JAPANESE RAILWAY HISTORY 3

Growth of Independent
Technology
Eiichi Aoki

Absorbing Foreign Railway
Technology
Since Japan lacked railway technology, foreign engineers were hired by
the Japanese government to work on
all aspects of the railway between Tokyo and Yokohama, including direction and supervision of surveying andconstruction, inspection of imported
machinery and materials, train operation and preparing of timetables.
However, Japan already had someengineering knowledge in the Edo period that could be applied to railway
construction. For example, cutting,embanking, drifting and artesian wellconstruction were widely used. However, these techniques had been developed through long experience andwere not based on scientific and math-■ Portal of Osakayama Tunnel, completed in 1880. Both portals are nowpreserved as a national
railway monument.
(Transportation Museum, Tokyo)

ematical theories. Advanced mathematical theories such as differentialand integral calculus were in use inJapan, but people did not think of applying them to engineering.
Railway construction requires a basic
knowledge of mathematics, physics, geology and modern civil engineering.
The Engineer Training College estab-■ American 2B tender engines were popular for passenger trains. Kansei Railway had locomotives
with large-diameter driving wheels(5'2"). Built at Pittsburgh Works.
(Transportation Museum, Tokyo)

56

Japan Railway & Transport Review / October 1994

lished at Osaka Station in May 1877
was Japan's first school teaching railway construction, as mentioned in thefirst article in this series. Graduates
participated in construction of the railway between Kyoto and Otsu, including
the 646-meter Osakayama Tunnel completed in 1880, which was the firstmountain tunnel designed and built byJapanese engineers. The Engineer
Training College graduates were later
engaged in surveying and constructionof the Tokaido railway and other new
railways elsewhere. In the 1880s,
many graduates from the National College of Technology (which later became
the Imperial College of Technology) began playing an active role as railway
engineers.
In the Edo period, few permanent
bridges were built across large rivers,
because the river flows tended tochange drastically with the season, andwooden bridges were easily washedaway by frequent floods. When theTokaido railway was built, solid brickpiers were sunk more than 20 meters
below riverbeds to ensure that bridges

Copyright © 1994 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

Civil railway engineering was thefirst field in which the shift from foreign to Japanese engineers occurred.

Foreign and Domestic
Production of SteamLocomotives■ Type 1B1 compound tank engine. First
domestically-built locomotive.
(Transportation Museum, Tokyo)

would not be destroyed by floods. Thebridge construction set a new standardof engineering in Japan. The bricks forthe piers were made of clay from along
the railway line. However, the bridge
trusses were made of either wroughtiron or steel, designed by C.A.W.
Pownall, a British engineer, and manufactured in the UK, based on threestandard types (100 feet, 150 feet and200 feet). The graduates from the Engineer Training College were also engaged in designing and directing bridge
construction.

The locomotives, passenger carriages
and wagons used in Japan's first railway between Tokyo and Yokohama,
which went into service in 1872, were
all made in the UK. The design of ten
imported tank locomotives was entrusted to British locomotive builders,
who were provided only with simple
specifications and performance requirements. The names of the builders
and the number of locomotives they
manufactured are shown below. The
1B (2-4-0) wheel arrangement was used
for all the locomotives. However, since
the types varied among the five builders, and five types were delivered to Japan, operation and maintenance musthave been challenging.
Tender locomotives and more powerful locomotives capable of running on
gradients were imported along withtank locomotives for use in the railway
built between Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto
after 1874. They were all British aswell. In 1876, two C (0-6-0) tender locomotives with a driving wheel diameterof 3'7" (1,092 mm) for freight transport
were converted into 2B (4-4-0) tender
locomotives with a driving wheel diam-■ Twin-axle third-class passenger carriage with five compartments.
(Reprinted from RAILWAYS AN ROLLING STOCK IN JAPAN)

Copyright © 1994 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

eter of 4'6 4/5" (1,397 mm) for passenger transport. This large-scale remodelling was conducted under the supervision of W.M. Smith, a locomotive superintendent.
The first railway in Hokkaido wasconstructed for shipment of coal between Temiya (Otaru) and Horonaicoal mine. The line went into service
between Temiya and Sapporo, in 1880,
and was extended to the mine in 1882.
Since this railway was designed andbuilt like an American frontier railway■ Richard F.
Trevithick■ Francis H.
Trevithick(Transportation Museum, Tokyo)
Richard F. Trevithick (1845-1913)
Francis H. Trevithick (1850-1931)
Richard and Francis Trevithick were grandsons ofRichard Trevithick (1771-1833) who is well-known as
one inventor of the steam locomotive. Since their father,
Francis Trevithick (1812-1877), was a locomotive
superintendent for the London & North Western
Railway, they were both born in Crewe, UK, where therailway had a works.
Hired by the Japanese government railways, Francis,
the third son, came to Japan in September 1876;
Richard, the first son, came in March 1888. The
railways had works in Shinbashi and Kobe wherelocomotive superintendents were responsible fordesigning, manufacturing and maintaining rolling stock.
Francis took up the position of locomotive superintendent at the Shinbashi works in June 1878;
Richard was appointed locomotive superintendent at
the Kobe works in March 1888. Both held office formany years until March 1897 serving as leaders in thefield of rolling-stock technology.
Francis started production of carriages at the Shinbashi
works in 1897. In 1893, he was in charge of importingand making a trial run of an Apt rack-and-pinion
locomotive to be used in the section of the Shin-etsu line
between Yokokawa and Karuizawa which had a 1/15
gradient. He helped ensure a successful trial run.
In 1893, Richard succeeded in building prototypes oflocomotives at the Kobe works for the first time in Japan.
He trained many Japanese locomotive engineers who
became leaders in locomotive design in the early 20thcentury.
Francis and Richard both married Japanese women.
Francis' two sons became naturalised Japanesecitizens and their descendants, named Okuno, still livein Japan.

Japan Railway & Transport Review / October 1994

57

JAPANESE RAILWAY HISTORY 3

under the direction of J.U. Crawford,
an American engineer, 1C (2-6-0) tender locomotives, manufactured by Porter Inc. (H.K. Vertec) of Pittsburgh,
USA, were used. They weighed only
16.5 tons and were suitable for lightrailways which could be built quickly.
These locomotives were famous, because they were named afterYoshitsune and Benkei, popular heroes
in the Japanese medieval period.
The Iyo railway, which went into service in 1888 between the outer port andinner city of Matsuyama, Shikoku, wasa narrow-gauge railway using 2'6" (762mm)-gauge tracks for the first time inJapan. 7.8-ton, B (0-4-0) tank locomotives, manufactured by
Lokomotivfabrik Krauss of Munich,Germany, were used.
British locomotives accounted formost of the locomotives imported in the1870s and 1880s, but many Americanand German locomotives were also imported in the 1890s and 1900s. A small
number of locomotives was also imported from France, Switzerland andBelgium. Japan, which was rapidly expanding its railway network, was a big
market for American and European locomotive manufacturers.
Most of the imported locomotives
used a single expansion system withexternal cylinders based on an orthodox design concept. In the early 20th

■ Locomotive No.1, imported from Vulcan
Foundry, UK, for the Tokyo-Yokohama Railway(Transportation Museum, Tokyo)

century, tender locomotives with a 2B
(4-4-0) wheel arrangement were usedmainly for long-distance passenger
trains, 1B1 (2-4-2) or 1C1 (2-6-2) tanklocomotives were used for short-distance, general-purpose trains, and 1C(2-6-0) or 1D (2-8-0) tender locomotives
and C1 (0-6-2) tank locomotives wereused for freight trains and trains running on steep gradients. Although the58

Table 1First Ten Locomotives Introduced to Tokyo-Yokohama Railway
in 1872*1 Now preserved at Transport Museum, Tokyo.
*2 Two locomotived of same type additionally imported in 1874. One now in operation
at Meiji-mura Open Museum near Nagoya.
*3 Transferred to Taiwan in 1900, and No.7 now preserved in Taipei.
*4 Preserved at Ome Railway Park near Tokyo.

use of compound locomotives and Mallard articulated locomotives still remained at an experimental stage,
Sanyo Railway introduced a large
number of Vauclain compound locomotives—24 in total— of which 12 were
manufactured at the railway's Hyogoworks.
The first locomotive manufactured inJapan was a Worsdell compound tanklocomotive with a 1B1 wheel arrangement. It was test manufactured at thegovernment Kobe works in 1893. It wasdesigned and built under the supervision of R.F.Trevithick, a locomotive superintendent at the works. However, very few domestically-produced
parts were used in its construction, because main parts such as the mainframe, boilers, wheels, axles and cylinders were imported from the UK, andspare parts were used for the cab andwater tanks. In 1895, a 1C (2-6-0) tender locomotive similar to theYoshitsune model was manufactured
at the Temiya works of the Hokkaido
Tanko Railway. It seems that spareparts were used for main parts. The locomotive was named Taisho-go (GreatVictory) to commemorate Japan's victory in the Sino-Japanese War. However, it was the only locomotive manufactured at that works.
Subsequently, copies of imported locomotives were manufactured at somedomestic works. Thirty-three such locomotives were built at the government
Kobe works from 1895 to 1908, 23 at
Sanyo Railways' Hyogo works from1896 to 1906, and seven at Nippon Railways' Omiya works from 1901 to 1906.

Japan Railway & Transport Review / October 1994

In addition, Kisha Seizo (LocomotiveManufacturing) company set up in
Osaka in 1899, as an independent private enterprise, manufactured 58 locomotives from 1901 to 1908. Fifty-one
were exact copies manufactured fromthe plans of the government 1B1 tanklocomotive.
Full-scale steel production started inJapan when the Yawata ironworks wasset up in 1901. However, the quality
and quantity of domestic steel did not
fully meet the requirements of locomotive production. As a result, imported
or spare parts were used for the main
locomotive parts, and parts that did not
require difficult processing technology
were made in Japan. The locomotives
made of imported parts and some domestic parts were said to be domestically-produced at that time. Processing
and casting of main frames and cylinders could be done in Japan by 1900,
but the number of domestically-produced wheels, smoke pipes and laminated or coiled springs passed that ofimported counterparts only after WorldWar I, because high uniformity and durability were required for these parts
and advanced processing technology
was needed to make them.
Full-scale domestic production of locomotives started after 17 major private railways were nationalised from1906 to 1907. German Schmidt systemsuperheated locomotives, which weredeveloped originally in Japan, werepromoted as the standard model.

Copyright © 1994 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

■ Bridge across the Tenryu River under construction. The longest bridge on the Tokaido Railway(ca. 1886).
(Transportation Museum, Tokyo)

Manufacturing of Passenger
Carriages
British passenger carriages andfreight wagons were used on the TokyoYokohama and the Osaka-Kobe railways. Large, twin-axle carriages with a12' (3,658 mm) wheel base and a central
corridor were used on the TokyoYokohama line, while compartmenttype, small twin-axle carriages with an
8' (2,438 mm) wheel base and no corridor were used on the Osaka-Kobe line.
However, domestic production of carriages started at the government Kobe
works as early as 1875 and in 1880 at
the Shinbashi works.
The main models produced at bothplants were compartment-type, large
twin-axle carriages with a 11' 6" (3,505mm) or 12' wheel base. However, only
the wooden body of the carriages wasreally Japanese-made. Imported steel
materials were processed and assembled into frames, and finishedwheels and axles were imported. From1876 to 1877, prototype bogie carriages
were produced at the Kobe works, but
continuous production of carriages did
not start immediately.
Demand for carriages increased in
the late 1880s as the railways expanded, and the production capacities
at the Kobe and Shinbashi works could
not meet demand. Import of carriages
from the UK and Germany was resumed, and private railways and independent manufacturers started producing carriages. The government railways and five major private railways

Copyright © 1994 EJRCF. All rights reserved.

decided on each standard specification
for bogie carriages and expanded production based on these specifications.
Both covered and open goods wagons were produced at that time with aloaded capacity of about 5 tons. WhenJapan's first railway went into service,
horse trucks and horse carriage wagons
were used as goods wagons. Specialpurpose wagons such as oil tank carsand cattle wagons appeared in the1890s.
Sanyo Railways introduced Japan's
first diners in 1898 and sleeping carriages in 1900. The railway, which ran
along the Inland Sea, faced fierce competition with regular coastal liners
and always tried to keep a step aheadof other private railways in improving
passenger services. Sleeping carriages
and diners were introduced on government railways (Tokaido) in 1900 and1901, respectively; Nippon Railways
started a diner service in 1905.

Train Operation
In October 1872, it took 53 minutes
by train from Shinbashi to Yokohama(29 km) stopping at four stations:Shinagawa, Kawasaki, Tsurumi andKanagawa. The scheduled speed was
32.8 km/h. The engine drivers were all
British, with Japanese trainees carriedas firemen. The first Japanese engine
drivers were appointed in 1877, and at
the same time, a training centre was
set up to train Japanese firemen as engine drivers. All foreign engine drivers
were let go by 1885, and from then, only
Japanese engine drivers were employed.
Foreign train managers continued
drawing up timetables until the mid1880s. Training in this area lagged behind with Japanese personnel assuming responsibility for timetables by thelate-1880s.
In July 1889, when train services
started along the entire Tokaido line,
it took a little over 20 hours from
Shinbashi to Kobe by through train.
The scheduled speed was 30 km/h. In
October 1894, Sanyo Railways introduced Japan's first express service
stopping only at major stations. In
September 1896, the daytime express
between Shinbashi and Kobe on theTokaido line took 17 hours and 22 minutes to Kobe and 17 hours and 9 minutes from Kobe. In January 1903, thetime was reduced to 15 hours, and thescheduled speed reached 40.4 km/h.
The time fell further to 13 hours and40 minutes in April 1906 when a lightweight express train consisting of four
first- and second-class carriages wasintroduced. The scheduled speed wasalso boosted to 44.3 km/h. Express
passengers were required to pay express charges in addition to the normal fare. The train was called a "superexpress" to distinguish it from otherexpress trains. After Sanyo Railways
was nationalised in December 1906,the section of the Tokaido line coveredby the express train was extended, andShinbashi and Shimonoseki, a port located at the westernmost end ofHonshu were directly connected inMarch 1907.
■Eiichl Aoki
After graduating from the Faculty of Science at Chiba University in 1957, Mr. Aoki received adoctorate in science from the Tokyo University of Education (now called Tsukuba University). After
serving at Tsuru City University and Tokyo Gakugei University as an assistant professor, he became aprofessor at Tokyo Gakugei University in 1978. He specialises in transportation geography and isalso a leading Japanese scholar of the history of railways and marine transportation.
Mr. Aoki is now president of the Japan Railway History Society. His publications include WorldHistory of Sea Power and Japanese Railway – Its Rise and Development.

Japan Railway & Transport Review / October 1994

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