ANNAKA, Gunma -- Railway fans are flocking to the Usuitouge Railway Heritage Park in Gunma Prefecture, eager for a chance to drive an electric locomotive.
The park is dedicated to the 104-year history of the so-called Usui Line. This name refers to the defunct section between Yokokawa and Karuizawa stations on the JR Shinetsu Line, which was abandoned after the Nagano Shinkansen line started its operations in 1997.
The Usuitoge pass was for many years a strategic traffic point connecting the Pacific Ocean side and the Sea of Japan side, and was the most difficult part of the Nakasendo route. The Usui Line, about 11 kilometers long, opened in 1893. It was the first in Japan to use an Abt system, in which trains use wheels that mesh with special rails, to travel on a steep slope involving an altitude change of 553 meters.
In the outdoor exhibition area at the Usuitouge Railway Heritage Park, against a backdrop of beautiful mountain ranges, there is a line of about 30 trains, including a D51 steam locomotive and diesel locomotives.
On the periphery of the exhibition area, a green steam locomotive runs while blowing its whistle. Families like the Mini SL (steam locomotive) that they can straddle. On Saturdays and Sundays, visitors can get in the driver's compartment of some of the locomotives.
Railway fans especially love the chance to drive an EF63 electric locomotive that was introduced to improve transportation capacity after the Abt system was abolished in 1963. The EF63 was called the "mountain pass Sherpa" because it pushed cars up a steep slope.
Applications to drive the train have flooded in from fans who want to drive back and forth over 400 meters of rail that used to be part of the Shinetsu Line. Reservations are extremely hard to get.
One person is said to have driven the train about 900 times. A 44-year-old male company employee from Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, who had done it 15 times, said, "The feeling of the lever and the feeling of the vehicle moving slowly -- I get excited no matter how many times I do it."
About 100,000 people visit the park annually. In June, a CG simulator that allows visitors to enjoy the scenery along the railway line in the EF63 was renovated for the first time in three years.
"I want to devise a way to preserve and use [locomotives] without getting tired of them," said Yoshihisa Nakajima, head of the Usuitouge Exchange Memorial Foundation that operates the park.
The memory of the people who tried to get over the mountain pass is still being passed down.
Usuitouge Railway Heritage Park: 407-16 Yokokawa, Matsuida-machi, Annaka, Gunma Prefecture
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