Excursion to Usui Pass Railway Heritage Park

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My mother had visited and walked on the Aputo walk – dismantled railway route, and sent me articles. I translated the articles into English, and Mark and I found were interested in the Usui Pass Railway Heritage Park. As we had planned coming back to Tokyo on 15 October, we decided to go there on 16 October. My mother also decided to go there with us.



As with 7^th Ocotber when we went to Tohoku, we got up early and headed for the No.4 platform at Shinjuku station. Mark agreed that Shinjuku station is one of the busiest stations in Tokyo. The No.4 platform seemed to be one of the worst: several other lines – Saikyo, Rinkai, and Shonan-Shinjuku lines’ rapid, express and local services use the No.4 platform. We agreed to meet up at the rear of the train of Shonan-Shinjuku line at 8:21 at Shinjuku, but so many people got off at that time; we were not sure whether we would see that train. My mother got off at Shinjuku and met up with us on the platform. We caught a local Kawagoe Line in the morning and arrived at Omiya slightly later than our plan. There were three Shinkansen lines which would take us to Takasaki. We took the Nagano Shinkansen. All the seats in the non-reserved cars were occupied; we stood up on the corridor for 20 minutes. We transferred the Shinetsu Main Line at Takasaki, and arrived at Yokokawa station just after 11 o’clock.



Yokokawa station has become the terminal station for the Shinetsu Main Line. The direct bus for Karuizawa runs from the car park alight the station. There weren’t taxis around the station – it looked very quiet. Up to 30 September 1997, it was the station where the bank engines, which would assist the trains running on the steep gradient route towards Karuizawa, were coupled with passenger coaches and freight trucks. Adjacent to the station, we found the railway museum and Usui Pass Railway Heritage Park, which was converted from the site of the former locomotive depot.



As it was approaching the lunch time, we decided to have lunch. We went to the Drive Through Restaurant where Ogino ya Ekiben (lunch boxes sold at the station) stand. There were a wide variety of shops with a stock of local food and souvenirs in the building. My mother treated us to the famous lunch meal served in the pot: Toge no Kamameshi (the lunch box containing steamed rice with chicken and stewed vegetables sold at the station at the foot of the mountain) and miso soup to us. Toge no Kamameshi lunch box is one of the first lunch boxes served at the railway stations in Japan in 1958, and became the regional cuisine at Yokokawa station. My mother remembers buying that lunch box during the time when the bank engines were being coupled with the passenger coaches at Yokokawa station. Mark liked that lunch box and miso soup too.



It was showering when we left in Tokyo on 16 October, but it wasn’t raining around Usui Pass Railway Heritage Park. It wasn’t too cold or too warm on that day: it was an ideal climate for walking. After the lunch, we started following the Aputo walking course adjacent to the railway heritage park. (The engineering work for Usui Line was embarked in 1891. Owing to the steep gradient route, it was decided to adopt the Abt style, devised by Roman Abt, which featured a toothed rack rail laid between two running rails. Abt can be pronounced as ‘Aputo’ in Japanese: it was probably named ‘Aputo walk’.)



While walking past the railway heritage park, we could see a number of old and modern passenger coaches, maintenance cars and freight trucks stationed in the grounds of the former locomotive depot: they all looked great. As it was Friday, the sightseeing train ‘Sherpa’ wasn’t running, but we saw the train stopped at Bunkamura station.



We also walked past the historic house – Tokugawa Shogun’s administrative office, which acted as a checkpoint to maintain safety for Shogun’s assistants and families who were staying in Sakamoto’s resting houses: their holiday accommodation.



Aputo walk was parallel with the sightseeing train’s truck. After passing the former checkpoint, we felt that we were walking on the steep gradient route.



The Aputo walk led us to Maruyama station on the left and the former electrical substation on the right. The latter one was a two-storey brick building, which was built in 1911 to make Usui Line electrified and become one of the National Heritage buildings in 1994.



After taking photos of the historic brick buildings, we carried on walking upwards and reached Togenoyu station, the terminal of the sightseeing train. We followed the route leading to the No.1 and No.2 tunnel.



Upon leaving the No.2 tunnel, we saw Usui Lake and a red arched-bridge on our left. The lake looked beautiful with autumn coloured leaves reflected in the water.



The dismantled railway route went through the mountains. The flattened footpath surrounded by dense woods offered a pleasant and peaceful walk. We could see mountain brooks from the former railway bridges which have been converted to the walking course. We certainly enjoyed seeing autumn coloured leaves around the mountain passage, and it allowed us to envisage how passengers would have looked at the woodland and the nature while the train was running along the mountain passage throughout the year.



We managed to reach the No.3 railway bridge – Meganebashi Bridge (which means ‘the spectacle-shaped bridge’) – it is the biggest constructed item along the Usui Line. We were amazed with beautiful autumn coloured leaves on the mountains from the bridge and took a number of photos. We also saw another railway bridge used for Shin (New) Usui Line, which ran between 1963 and 1997.



My mother was interested in rambling through the No.6 tunnel, 546m – the longest tunnel on the Usui Line. As I had expected, including the No.6 tunnel, those tunnels were dimly lit: it would have been very cold and dark to work in the middle of the winter, but could shelter from the heat in summer. We saw surprising signs: bears might appear in the woods along this tunnel. We saw holes in the ceiling and on the sides. These holes were made for steam trains to emit smoke in this long tunnel. The Usui Line has now been dismantled, but this tunnel gave rays of dim sunshine coming through the ceiling holes (blocked by the plastic board to shelter walkers from rain and water leakage from the structure) and showed a series of mountain landscapes through the side holes.



We turned around and headed back to Meganebashi Bridge. My mother suggested going down the foot of the bridge to look at the four-arched bridge with a length of 91m and a height at the highest point of 31m – one of the biggest brick bridges in Japan. We’d heard that this four-arched brick bridge was designed by a British engineer and more than two hundred thousand bricks were used for its completion – it looks magnificent in its mountain setting. There were several tour buses and drivers stopped at the car park and looking at the marvellous four-arched brick bridge.



Afterwards, we went back to the Aputo Walk and stopped at Usui Lake. We didn’t seem to have the time to walk on the footpath around the Usui Lake. We decided to have a rest by the lake. We bought drinks from the vending machines and looked at this artificial lake formed by Sakamoto Dam, which was built to prevent landslides. My mother sketched a red arched-bridge and lake. I’d heard that the design of the red arched-bridge was copied from the Meganebashi Bridge. The line of the red arched bridge reflected in the water and its symmetrical lines seemed to connect to the actual bridge, and the scene of these made it look like a real spectacle shape from the distance.



After spending the time at Usui Lake Park, we went back to the Aputo walk. The downhill route made us walk faster than the uphill route. While following the disused railway by foot, my mother could feel its steep gradient route. It wasn’t as sharp as we would climb up the mountain, but the slope lasted a long distance: approximately 4.3km. We felt that it would have been very challenging tasks for driver who would carry a large number of passengers and tons of material on both downhill and uphill route and maintenance people who would look after the truck and tunnels, in particular, around the winter period.



The 6km of the dismantled railway route has been filled up with the concrete, and its walking course has made it accessible to people at all levels and wheelchair users, but the hard surface made our feet tired at the end of our walk, and we all had stiff legs next day.



After a long walk, we were all delighted to have soft ice cream. We were given a choice of wide variety of flavours including wasabi – horse radish used for spice for raw fish meals.



We managed to catch the Shinetsu main Line just before 4 o’clock and got on the Shinkansen between Takasaki and Omiya. At Omiya we were confused with the information of three or four different lines stopping at the same platform – some of which wouldn’t stop at Shinjuku and Shibuya. We seemed to have missed the Shonan-Shinjuku line just after 17:15, so we decided to take the Tokyo bound train and change the rapid Saikyo line at Akabane. Before getting off at Shijuku, we thanked my mother for her travel arrangements and treats while we were in Japan.

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Photos

Usui Pass Railway Heritage Park
Modern and old passenger coaches and freight trucks were displayed on the grounds of the former locomotive depot

Subelectrical station
The subelectrical station was built to make the Usui Railway electrified.

toge no kamameshi
This is the origin of Ekiben - the lunch box sold at the railway stations.

the side hole on the No.6 tunnel
There was a surprising sign - a wild bear appear along the tunnel.

Meganebashi Bridge
This impressive brick-arched bridge was designed by a British engineer.

Usui Lake
The design of the red arched bridge was copied from Meganebashi bridge.

original rail
The original rail with cog wheels was on display at Yokokawa station.