Some of you may be old enough to remember ‘In Search of the Lost Chord’ by the Moody Blues? Well, in October 2019, we travelled to Japan in search of the lost Miyanoura Forest Railway, one of reputedly four different 2’6″ cedar tramways located on the Island of Yakushima, several hours steaming off Kagoshima in Southern Japan.
Our only guide was a scant reference in the popular trekker’s ‘Yakumonkey Guide’ stating that a walk to one of the Island’s giant Cedars crossed the remains of a forest railway at the 600m mark. (2000′) Indeed it did. In fact, keen eyes in our party spotted remains of the railway crossing our steep ridge at several intervals during our climb suggesting the tramway followed the contours in an ‘omega’ or even zig-zag/switch-back pattern.
After locating the track-bed of the railway high above the Miyanoura River, we were astounded to find deep cuttings and stone bridges – an indication that Japanese engineers built this railway to last as long as the trees were old… It seems that after logs were cut, they were loaded onto four wheel skips and run downhill on fairly constant gradient using nothing more than a man astride the load with a rope block & tackle to apply a wooden brake shoe to the iron wheels!I’m guiding a series of small group, narrow gauge rail tours to Taiwan and Japan. Highlights of the Taiwan tour is a visit to the spectacular Alishan Forest Railway which climbs from sea level to 2.200m in just 75 kilometers and on special occasions, still operates a Shay geared locomotive!
Check out OzSteam.com for more information as well as tour departure dates.
AloJapan.com