Remnants of old British train operation and signal practices still remain on rural lines off the principal routes in the northern part of the main island of Japan. One is the Kosaka Railway, an industrial line operated by Dowa Mining Comapny’s Kosaka Refinery, and the other is the JR Hanawa line. On these lines, single-track traffic is governed by manual blocking systems that use tablet blocking instruments, which were copied after the Tyre’s system. The signals protecting the loops are antique down-quadrant 2-position semaphores, which are manually operated by wires alongside the track.

To dispatch a train to the next section, the station staff calls for blocking work to the next station using a blocking instrument, following the specified procedures by means of a bell code and telephone dedicatedly installed on the instrument. If the actions of the staff agree with the procedures, a token (tablet) is issued from the upstream instrument. The token is stored in a leather pouch attached to a hoop to be carried by the train. The station staff goes onto the platform with the hoop and hands it to the train driver, receiving the previous token. The station staff restores the received token in the blocking instrument to release the previous block. Note that a station with a loop is equipped with two separate blocking instruments for both directions, which release different tokens that can be distinguished by the notches on their sides.

The signals are independently operated by signal levers concentrated near the station building. The station staff manually reverses or restores the lever into position to clear or cancel the signal. The lever activates the semaphore by means of wires strung alongside the track. The switch points are manually thrown at the location, or spring points, which are more common at intermediate loops. If interlocking is required, the signal wire passes through a locking device placed adjacent to the points, securing a clear aspect with the direction of the points.

At the dawn of the railway age, Japan recieved financial and technical support from Great Britain. Because of this, Japanese signaling and operation were strongly influenced by British practices. Traffic was principally governed on both double-and single-track territory by manual blocking instruments from signal boxes located at each boundary between sections. Around the 1900s to 1920s, many signal engineers went abroad to study Western signal technology, mostly to the U.S. As a result, advanced American technology was actively introduced, and the majority of double-track lines had been resignaled by the 1940s with automatic blocking signals, first with 3-position upper-quadrant semaphores and then color light signals. Nevertheless, British manual blocking practice remained on single-track territory untill it was superseded from the 1960s to 1980s by automatic blocking systems associated with CTC systems, first on principal lines and then on branch lines. Now, these old signal practices have almost died out, wiht only a few remaining in service far away from urban areas.

The Kosaka Railway is a short industrial line that transports goods produced at its parent company’s Kosaka Refinery to JR Odate Station on the Ou Main Line. The line also used to operate passenger trains until four years ago, but now it operates freight trains only, carrying mostly sulfuric acid in tank cars. The trackage is about 30 km on a single track, with one loop, named Shigenai, between both ends. The subject of this page is Shigenai, which is protected by semaphores associated with the passing signal. Shigenai is now the only signaling site in Japan where an active passing semaphore signal is still in use and token exchange is carried out while the train is in motion.

The freight traffic on the Kosaka Railway is only two round trips a day. The first train leaves Kosaka in the morning being hauled by three center-cab diesel hydraulic locomotives, two of which are helpers attached to the front of the train, because of steep grading between Kosaka and Shigenai. The train stops at Shigenai to uncouple the helpers, which return to Kosaka, and goes to Odate with single engine. The train in return work departs Odate after about one hour, and goes back to Kosaka passing Shigenai. For this train, the passing signal is used to allow the train to go through the loop without stopping. The tokens are exchanged between the running train and the grand apparatus. The afternoon work is the same as in the morning, showing a show of a token exchange on the move.

The Hanawa Line, operated by JR East Co., connects Koma on the Tohoku Main Line and Odate on the Ou Line, running about 120 km from east to west and crossing over the Ou mountain range. The only traffic on the line is DMU passenger trains, and no freight trains are operated. The line still uses tablet blocking systems for the entire trackage, along with a number of semaphores on the western 80 km segment. Token exchange between the station staff and the train driver is still seen at each station along the line. The semaphores are hand operated from a signal lever frame located adjacent to the station building.

An automatic blocking system with a CTC system is under way for installation, and these old railway features will disappear from this line in 1999. The attached photos are a record of one of the last remaining intances of British signal practice in Japan.