Only a few years after trains first starting running in Japan back in the late 1800’s, and when it still took about 12 hours to travel from Tokyo to Osaka, the Ikoma Cable Railway was established in 1918 in the Kansai area. It is the oldest cable car company in Japan and is run by Kintetsu. The lines official name is Ikoma Cable Line (生駒鋼索線).

Original picture source: flickr, dugspr, modified (cropped) under Creative Commons License.

It is great to see that this historical line is still in operation today and that the rail cars have been upgraded to give tourists an even more entertaining experience. The trains certainly create quite a bit of attention and are a perfect tourist attraction for the area to complement the local theme park.

Hōzanji Line 1 used classical 1928 cars until 2000, when they were replaced to the current fancy-decorated cars. Since then, dog-faced “Bull” and cat-faced “Mike” serve the line, both officially being Type Ko 11. Sanjō Line uses organ-like “Do-Re-Mi”, cake-decorated “Sweet”, both officially Type Ko 15. Hōzanji Line 2 uses ordinary-shaped Type Ko 3 cars, nicknamed “Yume-Ikoma”. Source: wikipedia, kintetsu ikoma cable line

Original picture source: flickr, dugspr, modified (cropped) under Creative Commons License.

The video here is quite shaky, but it is really funny to hear the meow, meow and woof woof sounds when the dog train passes the cat train.



If you are planning a trip, you might want to look at this map to view the area.

Share this: Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

