Port of Chiba

Just in case you thought that all trains in Japan travel at 300 km.p.h. here's something a bit different.

In the 1960's there were huge landfill schemes in progress around the shores of Tokyo Bay and on the esat side nearly eighty square kilometres of new land were created along the Chiba Prefecture shore. Nearer Tokyo a lot of this land went for housing and commerce with new centres like Makuhari and Inage Kaigan. But down here to the south of Chiba and in Ichihara the development was industrial - steel works, oil refineries and the like.

This big new industrial area and a container terminal are linked to the rest of the Japanese rail system by a three mile branch line from the JR Uchibo Line at Soga.

You would have to really search to find this track as it weaves behind some new housing estates and under the coast highway but I did aome fieldwork in the area during the winter. Here's photo that I took of one of the Port Authority Bo-Bo's back in snowy January ...

- Iain