Let the steam locomotive do the huffing and puffing: Oigawa Railway

Assistant engineer stoking the coal fire. The steam locomotive has one engineer and two assistants.

In today’s busy world, you may want to get away on a slow-paced journey. If so, how about riding a train pulled by a steam locomotive?

By 1976, coal had been replaced by diesel fuel and electricity on almost all track in Japan. There are still a few exceptions—steam locomotives run on 16 lines in the country, including the Ban’etsu Sai Line in the Tohoku region, the Moka Railway and Chichibu Railway in the Kanto region, and the Yamaguchi Line in the Chugoku region. But almost all of them pull trains for tourists, and only when the season makes the scenery especially beautiful. The only train that is powered by steam and runs most of the year is operated by the private company, Oigawa Railway, in Shizuoka Prefecture.

“We have always wanted to keep steam locomotion alive, as part of Japan’s transportation heritage, so we took the ‘dynamic preservation’ approach” explains Yamamoto Toyofuku, the company’s spokesman.

The train is full even on weekdays, with plenty of families and railway buffs. When it is time to depart the whistle blows, smoke billows up, and the big iron wheels start rolling away from Kanaya Station. The end of the line is at Senzu Station, 39.5 kilo-meters away, and the 82-minute ride follows the Oi River valley.

Pulling into Shin-Kanaya Station, where many passengers and railway buffs are waiting.

The passenger cars are not air-conditioned, so during the summer it is great to open the windows and look out at the passing tea fields (green tea is a Shizuoka specialty). On the way, when the train rumbles over iron bridges, the children and adults on the river banks below all look up and wave. The passengers wave back, and the engine’s whistle sends out a greeting, too.

Steam locomotives have a secret power that creates a feeling of comradeship among passengers, even though they may never have met before. They all travel with the hope that there will always be trains driven by steam.