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Tobu Kinugawa Line
Tobu Kinugawa Line
	TN
Overview
Owner	Tobu Railway
Locale	Tochigi Prefecture
Termini	Shimo-Imaichi; Shin-Fujiwara;
Service
Type	Heavy rail
Technical
Line length	16.2 km (10.1 mi)
Track gauge	1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)
Electrification	1,500 V DC, overhead catenary

The Tobu Kinugawa Line (東武鬼怒川線, Tōbu Kinugawa-sen) is a 16.2 km (10.1 mi) long Japanese railway line from Shimo-Imaichi Station to Shin-Fujiwara Station in Nikkō, Tochigi. It is owned and operated by the private railway operator Tobu Railway.^[1]

At Shimo-Imaichi Station it connects with the Tobu Nikko Line. At Shin-Fujiwara Station it connects with the Yagan Railway Aizu Kinugawa Line. Some trains goes beyond the Aizu Kinugawa Line terminus at Aizu-Kōgen Oze-guchi Station onto the Aizu Railway Aizu Line.

The line runs surcharged, reserved-seat limited express services from and to Asakusa and Shinjuku in Tokyo.

The whole line is electrified at 1,500 V DC, but it is single tracked except for a 0.8 km (0.50 mi) double-tracked section at Kinugawa-Onsen Station.

Stations

All stations are located within Nikkō, Tochigi.

No.	Station	Japanese	Distance (km)		SPACIA	JR	Revaty Aizu	Revaty Kinu	SL&DL Taiju	Ozatoro Tenbō Ressha YUMEGURI	Transfers
No.	Station	Japanese	Between stations	Total	SPACIA	JR	Revaty Aizu	Revaty Kinu	SL&DL Taiju	Ozatoro Tenbō Ressha YUMEGURI	Transfers
TN23	Shimo-Imaichi	下今市	-	0.0	●	●	●	●	●		Tobu Nikko Line
TN51	Daiya-Mukō	大谷向	0.8	0.8	↕	↕	◆	↕	↕
TN52	Ōkuwa	大桑	4.0	4.8	↕	↕	◆	▲	↕
TN53	Shin-Takatoku	新高徳	2.5	7.3	△	↕	●	▲	↕
TN54	Kosagoe	小佐越	2.6	9.9	↕	↕	◆	▲	↕
TN55	Tobu World Square	東武ワールドスクウェア	0.7	10.6	●	●	●	▲	↕
TN56	Kinugawa-Onsen	鬼怒川温泉	1.8	12.4	●	●	●	●	●	●
TN57	Kinugawa-Kōen	鬼怒川公園	2.1	14.5	△		●			↓
TN58	Shin-Fujiwara	新藤原	1.7	16.2	△		●			●	Yagan Railway Aizu Kinugawa Line

History

1915: Fujiwara Tramway (藤原軌道株式会社, Fujiwara Kidō Kabushiki-gaisha) was licensed to build a 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) gauge steam-hauled tramway. It was renamed Shimotsuke Tramway (下野軌道株式会社, Shimotsuke Kidō Kabushiki-gaisha) in the same year.
2 January 1917: A 3.6-mile (5.8 km) section from Daiya-gawa Hokugan Station to Kinugawa Nangan Station was opened. The line was extended a further 2.5 miles (4.0 km) the same year.
March 1919: Ōhara Station to Shimotaki Station section was opened.
October 1919: Daiya Mukō Imaichi Station to Shin-Imaichi Station section was opened.
1 January 1920: Shimotaki Station to Fujiwara Station section was open to complete the whole 10.9-mile (17.5 km) line.
6 June 1921: The company name was renamed Shimotsuke Electric Railway Co., Ltd. (下野電気鉄道株式会社, Shimotsuke Denki Tetsudō Kabushiki-gaisha).
9 March 1922: The whole line was electrified at 600 V DC.
April 1927: The corporate headquarters was relocated to the Tobu Railway headquarters in Tokyo.
22 October 1929: 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge operation began on all the line.
1931: The voltage was raised to 1,500 V.
1 May 1943: Shimotsuke Electric Railway was bought out by Tobu Railway. The line became Tobu Kinugawa Line.
9 October 1986: Yagan Railway Aizu Kinugawa Line through service began.
12 October 1990: Aizu Railway Aizu Line through service to Aizu Tajima Station began.
18 March 2006: New Kinugawa services to/from Shinjuku commence.^[2]

From 17 March 2012, station numbering was introduced on all Tobu lines, with Tobu Kinugawa Line stations adopting the prefix "TN" in orange.^[3]

A new station, called Tobu World Square Station, opened between Kosagoe and Kinugawa-Onsen on 22 July 2017 to serve the nearby Tobu World Square theme park.^[4] From this date, Tobu World Square Station was numbered "TN-55", and the station numbers for Kinugawa-Onsen to Shin-Fujiwara were adjusted on 21 April 2017, ahead of the opening.^[4]

Future developments

Steam-hauled services

Tobu has leased former JNR Class C11 steam locomotive C11 207 from JR Hokkaido for use on the 12.4 km section of the Kinugawa Line between Shimo-Imaichi and Kinugawa-Onsen stations from 10 August 2017.^[5] Turntables will also be installed at Shimo-Imaichi and Kinugawa-Onsen to turn the locomotive in service.^[5] A two-stall engine shed is also being constructed for the steam loco at Shimo-Imaichi.

References

^ Terada, Hirokazu (July 2002). データブック日本の私鉄 [Databook: Japan's Private Railways]. Japan: Neko Publishing. p. 199. ISBN 4-87366-874-3.
^ ＪＲ新幹線＆特急列車ファイル [JR Shinkansen & Limited Express Train File]. Japan: Kōtsū Shimbun. 2008. p. 76. ISBN 978-4-330-00608-6.
^ 「東武スカイツリーライン」誕生！あわせて駅ナンバリングを導入し、よりわかりやすくご案内します [Tobu Sky Tree Line created! Station numbering to be introduced at same time] (PDF). Tobu News (in Japanese). Tobu Railway. 9 February 2012. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
^ ^a ^b 東武鬼怒川線新駅「東武ワールドスクウェア」の開業日を７月２２日（土）に決定しました！ [New Tobu World Square Station on Tobu Kinugawa Line to open on 22 July 2017] (PDF). News release (in Japanese). Japan: Tobu Railway. 28 February 2017. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 March 2017. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
^ ^a ^b 東武鬼怒川線で復活するＳＬ「大樹」の営業運転開始日を２０１７年８月１０日（木）に決定！ ["Taiju" steam locomotive on Tobu Kinugawa Line to enter service on Thursday 10 August 2017] (PDF). News release (in Japanese). Japan: Tobu Railway. 18 January 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 January 2017. Retrieved 19 January 2017.