JR West Kabe Line, Hiroshima to new terminus at Aki-Kameyama

[Sacto1985]

YouTube member (and occasional JNS forum poster!) ayokoi just posted a new zenmen tenbou video of a trip on the JR West Kabe line, now with with the new extension to Aki-Kamayama Station:

 

 

This is taken from a 227 Series EMU.S16, a two-car trainset.

 

The large number of dignitaries at Aki-Kamayama Station means this video was taken during the first day of operation of this new extension. 

[stevenh]

So many questions:

1. There was a yellow EMU coming off the extension... did that deliver the dignitaries to the platform?
2. Is this _really_ the very first time Japan has restored an abandoned railway?

And then, as to the history of the line... they initially tried to build it all the way to the North coast at Hamada. Seriously crazy when considering the terrain.

I imagine there was little natural resources or no dams to provide a real reason for previous line completion.

[westfalen]

I never got around to riding the old line even though I had the oportunity on a few occasions, I guess I'll just have to go back to Hiroshima again some day to ride the reopened section.

 

All the dignitaries and politicians basking in the glory of opening a line that they themselves had closed a few years earlier, maybe the first time it has happened in Japan but I'm sure most others are familiar with it.

[kvp]

I've checked and the new track is actually just one road crossing beyond the old Kodo station which was the first stop from Kabe station, with the rebuilt Kodo station moved closer to Kabe station and the new Aki Kameyama station has not much to do with the old one several kilometers away in the river valley. The old right of way was reused, including one small river crossing bridge and it looks like some of the old rails had to be removed during the construction. I wonder if some of the old track is left in place beyond the new terminus. The rightmost track entering the station is on the old alignement.

[miyakoji]

opening a line that they themselves had closed a few years earlier

I don't know the background, I'd like to know why they closed it in the first place. To their credit, in most other countries it probably would never have been reopened.

[kvp]

The old section was a non electrified back country line, the type JNR had a lot before the highways were built. The old terminus is reachable with a modern highway nowdays, so there is little reason to have a railway there, not to mention it was following the valley floors, regardless of the location of nearby settlements up on the hills.

 

The new line is just a two stop extension of the electrified line to the recently developed suburbs beyond Kabe station. They also added a small depot there. My guess is to replace the sidings lost at Kabe station to developement and park and ride lots. The new extension is electrified and i think it was originally planned to be reused as the tracks were kept there with the right of way reserved by the railway. A little bit further up the valley, the tracks were removed and some sections paved over for roads, which indicates a section that is returned to the local council. The reserved section stretches a few blocks further, but there is no space there for a terminus, so they used the last flat spot just outside the city to build.

 

ps: i was using google maps historic data to look around in the past before the rebuild...

[katoftw]

https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/%E5%AE%89%E9%87%8E%E9%A7%85/@34.5544346,132.37964,159m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x35406699339d8659!8m2!3d34.5544346!4d132.3801872

 

I followed some of the right of way along the river.  Some bridges still exist also.  I lost the right of way a little further than the link.

 

The 2 station add on highlighted in this thread looks like a land price increase grab for the local townsmen.  Newly built residential estates and more land with unturned soil increases in value when a train station is present.

[Densha]

This blog post (http://otokuinfomation.web.fc2.com/blog/index8011.html) has a map that clearly shows the originally electrified and unelectrified sections of the Kabe Line.

[stevenh]

https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/%E5%AE%89%E9%87%8E%E9%A7%85/@34.5544346,132.37964,159m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x35406699339d8659!8m2!3d34.5544346!4d132.3801872

 

I followed some of the right of way along the river.  Some bridges still exist also.  I lost the right of way a little further than the link.

 

The 2 station add on highlighted in this thread looks like a land price increase grab for the local townsmen.  Newly built residential estates and more land with unturned soil increases in value when a train station is present.

 

Jump ahead a few bends, there's 3 or more bridges still standing.

 

Here's a nice one with the station still there also:

https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/%E5%AE%89%E9%87%8E%E9%A7%85/@34.6082214,132.3183996,3a,60y,6.06h,88.14t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sUoVu_XYH0oMRCTWJxT7Rkg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x35406699339d8659!8m2!3d34.5544346!4d132.3801872!6m1!1e1

 

 

A nice sweeping bend into a tunnel:

https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/%E5%AE%89%E9%87%8E%E9%A7%85/@34.5642102,132.2510878,573m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x35406699339d8659!8m2!3d34.5544346!4d132.3801872

 

Which exist into a raised area across rice paddies, then a tunnel, then into a city via a bridge:

https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/%E5%AE%89%E9%87%8E%E9%A7%85/@34.5724178,132.2382692,486m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x35406699339d8659!8m2!3d34.5544346!4d132.3801872

 

The terminus at Sandankyo. Just a carpark.

https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/%E4%B8%89%E6%AE%B5%E5%B3%A1/@34.5990841,132.2093682,232m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m13!1m7!3m6!1s0x355aec45c9411d69:0x554d877d329c111c!2sSandankyo+Gorge!3b1!8m2!3d34.6151586!4d132.1829525!3m4!1s0x0:0xfb0d98440da9e1b9!8m2!3d34.6002059!4d132.2079706

 

And from there you can see just how much money they would've lost by closing this line.

The alignment would not have been cheap to build!

Edited March 9, 2017 by stevenh

[kvp]

The terminus at Sandankyo. Just a carpark.

I wonder what happened to the steam locomotive displayed before the station just after the line was closed?

[Sacto1985]

And here's a zenmen tenbou video of the trip from Aki-Kameyama to Yokogawa Stations, taken from a 115 Series EMU: