Do you see what I see?
I've had this one brewing for a while now. It's not possible to get the google map applet into a post, so this will have to do.
Perhaps some of you like to use Google Maps or Google Earth to go exploring. I certainly do. And, as one may expect of a JNS Forum member, I like to use it to study Japanese railways. While riding the Osaka Loop once, I noticed what looked like a trackbed splitting off of the outside/counterclockwise line. Then, using various online maps to follow the path of JR West's Gakkentoshi/Katamachi Line, I happened upon the scene below.
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=34.700678,135.538968&spn=0.003471,0.008546&t=k&z=18This is just northeast of Kyobashi Station on the Osaka Loop. Now, let's zoom out a notch to include what's immediately west...
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=34.701798,135.53391&spn=0.006756,0.017091&t=k&z=17Eh, looks like a track could lay there. It could, and in fact it did. This was the Yodogawa Connector Line (淀川連絡線, occasionally called the Yodogawa Freight Line [淀川貨物線]). More interesting rail infrastructure with quite a lot of history, lost along with JNR. What did it connect? Well, it connected the Yodogawa Freight Line, now to be part of the Osaka Higashi Line, with Yodogawa Depot. Here are the historical aerial photos from
http://archive.gsi.go.jp/ .
The ROW with track (warning, large image):
Yodogawa Depot (warning, large image):
Notice that there is also a connection from the Osaka Loop. Morinomiya Depot is only a short way down the line. That's a lot of space!
Another? Ok. Nagoya doesn't usually come to mind when I think of interesting railway operations (please someone prove me wrong), but there is this:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=k&ll=35.136563,136.891344&spn=0.01381,0.034182&z=16Nagoya City, at least partially Atsuta Ward. At the far left we've got the Nakagawa Canal, and just left of center, the Tokaido Shinkansen and JR Freight's Nagoya Port Line. What's that row of buildings that follows a gradual curve heading southeast for the so-called Nagoya Congress Center? Ah, it's the Shiratori Line, and once upon a time, the Congress Center was the Shirotori Chobokujou (lumber accumulation place?), a body of water, connected to the larger Nagoya canal system, used to store lumber. North of this site there still exists the Nagoya Wholesale Market, but it no longer has the rail access it once did. This is all documented at
http://www.geocities.jp/chilokulo/2siratorisen.html. Before and after maps can be seen here:
http://www.geocities.jp/chilokulo/2siratorisentizu.html .
