Befu Railway

[Nick_Burman]

 

For the unitiated the Befu Railway was a private railway located 'bout 2/3rds of the way between Kobe and Himeji. It connected Befu-ko (Befu Port) with Tsuchiyama and Noguchi JNR stations. Although mainly geared for freight the line also ran a meager passenger service with railcars. However the attraction was the several-times-daily mixed train, a solitary 2-axle coach tagged along whatever needed to be taken between port and JNR. The Befu looked like rural shortline with its quaint and rather run-down look, yet it was located in the middle of a densely-populated area and right under the shade of the Shinkansen.

 

Cheers NB

[westfalen]

Great stuff. Love that coach. Interesting that this was still running as late as 1979. Missed it by 11 years.

[Nick_Burman]

Great stuff. Love that coach. Interesting that this was still running as late as 1979. Missed it by 11 years.

 

In fact, it only "went under" in 1984.

 

Cheers NB

[bikkuri bahn]

It seems a lot of these marginal operations hung on due to freight interchange traffic with JNR.  But with JNR freight traffic rationalization in the early 1980's, the traffic disappeared, and the breakup of JNR in 1987 was the final nail in the coffin, i.e. with car load (box car) freight eliminated.