of the Japanese National Railways system, connecting Obihuro at the Nemuro Main Line with Mitsumata in the Hokkaido region.

It opened in sections between 1925 and 1939, it ran approximately 50 miles through mountainous and river terrain. (Right of way)

(Wikipedia Commons) Abandoned Taushubetsu Bridge of the old Shihoro line, this section was dammed, with the tracks moved slightly to the west. Now both alignments have been abandoned.

With the construction of the Nukabira Dam in 1955, the original alignment was relocated, leaving the Taushubetsu Bridge (pictured above and below) abandoned at that time.

Train crossing the Taushubetsu Bridge. Image: Kamishihoro Town Rail Museum

The area north of Nukabira was isolated with no means of transportation other than railroads for some time after World War II, but this changed when Japanese National Route 273 was built, paralleling the Shihoro Line.


The area also began a steep population decline in the 1970's, leading to a further decline in the railwuy's passenger traffic. By 1984, JNR had slated the line for closure.

The rest of the line would be abandoned in 1987. Service was converted to bus, namely the Hokkaido Takushoku Bus Company, who would use the adjacent highway to replace rail service along the route.

Map of the Shihoro Line, including the original alignment. Data comes from our Abandoned & Out-of-Service Railroad Lines Map.

The Kamishihoro Town Rail Museum (link is in Japanese) exists on the old right of way in Kamishihoro. The museum opened the year after the line was abandoned.

Old Nukabira Station. Image: Kamishihoro Town Rail Museum

Note: Using Google Chrome, many websites in different languages can be translated, and interestingly, different information accompanies different versions of Wikipedia articles. This is how we learned about some of the information we have for Japan on our map!

See our other blog, "The Forgotten Railways of Japan" where JetLaggedJaff visited Shibuya Terminal.

Thanks as always for reading!


Location: Obihiro, Hokkaido, Japan

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Choum Tunnel: The Monument to European Stupidity in Africa

Image
Scars of European colonization are located all across Africa, although some are more obscure and strange than others. With that in mind we come to the Choum Tunnel , built in Mauritania when it was controlled by the French. At first glance, it seems like an ordinary railway tunnel, however, one look at the local geography and you'll find yourself asking what its builders were possibly thinking with creating the project. Choum Tunnel in Mauritania. Unknown photographer. The Mauritania Railway was being built in the early 1960s, and was planned to connect Nouadhibou to Zouérat to exploit the iron ore reserves at Zouérat. That route still exists today in largely its original state, with the exception of the tunnel. Image: Ammar Hassan via Atlas Obscura The easiest route required running a short section of track through the then-Spanish controlled Western Sahara , but rather than pay Spain for the land and other concessions, the French engineers instead chose to tunnel under a hill sp
Read more

Railroad Vocabulary: A List of Words and Phrases Used in the Industry - Updated February 2024

Image
As somebody who enjoyed watching trains, but was not an employee of the railroad industry ( at least growing up ), when I would interact with railfans and historians, there was often a lot of technical jargon that applied only to the railroad industry thrown back and forth that made it difficult for a newcomer to understand what they were talking about. For example, what is a dinky? It's actually a passenger train. This non-inclusive language seems to keep the loop closed to members of the community, and to uncouple (no pun intended) that technical jargon and help make it easier for people to communicate with people in the industry, I am creating a list of railroad vocabulary that I'm hoping will make the industry more transparent.  BNSF 2361 . Image: Matt Flores While I ultimately believe that such technical jargon has no place outside of perhaps technical communications between employees, I know quite well that I alone am not going to stop people from communicating in a non-i
Read more

11 Of The Most Amazing Abandoned Railroad Bridges Still Standing Today - Updated February 2023

Image
With the hundreds of thousands of miles of abandoned railroad corridors in the world, it's no surprise that some of the most amazing infrastructure humanity has ever built was eventually abandoned, or re-purposed. And indeed, many bridges, trestles and viaducts have been lost to history, such as the Brushy Creek Viaduct in Alabama. But there are also many which still stand today which serve as reminders of bygone days, the folly of man, or the power of Mother Nature, or some combination thereof. Here are 11 such bridges. 11) Goat Canyon Trestle, Jacumba Hot Springs, CA (32.729167, -116.183333) Image: CoachellaValley.com Goat Canyon Trestle is the largest standing (for now) wooden trestle in the United States, and in spots is 200 feet off the ground, and 750 feet long. Built in the 1930's, it's actually a lot younger than it looks, since by the 1930's, steel had all but replaced wood as the preferred construction material for bridges. It was made out of woo
Read more