Heritage route
SL Yamaguchi
Shin-Yamaguchi → Tsuwano · Japan
SL Yamaguchi in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 63 km
- Fastest time
- 2 h
- Average speed
- 32 km/h
- Top speed
- 65 km/h
- Operator
- JR West
- Train
- D51 steam with retro Series 35 4000 coaches
- Countries
- Japan
- In service since
- 1979
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
A pacific steam locomotive has hauled this special up the Yamaguchi line to the little castle town of Tsuwano, the “Kyoto of San-in”, since 1979.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 1950435 — 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 West — 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.
Wikipedia ↗ - La Trochita
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.

