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Location / Name:
Isesaki City, Gunma Prefecture
What's Here:
TWO small gauge railroads, 5 inch and 24"?
Data:
GPS Coordinates: 36.33945, 139.15025
Phone A/C: --
ZIP: --
Access by train/transit:
None
Geography:
Flat
The Scoop:
Any of you who are on FACEBOOK may have seen the short videos posted by the chap that owns this short line in Japan.
I have to believe the owner of this railroad is a railfan, and he has spared no expense in stuffing as much railroadiana on this property as he could! Bar none.
Signals, signs, crossing gates.... you name it!
By the way, if you come here by train, there is a Toyota Car Rental agency next to the Isesaki station.
Here is the heading for the first link below:
Google translate gives us for the above heading on his Facebook page:
-- 5 inch gauge railway
--This website primarily features scenes from the construction of the 5-inch gauge railway lines.
-- We are responsible for the construction and maintenance of the Yamada Light Railway Farm Line, as well as the operation of dedicated freight trains for farmland transport.
-- 5-inch (127mm) - Yamada High Speed Railway
-- Yamada Line Narrow Gauge (610mm) - Yamada Light Railway Farm Line
I would love to see more pictures of his 5" gauge railroad, especially if he has an operating double-slip switch! The little inset picture looks like it is a piece of MOW equipment, again, if he built this, it's impressive! Too bad he can't run a catenary system over the 5" gauge track, huh?
Here is a picture of the guys shop area:
Below is a Google Maps picture of the end of the 24" line at the street, it is from 2025. In one of the videos, it shows that the end of the line is finished.
The larger of the two lines looks like it probably uses a former mining battery powered locomotive, 24" gauge.
The caption in one of the videos mentions that the two track gauges are 127mm (5") and 610mm (24").
Using Google Maps to measure the length of his track, I get about 240ft (73m).
The smaller track is widely advertised as 5 inch gauge, and most search results will make note of this track instead of the larger 24" line. In looking at the two maps from Open Street Map and Open Railway Map, it looks like the 5" gauge track makes a circle around a building. I have yet to see pictures of his 5" equipment, maybe he is still working on that.
When doing a search for information, you will invariably get results for the JR EAST YAMADA LINE. It's not the same thing.
Acknowledgements:
Google Maps
Open Railway Map
Open Street Map
Wikipedia
Websites and other additional information sources of interest for this railroad:
https://www.facebook.com/5inchgauge/reels/ Details of the construction of the railroad
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1001593502807002 FB video, shows off his remote control of the crossing gate and large scale loco
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1156316799979492 starts off with pictures of his signals
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iKHfQZ14 video of the large scale ride almost to the end
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZZrdMU9T5g same video as the first one on FB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMYHHlZ4R9I operations on the large scale train
https://www.facebook.com/reel/4439084973038776 large scale operations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTzNLNtDU1Q repeat of FB video #2
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1285435197037773 shows the dual gauge switch operation, and planting the pumpkins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkpXqjfN_E4 more farming operations and crossing the 5" gauge track
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1013733664621634 pumpkin harvesting :-)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamada_Line_(JR_East)
https://www.facebook.com/reel/885998297896243 Shot from inside the engine house, shows a second engine, more signals, and a fall harvest
Good luck, you're on your own :-)
There are no railroad stations close, depending on what you call close.....
The KOMAGATA station is about 1.2mi to the northwest
The ISESAKI station is about 2.5mi to the southeast
If you're driving from Tokyo, E17 brings you "up" from there, but it does not start in Tokyo.
Here is where you want to get off the E50, and remember, they drive on the "left" side.
These all come from the Facebook videos.....
Detail Pictures
All of these are screen grabs from the videos
The Train
Signals
24" / 610mm Track
5" / 127mm Track
In looking at his videos, he appears to have a fairly well stocked metal work shop - nice welds!
There aren't a whole lot of pictures of his 5" gauge track floating around, so I don't know if the rest of the loop is done using the rails welded to the flat stock or not, but if it is on asphalt, it makes sense. In the picture of him removing a bolt, is a track joiner he came up with, that only requires the one bolt to join adjacent sections. Since everything is welded, it shouldn't be a problem maintaining gauge - very clever! We also see below an early version of his 5/24 diamond, before he mechanized it - that would work until the flange of the large gauge equipment went rolling over the 5" rail. :-).
Signs
More info comes from these Google searches, the last one is how I was able to finally locate it's exact location, I love the way AI can not tell that this miniature railroad isn't really meandering thru the Japanese countryside with its -charming rural landscapes- :-) :-):
Nearby on the JNR:
GPS Coordinates: 36.33317, 139.17964
Not too far away from the Yamada Light Railway Farm Line is the JNR Ryomo line with two stations.
The closest of the two is the Komagata Station, a little over a mile to the northwest.
The Isesaki Station, about two and a half miles southeast, is a larger station, and not only serves the JNR's Ryomo Line, but Tobu's Isesaki Line. Tobu is one of Japan's largest private railroad companies.
The equipment I have below appears to be on a small MOW siding less than two miles away from the Yamada Light Railway Farm Line, so if you are visiting, it might be worthwhile making the effort to go by there and see what they have sitting around. The aerial shot of the siding shows different equipment than the Streetview cameras saw.
Typical grade crossing on the JNR, this one is just to the west of the Komagata Station. Wish the signals were on the other side of the street :-(
The second grade crossing is a little further south. Why did I include these pix? I dunno, I found their grade crossings interesting because they are different than ours! :-)
I know it's a stretch, but I saw this "Lego" model of a small Asian locomotive on Ali Express, and noticed a similarity between the JNR and the model.
If you're into the Lego world, I have a whole section on building blocks here.
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