Tobu Kinugawa Line

The Tobu Kinugawa Line (東武鬼怒川線) is a 16.2 km long Japanese railway line from Shimo-Imaichi Station to Shin-Fujiwara Station in Nikkō, Tochigi. It is owned and operated by the private railway operator Tobu Railway.

At Shimo-Imaichi Station it connects with the Tobu Nikko Line. At Shin-Fujiwara Station it connects with the Yagan Railway Aizu Kinugawa Line. Some trains goes beyond the Aizu Kinugawa Line terminus at Aizu-Kōgen Oze-guchi Station onto the Aizu Railway Aizu Line.

The line runs surcharged, reserved-seat limited express services from and to Asakusa and Shinjuku in Tokyo.

The whole line is electrified at 1,500 V DC, but it is single tracked except for a 0.8 km double-tracked section at Kinugawa-Onsen Station.

Stations
All stations are located within Nikkō, Tochigi.



History

 * 1915: Fujiwara Tramway (藤原軌道株式会社) was licensed to build a gauge steam-hauled tramway. It was renamed Shimotsuke Tramway (下野軌道株式会社) in the same year.
 * 2 January 1917: A 3.6 mi section from Daiya-gawa Hokugan Station to Kinugawa Nangan Station was opened. The line was extended a further 2.5 mi the same year.
 * March 1919: Ōhara Station to Shimotaki Station section was opened.
 * October 1919: Daiya Mukō Imaichi Station to Shin-Imaichi Station section was opened.
 * 1 January 1920: Shimotaki Station to Fujiwara Station section was open to complete the whole 10.9 mi line.
 * 6 June 1921: The company name was renamed Shimotsuke Electric Railway Co., Ltd. (下野電気鉄道株式会社).
 * 9 March 1922: The whole line was electrified at 600 V DC.
 * April 1927: The corporate headquarters was relocated to the Tobu Railway headquarters in Tokyo.
 * 22 October 1929: gauge operation began on all the line.
 * 1931: The voltage was raised to 1,500 V.
 * 1 May 1943: Shimotsuke Electric Railway was bought out by Tobu Railway. The line became Tobu Kinugawa Line.
 * 9 October 1986: Yagan Railway Aizu Kinugawa Line through service began.
 * 12 October 1990: Aizu Railway Aizu Line through service to Aizu Tajima Station began.
 * 18 March 2006: New Kinugawa services to/from Shinjuku commence.

From 17 March 2012, station numbering was introduced on all Tobu lines, with Tobu Kinugawa Line stations adopting the prefix "TN" in orange.

A new station, called Tobu World Square Station, opened between Kosagoe and Kinugawa-Onsen on 22 July 2017 to serve the nearby Tobu World Square theme park. From this date, Tobu World Square Station was numbered "TN-55", and the station numbers for Kinugawa-Onsen to Shin-Fujiwara were adjusted on 21 April 2017, ahead of the opening.

Steam-hauled services
Tobu has leased former JNR Class C11 steam locomotive C11 207 from JR Hokkaido for use on the 12.4 km section of the Kinugawa Line between Shimo-Imaichi and Kinugawa-Onsen stations from 10 August 2017. Turntables will also be installed at Shimo-Imaichi and Kinugawa-Onsen to turn the locomotive in service. A two-stall engine shed is also being constructed for the steam loco at Shimo-Imaichi.