“Good-bye to the Hitachi Dentetsu Line”

  On March 31, 2005, the Hitachi Dentetsu line ended its transportation service, thus bringing to a close its 77 years history. The Hitachi Dentetsu line, which was originally founded when the Johoku Electric Rail Road company first opened the line between Omika and Kuji (present Kujihama) in July 1928. It then extended the line from Kuji to Johoku-ota in July 1929 and finally from Omika to Ayukawa in March 1944, to create a line 18.1km in length. In July 1944, the company under the influence of Hitachi Ltd. changed its name to “Hitachi Dentetsu”, continuing its rail service for more than seventy years, after that it has had to close down through competition from automobile transport.
  The Hitachi dentetsu line helped us so much to go to the office, school, shopping and sightseeing etc. in the Hitachi-Hitachi-Ota, region of Ibaraki. In 1991 Hitachi Dentetsu line first introduced one-man operated trains and recently had the unique idea of running a beer hall train “Donden-go” from May 1998. Furthermore, in May 1995 the old type carriages were replaced by those based on the Ginza line and Tozai line carriages of the Eidan subway (present Tokyo Metro). This pleased rail enthusiasts immensely.
  A couple of days before the final date of service, I took the train from Omika to Johoku-Ota. The train was crowded with many passengers and the carriage seemed to be saying “Wow! I feel heavy today for a change! The train started off slowly with a ”Heigh-ho!” like bell. Several comments were heard from the passengers such as: “Oh, we’ll miss the train.” or “It’s going to be so inconvenient for school without the train.” Then I felt sad that the line was to be ended. Though the journey only took 20 minutes, the train creaked as if it were gasping. As I got off, I called out to the train, “Thanks for all your hard work over the years!”.
  The train may not run now, but the memory of the Hitachi Dentetsu line will not easily be forgotten.
“Thank you very much, Chin-den! and Good-bye, Hitachi Dentetsu line!”.