When did gauges wider than 1067mm first appear?

[Beaver]

By this I refer to railways, not tramways. When did conventional public railways on Scotch gauge or standard gauge start to be built in Japan? I know that wider gauges were in use long before the Shinkansen was created, but from when exactly I know not.

 

The reason I ask is because I have ambitions to model some Meiji steam, and being unable to afford the money to buy or time to build lots of HOj or Proto-13 brass kits, and not wanting to do another H0e keiben project (cos that's too much like duplication), the most likely option is standard N or HO. Since I don't want to accept using standard gauge track to model 1067mm gauge (which is why I have a 762mm gauge local railway instead of a 1067mm gauge one - H0e gives the correct gauge without needing to go finescale), and converting N to Nj or 7.2mm gauge is not really practical with steam locomotives, the logical option is an early Scotch (Keio Main Line gauge) or standard gauge private local or regional railway. (The difference between 4'6" and 4'8.5" is practically nothing in scale.) But I'm not sure whether the emergence of such operations dates to late Meiji or early Taisho times.

 

Any ideas?

[bill937ca]

Japan Railway & Transport Review is a an excellent place to start.

 

Japan Railway History

https://www.ejrcf.or.jp/jrtr/history/index_history.html

 

Back issues

https://www.ejrcf.or.jp/jrtr/backissue/index_backissue.html

 

Unfortunately JR&TR is no longer published, but the archives are still available.

 

There were two out of print books.

https://www.ejrcf.or.jp/jrtr/publications/index_publications.html

[bill937ca]

The original trains were the work of British civil engineers.  "The trains were run on 3'6" (1067mm) gauge used in many colonies at that time."  "The shipment of ten tank engines and 58 two-axel carriages from Britain arrived in Yokohama in September 1871." That establishes the beginning.

 

https://www.ejrcf.or.jp/jrtr/jrtr01/pdf/history.pdf

 

Another article says the reason why narrow gauge was used is not clear.   As British engineers had constructed 1067mm gauge railways in New Zealand there may have been a  British policy.  After 1887 the military raised the issue of converting to standard gauge who wanted "more efficient military transportation".  This is consistent with what I have read in Electric Railways of Japan, that it was the military who pushed standard gauge.

https://www.ejrcf.or.jp/jrtr/jrtr04/pdf/history.pdf

 

In later years some standard gauge private railways may have been built to frustrate the Emperor's quest to take  over all railways. The creation of private railway department stores fits in with this legacy. 

Edited March 2, 2023 by bill937ca

[200系]

The answer to your question depends entirely on your definition of tramway, a subject which I recently covered and as such won't be expanding too much onto for this post, which is the short answer I can give you.

 

The long answer however is a bit more complicated (as if I was going to let such an opportunity slide😅), so let me expand a little.

 

The first broad gauge, as all track gauges over 1,067mm were usually referred to in Japan prior to the 1970's, railway to be opened in Japan would be the Tōkyō Bosha Tetsudō, or Tōkyō Horse Railway, which was established in 1880. The Tōkyō Bosha Tetsudō would be using a 1,372mm track gauge (Scotch Gauge as you mentioned) for their planned network, with the first section between Shimbashi and Nihonbashi opening in June 1882. Now this was a horsecar line, and as such isn't what you're looking for obviously, but this was both the first broad gauge as well as the first 1,372mm gauge railway to open in Japan (and it is actually referred to as a railway). The Tōkyō Bosha Tetsudō network would eventually form the basis for the Tōkyō streetcar network, and as this was the only such network in Japan to use a 1,372mm track gauge, as well as a couple of other factors I'll be going into shortly, the 1,372mm track gauge was often referred to as Tōkyō Gauge in Japan.

 

Now when it comes to the first railway, as in the more classical definition of the word, it becomes a bit more complicated as the differing definitions of railway and train between the usage in Japan and the rest of the world rears its head again. The first Japanese railway to be constructed using a 1,435mm track gauge would be the Daishi Dentetsu, the current Keikyū Daishi line, which opened in January 1899, with the company name changing to Keihin Dentetsu in April of the same year. Now the issue with the Diashi Dentetsu when it comes to your question is that although the railway itself was build as a railway, the equipment used initially closely resembled streetcar designs of that era, with the use of 2-axle open platform motor cars. I personally do consider the Daishi Dentetsu/Keihin Dentetsu to be an actual railway, but opinions may differ on this. They would introduce the first bogie equipped motor cars, the Keihin Dentetsu 1 type cars, between 1904 and 1907, which were pretty sizable for their time, though these cars were introduced after both the Keihin Main line and Daishi line had been converted to a 1,372 track gauge in order to facilitate direct operations onto the Tōkyō streetcar network. This would be followed by the Kansai area interurbans, starting with the Hanshin Dentetsu in April 1905, the Minō Arima Denkikidō (Hankyū)  in March 1910, the Keihan Dentetsu in April 1910 and finally the Ōsaka Denkikidō (Kintetsu) in April 1914, all build using standard gauge. Though these railway companies operated under the track ordinance, intended for the construction of streetcar systems, as I pointed out yesterday, they were designed from the outset as full fledged railways operating bogie cars based on American interurban practices (hence why they are referred to, and grouped together, as interurbans historically in Japan). If you do not count the Daishi Dentetsu, the Kansai area interurbans would be the earliest full fledged standard gauge railways to be constructed in Japan, though most (excluding Minō Arima) had large sections of combined track.

 

When it comes to Tōkyō gauge, it is a bit more difficult to answer you question at least when taking into account the "not-tramway" part of your criteria. Though the Tōkyō Bosha Tetsudō was actually classified as a railway, if we take the more classical definition into account, the first Tōkyō gauge full size railway would be the Keisei Denkikidō, which opened the first section of the current Keisei Main Line in November 1912. That being said, the original equipment, as well as the line as built, did have some streetcar elements similar to the Kansai interurbans, that being said Keisei isn't usually included in the interurban group. I personally do consider this the first traditional railway, at least when taken within the framework of your question, to be built using Tōkyō gauge, though the Keihin Dentetsu actually precedes it because of the 1904 gauge conversion.

The Keiō Denkikidō opened the first section of what is now the Keiō Main line in April 1913, however this line probably had the most streetcar like character out of all the railways I mentioned up till now, with the section surrounding Shinjuku in particular being largely composed of combined track, with small size cars being used during the initial decades of operation, I personally consider it a proper railway, but opinions may vary.

 

The Keiō Denkikidō would be more or less the final railway company to establish itself using Tōkyō Gauge, with the 1919 Local Railway Law codifying the use of a 1,067mm track gauge for private railways, with 762mm and 1,435mm being accepted in special cases, mainly as a way to allow existing railway companies like Hanshin, Hankyū, Keihan, Kintetsu etc. to be reclassified as local private railways. Effectively ending the construction Tōkyō Gauge railways with only a couple exceptions.

The Keihin Dentetsu would reconvert their network to standard gauge after the completion of the Shōnan Dentetsu line (the current Keikyū Main line) in April 1933 while Keisei converted pretty much their entire network to standard gauge prior to the opening of the Toei Asakusa line in December 1960 in order to allow through services between the Keikyū and Keisei network. The entire network would be converted in sections, with the conversion taking place between October and December 1959. The only, new, Tōkyō gauge railways to open during the Shōwa period would be the Shin-Keisei line which opened in December 1947, though this was a conversion of an existing 600mm gauge line, and would be converted to 1,067mm initially (as mentioned earlier, converting to Tōkyō gauge was prohibited), though they were able to convert it to Tōkyō gauge in October 1953, with the line being converted to standard gauge in August 1959 prior to the standard gauge conversion of their parent company. The Toei Shinjuku line would be the final Tōkyō gauge line to be built, with the first section opening in December 1971. This was of course done to allow direct access to the Keiō Main line, even though the Toei subway network was initially intended to be standard gauge only.

 

If those still aren't railway enough for you, the next closest thing would be the urban high-speed railways of the 1920's and 30's. These would be mostly grade separated, relatively straight railway line built by a number of major private railways. The first such railway would be the Hanshin Kyūkō Dentetsu Kōbe Main line which opened in July 1920. This would be followed by the Shin-Keihan line, the current Hankyū Kyōto line, which opened in April 1921. Built by the Shin-Keihan Dentetsu, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Keihan Dentetsu (quelle surprise) and was only transferred to the Hankyū Dentetsu after the end of the Pacific War. Later, subsidiary railways like the aforementioned Shōnan Dentetsu (April 1930~April 1933) and Sangū Kyūkō (February 1930) would also fall in the same category, as would the elimination of all combined track sections in favour of a newly constructed, and partially grade separated, dedicated track section which was completed in June of 1933.

 

So for the tldr, late Meiji era, Taishō era and/or early Shōwa era depending on the definition used.

 

That being said, all the railways I mentioned above, barring the Tōkyō Bosha Tetsudō of course, were established and built as dentetsu, or electric railways. No standard gauge steam locomotive has ever operated in Japan, at least as far as I know. There were some "Japanese" standard gauge railways operating Japanese built standard gauge steam locomotives in (colonial Japanese) Korea and on the South Manchuria Railway, however that is a different, and slightly more problematic, story.

As for Tōkyō Gauge, no Tōkyō Gauge steam locomotives were ever built or operated within Japan.

 

4 hours ago, Beaver said:

When did conventional public railways on Scotch gauge or standard gauge start to be built in Japan?

 

And just because I am in a really pedantic mood, 

 

The first public standard gauge railway to be built would be Line 1 of the Ōsaka Municipal Electricity Bureau, the current Midōsuji line of the Ōsaka Subway, which opened on the 5th of March, 1933 as the first publicly owned subway line in Japan (the Ginza line was built and operated by a private company (two different ones in fact), and wouldn't become publicly owned until the establishment of Eidan in September 1941). The first, and only, public Tōkyō Gauge railway would be the aforementioned Toei Shinjuku line which opened in 1971.

 

For private railways, see the previous section😉.

 

3 hours ago, Beaver said:

H0e gives the correct gauge without needing to go finescale

 

The disadvantage though is that most commercial H0e track is based on European, either Swiss/Austrian or British, prototypes, and as such has a number of differences when compared to the track used by Japanese special-narrow gauge railways, at least the ones I'm familiar with (which would be the existing former Mie Kidō -> Mie Kōtsu -> Kintetsu-> Yokkaichi City and Hokusei Dentetsu -> Mie Kōtsu -> Kintetsu -> Sangi Tetsudō lines, as well as the former Shimotsui Dentetsu line, though considering your interest you might be a better judge on the other abolished light/special narrow gauge railways). Especially when it comes to things like tie spacing, the shape of the ties themselves and the running rails the commercially available H0e track systems do not look all that convincing when used as a substitute for a Japanese prototype in my opinion. That being said, that is of course just my personal opinion, I still enjoy the projects you've shown on this forum, so take the above for what it's worth.

 

Cheers!

[Beaver]

16 hours ago, 200系 said:

The disadvantage though is that most commercial H0e track is based on European, either Swiss/Austrian or British, prototypes, and as such has a number of differences when compared to the track used by Japanese special-narrow gauge railways, at least the ones I'm familiar with

 

By far the most obvious issue is the method of rail to sleeper attachment is generally wrong. Some sort of chair arrangement, while the usual keiben arrangement is just to hammer in a few spikes. American HOn30 track would be far more suitable and was my first choice. However, no flexi track for HOn30 has been produced for a very long time due to lack of demand and I could not acquire any. Handlaid track supplies cost so much to import from US to UK (in general getting anything from America to here is very expensive) that they work out as more than flexi track - fifty pounds for a bag of spikes!

 

Using the Austrian type Peco H0e Mainline track was a move of frustration after months trying to find something better (The HOe/009 crazy track is too caricatured and the points too small a radius).

 

Overscale rail is also a factor, code 80 is basically standard gauge rail in HO. But scale code 40/60 rail is not used in flexi track and brings many issues in terms of durability, flange clearance, etc.

 

I have successfully laid handlaid plain track with spikes and real wood sleepers using pins with the heads filed down for spikes. As display track for a photo plank. I intend to try handlaying actual running track in future but not yet - acquiring suitable gauges, jigs etc and learning to use them will not be quick.

 

16 hours ago, 200系 said:

 

The first public standard gauge railway to be built would be Line 1 of the Ōsaka Municipal Electricity Bureau, the current Midōsuji line of the Ōsaka Subway, which opened on the 5th of March, 1933 as the first publicly owned subway line in Japan

 

By 'public' I meant 'public transport service' (not an internal user industrial line or suchlike), not 'in public ownership', but the ambiguity is understandable.

 

16 hours ago, 200系 said:

That being said, all the railways I mentioned above, barring the Tōkyō Bosha Tetsudō of course, were established and built as dentetsu, or electric railways. No standard gauge steam locomotive has ever operated in Japan, at least as far as I know.

 

So steam would have to be 1067mm gauge in Nj/TT9/HOj/P13/Oj/G if not keiben steam.

 

I'm learning towards Nj due to the recent and current availability of a variety of affordably priced paper+plastic Meiji/Taisho period freight stock (mostly) kits (and some passenger) in N, but locomotives are an issue. Regauging inside framed steam loco models is basically chassis replacement (I am not in a position to make my own chassis), and steam loco chassis in Z are limited in variety and expensive.

[Nick_Burman]

@Beaver,

 

Standard and Scotch gauges were the province of the interurbans/tramways. The only non-interurban SG railway was the short-lived Shionoe Onsen Railway in Shikoku, built as a feeder to the Kotohira-Takamatsu Railway but non-electrified and operated with little railbuses. There were a few SG steamers round - a pair of regauged ex-Kyushu Railway Hohenzollern 0-4-0Ts on the Shin-Keihan (Hankyu), used on works trains, and a British-built (Hawthorn Leslie, I believe) saddletank used by the Japanese government on earthmoving projects.

 

Honestly, if you really want to proceed with your project stick with ordinary N gauge and gauge discrepancy be damned; doing this will save money, your liver and your sanity... By doing this you'll also be able to convert some European and US steamers into passable late Meiji/early Taisho era locomotives - I have converted two German (a Fleischmann 7000 and an Arnold 2242) locomotives into Japanese private/industrial locos, the Athearn/MDC 2-6-0 and 2-8-0s are also excellent candidates (if you can find them, that is) for conversion.

 

Cheers Nicholas

 

 

 

 

 

[Nick_Burman]

19 hours ago, 200系 said:

Now the issue with the Diashi Dentetsu when it comes to your question is that although the railway itself was build as a railway, the equipment used initially closely resembled streetcar designs of that era, with the use of 2-axle open platform motor cars. I personally do consider the Daishi Dentetsu/Keihin Dentetsu to be an actual railway, but opinions may differ on this.

 

As built the Daishi was a tramway through and through - the line followed a completely different alignment from today's Keikyu Daishi line, going down the middle of Daishi Michi (today's National Route 409). The same happened to the mainline north of Kawasaki, which was originally laid down the middle of the Old Tokaido Road (today Route 15), until increasing traffic and the wish to run 2-car trains forced Keikyu to relocate the tracks further to the west, a task made easier by the fact that the area was mostly farmland at the time (hard to believe it today...).

 

19 hours ago, 200系 said:

The disadvantage though is that most commercial H0e track is based on European, either Swiss/Austrian or British, prototypes, and as such has a number of differences when compared to the track used by Japanese special-narrow gauge railways, at least the ones I'm familiar with (which would be the existing former Mie Kidō -> Mie Kōtsu -> Kintetsu-> Yokkaichi City and Hokusei Dentetsu -> Mie Kōtsu -> Kintetsu -> Sangi Tetsudō lines, as well as the former Shimotsui Dentetsu line, though considering your interest you might be a better judge on the other abolished light/special narrow gauge railways). Especially when it comes to things like tie spacing, the shape of the ties themselves and the running rails the commercially available H0e track systems do not look all that convincing when used as a substitute for a Japanese prototype in my opinion. That being said, that is of course just my personal opinion, I still enjoy the projects you've shown on this forum, so take the above for what it's worth.

 

Shinohara code 60 track is/was a good representation of Japanese 762mm practice. However it was hard to find to begin with and with Shinohara-san now in retirement I'll hazard that finding some is akin to locating hobby horse turds...

 

 

Cheers Nicholas

 

 

 

[Beaver]

Thanks for the wealth of historical and modelling information.

 

I have decided not to go any further with Meiji steam ideas at this time. If I proceed with Nj it will be a more modern theme using diesel or electric traction with easier conversion and the ability to buy ready converted from supplier such as vivant.jp. Perhaps a JNR branch line terminus. But not any time soon.

 

The information on tramways is of more interest than I thought. I think that this would be a more practical way to model the Meiji period in N. Micro-modules or a micro layout, with early trams from American N gauge suppliers, such as the Bachmann Brill car.

 

However this is now heading more in the direction of a modelling discussion, yet in the prototype section, so should be the subject of another thread in a more appropriate section.....

[ED75-775]

On 3/3/2023 at 8:09 AM, bill937ca said:

As British engineers had constructed 1067mm gauge railways in New Zealand there may have been a British policy. 

 

OK Bill, you've done it now! As a proud New Zealander and railway enthusiast who has studied the genesis of what became our national network (in fact, my MA thesis covers the very first railway in New Zealand), I'm not going to be able to let this slide.

 

While as you note New Zealand did have 3ft 6in gauge (1067mm) railways, there was no British policy behind it whatsoever. Our earliest railways were a bit scattershot in terms of track gauges. Canterbury originally wanted 5ft 6in (1676mm), but settled for 5ft 3in (1600mm) in 1862, solely because its contractor Holmes & Co. had brought a locomotive secondhand and unused from the Melbourne & Essendon Railway in Victoria. Southland and Auckland, as the only other provinces to attempt railway construction in the 1860s, both chose 4ft 8 1⁄2 in (1435mm) in 1864 and 1863 respectively.

 

The gauge question was not actually broached until 1867 when the then-House of Representatives convened a Select Committee to decide upon a single uniform gauge for the South Island*. While the Committee could not settle on one gauge, it's worth noting that several Government officers would make visits both to Norway (which had been building 3ft 6in lines since 1857 to open up and develop rugged areas) and the Ffestiniog Railway in Wales, then undergoing trials with Robert Fairlie's seminal 0-4-4-0T Double Fairlie locomotive Little Wonder, in 1870.

 

The result of this was that following further debate, the Railways Act (1870) was passed setting the national track gauge at 3ft 6in, and that all existing railways would have to be converted to this gauge in due course. Contrarian Canterbury got permission to carry on with its broad gauge fantasies for a while, but finally finished its conversion to narrow gauge in 1877. Since then our national network has had one gauge, a lesson that our Australian neighbors could have done well to learn from!

 

Getting back on track to Japan now, there is a whole Wiki page dedicated to the gauge controversy which outlines Japan's reasons for sticking to 3ft 6in, and the various attempts to switch to 4ft 8 1⁄2 in before the Shinkansen finally opened in 1964. Most notably, the Japanese Government Railways did carry out a standard-gauge trial in 1917 between the present-day Machida and Fuchinobe Stations on the Yokohama Line, using gauge-converted 2120 class 0-6-2T No. 2323 and a couple of similarly converted pieces of rolling stock. While the trial worked, plans to convert the network to standard gauge never gained support from either the Japanese Government or military, and the plans were scrapped along with No. 2323, which was broken up in 1919.

 

Thus endeth the lesson! I think I can take my Neeeeeeeeerd hat off now...

 

Alastair

* Auckland's railway plans were terminated in 1867 due to financial difficulties caused by the New Zealand Land Wars. Work was restarted in 1872 with Government help, but on the now-standard 3ft 6in gauge.

Edited March 14, 2023 by ED75-775

[Nick_Burman]

20 hours ago, Beaver said:

The information on tramways is of more interest than I thought. I think that this would be a more practical way to model the Meiji period in N. Micro-modules or a micro layout, with early trams from American N gauge suppliers, such as the Bachmann Brill car.

 

Unfortunately the Bachmann Brill is oversize for N scale (someone said it was closer to TT...), even for Japanese N scale. You'll be better served by using the Arumo tramcar kits and by modifying/backdating Railway Collection models.

 

And if you are looking for a location to be inspired, may I suggest Keikyu Omori when the branch to the JGR station was still active: https://www-filmscan--print--s-com.translate.goog/0330-KQ-OOMORI-SISEN-01.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=it&_x_tr_sch=http This was the original mainline, when Keikyu made the final push to Shinagawa the connection was flipped to face Shinagawa rather than Kawasaki. The station was placed inside the resulting junction and there was even a freight siding (yes, Keikyu once carried freight, mostly parcels). The line lasted until 1937. The curve into the junction was one of the reasons why many early Keikyu trains were fitted with radial couplers. This page http://www.filmscan-print-s.com/ has a lot about the early days of the Keikyu, with some very interesting tidbits.

 

Cheers Nicholas