Heritage route
SL Banetsu Monogatari
Niitsu → Aizu-Wakamatsu · Japan
SL Banetsu Monogatari in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 111 km
- Fastest time
- 3 h 30 min
- Average speed
- 32 km/h
- Top speed
- 65 km/h
- Operator
- JR East
- Train
- C57 180 + 12 series
- Countries
- Japan
- In service since
- 1999
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
C57 180 — “the Lady” — hauls seven retro coaches up the Agano river gorge from Niitsu to castle-town Aizu-Wakamatsu, one of Japan’s last full-size mainline steam runs.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 17425406 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 4 m from it
- The operator publishes this line's timetable: JR East — a place to look it up, not a check of our drawing
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
More heritage routes
- Durango & Silverton
1882 gold-rush narrow gauge: steam-hauled ever since, on the Highline ledge blasted 120 m above the Animas River gorge.
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Theroux’s Old Patagonian Express: 750 mm gauge, 1922 steam locomotives and wood-stove-heated wooden coaches across the steppe.
Wikipedia ↗ - Sagano Scenic Railway
A retired JR alignment above the Hozugawa rapids: twenty-five slow minutes of maples and gorge that the modern main line skips through tunnels.
Wikipedia ↗ - SL Gunma
Restored D51 498 “Degoichi” and C61 20 haul retro coaches up the Joetsu Line on weekends: steam echoing off the Tone gorge under Tanigawa’s wall.
Wikipedia (JA) ↗
More train routes in Japan.