Heritage route
Tsugaru Stove Train
Tsugaru-Goshogawara → Tsugaru-Nakasato · Japan
Aboard Japan’s northernmost private railway, attendants grill squid on pot-belly coal stoves while blizzards bury the Tsugaru plain outside.
Japan’s northernmost private railway crosses the snowbound Tsugaru plain to the hometown of novelist Dazai Osamu, and each winter it adds 1948-vintage coaches warmed by coal-burning daruma stoves. Attendants fan the coals and grill dried squid over them while ground blizzards whip off the Sea of Japan. The stove tradition is as old as the line itself, which opened in 1930.
Along the way
- Snow-buried apple orchards
- Kanagi and the Dazai Osamu museum
- Ashino Park’s lakeside cherry trees
- Squid grilled on the daruma stove
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 20977821 — 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 3 m from it
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
- See for yourself: open this line on the map with OpenStreetMap's own railway drawn underneath it
Questions and answers
How long is the Tsugaru Stove Train?
The Tsugaru Stove Train runs 21 km from Tsugaru-Goshogawara to Tsugaru-Nakasato.
How long does the Tsugaru Stove Train take?
The fastest scheduled journey is 45 min for the 21 km. That is an average of 28 km/h end to end. The line's top service speed is 70 km/h.
Who runs the Tsugaru Stove Train?
Tsugaru Railway, with 1948 Ohafu 33 coaches with coal daruma stoves, DD350 diesel.
How old is the Tsugaru Stove Train?
The line has been in service since 1930. That is the year the atlas dates it from: for a modern brand running over an older railway, it is the railway's date, not the brand's.
How often does the Tsugaru Stove Train run?
12× daily; stove train 2–3× daily Dec–Mar.
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