In June 1962, the ‘Modern Tramway’ carried a report by J. W. Higgins and Ralph Forty entitled ‘A New Electric Interurban in Japan’. [1]
The Izu Express was at that time Japan’s newest railway. It had opened on 10th December 1961.
In the 21st century, the line is known as ‘The Izu Kyūkō Line’. It is a privately owned railway line of the Izukyū Corporation in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. [2]
The line approximately parallels the eastern coast of the Izu Peninsula, a tourist district noted for its numerous hot spring resorts, and golf courses, between Itō Station in Itō and Izukyū Shimoda Station in Shimoda. [2]
The line extended “southwards from the National Railways railhead at Ito, 76 miles south-west of Tokyo, to Shimoda on the south coast of the Izu peninsula, serving Kawana, Atagawa and several other resort towns en-route.” [1: p206]
Higgins and Forty continue:
“The mountainous topography of the peninsula has kept Shimoda relatively isolated in recent years, despite the resort development. Shimoda’s place in history stems from this isolation, for the town was chosen as the site for the first American Consulate in 1853 by a Japanese government trying to minimise the impact of foreign influence. The Izu Express Railway, or IKK, electrified at 1500 volts, d.c., has overcome the mountains by long tunnels and many bridges, and the line took almost two years to build; during this period, 34 workers were killed by cave-ins, landslides and other accidents. Completion of the line was a major engineering feat, and required 31 tunnels and 66 bridges of various sizes. These included an elevated structure on concrete pillars between Ito and Minami-Ito, and the Yazu tunnel, some 2,796 metres long, between Kawaza and Inazusa. A new depôt was constructed at Izu Kogen, equipped with car washers and a repair pit.
Shiny blue cars of the line’s small fleet provide local service between Ito and Shimoda at intervals of 25 to 55 minutes, the journey taking about 70 minutes. Three of the workings operate through between Shimoda and Atami, where the JNR 10.5-mile branch to Ito connects with the main Tokaido line, and have two classes of accommodation. The remaining 24 (25 on Sundays) workings make connections at Ito with Ito-Tokyo or Ito-Atami trains, and generally have second-class cars only. The JNR runs through expresses on the new line, using ‘Shonan’-type multiple-unit railcar trains which take 2 hours 50 minutes for the through run from Tokyo. Of three such workings, one operates only at weekends and one appears to be worked by Izu Express cars between Shimoda and Ito or Alami. There are only eleven intermediate stops between Ito and Shimoda; all are passing places, and the separation is unusually wide for a Japanese interurban.
The Tokyu Car Company supplied the 22 passenger cars, which have end doors and transverse seating in keeping with the resort-area nature of the traffic. Car design is up to the best of modern Japanese design, though not as luxurious as the new panorama cars of the Nagoya Railway. Fares are high by Japanese standards, at 230 yen (4s. 7d.) for the run from Ito to Shimoda, compared with 130 yen for the same distance on JNR. However, the express buses which the line replaced charged 260 yen plus 50 yen for a seat reservation, and took two to three hours for the journey.
Inatori station has an additional track for freight and express workings, and Shimoda station has a building which could be used for freight when completed, but on 16th December there was no freight service in operation. There is, however, a package-express service using a car borrowed from the Tokyo Express Electric Railway (TKK). The TKK … controls the Izu Express Railway as well as several other railways and bus routes in Japanese tourist centres, and also the Tokyu Car Company.” [1: p206-207]
Higgins & Forty continue:
“With the 1964 Olympic Games drawing near, development of the Shimoda area into a tourist centre is going ahead rapidly. A Luftseilbahn has been opened from Shimoda to Mt. Nesugata, and hotels are under active construction in readiness for the expected influx of business. So, as over a hundred years ago when Admiral Perry arrived in Shimoda with his black ships and opened Japan to foreign commerce, the IKK has also arrived. Now when the yearly ‘Black Ship Festival’ is held, the tourists will arrive, not by bumpy bus ride, but by a fast smooth, efficient electric interurban ride through the hills and along the beautiful Izu peninsula.” [1: p207-208]
All the cars provided at the opening of the line are 20 metres long and 2.8 metres wide. They were:
Class Kumoha 100: Nos. 101-104 each with 68 seats. Their capacity was set at 150 people which means that when full nearly 100 passengers would have to stand. They were double-ended motor cars.
Class Kumoha 110: Nos. 111-120 each with 74 seats. Their capacity was set at 160 people which means that when full nearly 90 passengers would have to stand. They were single-ended motor cars.
Class Kuha 150: Nos. 151-156 each with 74 seats. Their capacity was set at 160 people which means that when full nearly 90 passengers would have to stand. They were single-ended control trailers.
Class Saroha 180: Nos. 181-182 each with 30 first-class seats and 41 second-class seats. Their capacity was set at 116 people which means that when full 45 passengers would have to stand in second-class. They were two-class trailers.
TKK 3608: a passenger car used for package express workings.
The normal train formation consisted of two sets for Atami-Ito-Shimoda workings, made up: 110+180+110+150+110; for Ito-Shimods workings, there were four sets made up: 150+110 or 150+110+100. TKK3608 ran independently, not as part of a passenger consist.
Wikipedia records 21st century stock as:
“Izukyu 2100 series, Izukyu 8000 series, E257-2000/2500 series. Future Izukyu 3000 series (Former 209-2000/2100 series). Former 185 series.” [2] This listing does not include the cars first used on the line and shown in monochrome above. It was completed before the Izukyu 3000 series entered service in 2022.
References
- J. W. Higgins and Ralph Forty; A New Electric Interurban in Japan; in Modern Tramway and Light Railway Review, Light Railway Transport League and Ian Allan Hampton Court Surrey, Volume 25 No. 294, June 1962, p206-208.
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izu_Ky%C5%ABk%C5%8D_Line, accessed on 8th August 2023.
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/185_series#/media/File%3ASeries185-C6_Shonan-Liner.jpg, accessed on 8th August 2023.
- https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:-Izukyu-2100-Izu-flower-Train.jpg, accessed on 8th August 2023.
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyu_8000_series, accessed on 8th August 2023.
- https://www.wikiwand.com/en/E257_series#Media/File:Series_E257-2500_NC-34_Shonan.jpg, 8th August 2023.
- https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izukyu_3000_series#/media/File%3AIzukyu-3000-Y1_20220403.jpg, accessed on 8th August 2023
- https://ja.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%82%A1%E3%82%A4%E3%83%AB:Izukyu_kumoha103-2.jpg, accessed on 8th August 2023.
Roger Farnworth 
Another fascinating article on a very interesting railway, thank you, Roger.
I would take issue with the authors’ original title calling this railway an “interurban”.
That term is usually used for electric railways that include sections of street running and typically don’t/didn’t have raised platforms at stations. Such lines flourished particularly in the United States in the first two decades of the twentieth century (after which they were mostly killed off by road transport).
See here for more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interurban
Thank you, Andrew.
The link to the Wikipedia article was a helpful.