Japan railway gauge

[Ronny]

What gauges are there in Japan? I thought there were only 2, 1435mm of Shinkansen network and 1067mm of the classic network.

[ToniBabelony]

Taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrow_gauge

 

"Except for the high-speed Shinkansen lines and JR East Ou Main Line and Tazawako Line, all of Japan Railways Group's network is narrow gauge, built at 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in). Some companies, such as Kintetsu, Keisei Electric Railway, Keihin Electric Express Railway, Hankyu Railway, Toei Asakusa Line, Tokyo Metro's Ginza Line and Marunouchi line, use standard gauge.

 

Tokyo's Keio Corporation network and the Toei Shinjuku subway line, which operate through services, use an exceptional1,372 mm (4 ft 6 in) gauge. This gauge is also used on the Tokyo and Hakodate tramways.

 

Japan adopted 762 mm (2 ft 6 in) as a standard narrow gauge for minor, forestry and industrial lines. However, most of these narrow gauge lines were abandoned, and only four lines remain in operation (Kintetsu Utsube Line, Kintetsu Hachioji Line, Sangi Railway, and Kurobe Gorge Railway)."

 

I hope this helps :)

[Nick_Burman]

If you include historical gauges, add 914mm (Kyushu) and 610/600mm (industrial lines and human-powered tramways).

 

Cheers NB

[Ronny]

human-powered?

[ToniBabelony]

human-powered?

 

Vroom vroom!

[marknewton]

human-powered?

 

 

Man-powered tramways, or jinsha kido - http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/人車軌道

 

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handcar#Japan

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited June 22, 2013 by marknewton

[Nick_Burman]

From Dan Free's book:

 

576mm (1 shaku 9 sun)

600mm

610mm

660mm

666mm (2 shaku 2 sun)

737mm

753mm (2 shaku 5 sun)

762mm

838mm

914mm

1067mm

1372mm

1391mm

1435mm

 

Total 14 gauges, between historical (extinct) and present-day. Shaku and sun were traditional Japanese units of measurement - 1 shaku = 10 sun = 303.03mm

 

Cheers NB

Edited June 24, 2013 by Nick_Burman

[Densha]

Nick,

Interesting! I also never knew about those measurements! You learn something new every day at this forum.

[Ronny]

14 gauges, unbelievable.

[Martijn Meerts]

So, who's going to do a layout that features all of those gauges? :)

[Nick_Burman]

Remember, many of these gauges are extinct, quite a few had only one user (in the case of 838mm, two users - Kamaishi Iron Works and the Hankai Railway, a predecessor of the Nankai, both used the same rolling stock, Hankai having bought it after Kamaishi failed) and most of the oddballs were human- or animal-powered tramways.

 

Forgot, add 500mm and 508mm to the list above - a few mines used that gauge. The total then goes to 16.

 

Examples of users today:

 

610mm - Tateyama Sabo, Narita Yume Jukan;

762mm - Kintetsu, Sangi (ex-Kintetsu Hokusei line), Kurotetsu, (Shimotsui Coast Line until 1992);

1067mm - zairaisen (national network);

1372mm - Keio Railway (Main Line), connecting metro line, Hakodate tramway;

1435mm - Shinkansen, metros, some metropolitan private railways.

 

Cheers NB