OKOBA STATION (HITOYOSHI, KUMAMOTO PREFECTURE)

Mountainside station has century-long history

Photos by Yomiuri Shimbun Photographer Toshiaki Shimizu

By Yuka Matsumoto

Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

They can't see it, but people waiting at Okoba Station can hear the train approaching.

The station platform in Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto Prefecture, is surrounded by a dense cover of trees.

The train coming from Yatake stops on a siding just before the station after descending a slight incline and slowly creeps up to the platform.

The station is on a line that has two switchbacks in a loop line that goes around a mountain.

Mitsuko Hayashi, who came to the area 60 years ago by train on the Hisatsu Line to marry a local man, recalls steam locomotives struggling to climb the mountain. Hayashi said her relatives were surprised to hear that even express trains stopped at the station located halfway up the mountain.

The 82-year-old said, "The trains couldn't climb the mountain unless they stopped there."

The difference in altitude between the Hitoyoshi and Yatake stations is 430 meters, more than the height of Tokyo Tower. Okoba Station is situated halfway between the two.

To climb the steep slope, steam locomotives had to stop to top up their water at the station that stood at the access point to the loop line.

At the time, the station was bustling with many workers, Hayashi recalled.

Okoba still retains remnants of the Meiji era (1868-1912), but it became an unmanned station 20 years ago.

The Hisatsu Line connecting Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures was opened in 1909. The route through a mountain pass was chosen for national security reasons as it shielded trains from bombardment by enemy ships off the coast.

But construction of the railway route across the steep mountain was an unprecedented project requiring a high level of skill. State-of-the-art railway techniques were used to build the loop and switchbacks as well as more than 20 tunnels.

To coincide with the opening of the Kyushu Shinkansen line last year, Kyushu Railway Co. launched a campaign to promote the local line for scenic and nostalgic trips.

The Isaburo-Shinpei sightseeing train underwent a retro-style interior refurbishment and travels between Hitoyoshi and Yoshimatsu stations twice a day.

The train makes a short stop at sightseeing locations, where a conductor gives passengers an explanation of the sites and other tourist information. The 1!-hour train trip on the 35-kilometer-section has proved popular as a relaxing journey for tourists.