Mojikō Retro Scenic Line

The corridor began life as a freight railway. On 13 February 1929 the Moji Chikkō company (門司築港, renamed Moji-chiku Tochi Tetsudō in December 1943) opened a 1.5-kilometre line from Moji — today's Mojikō — to Monchiku-Ōkubo. On 1 April 1930 Sotohama Station opened, and the Moji–Sotohama section became a freight branch of the government railways' Kagoshima Main Line. In 1960 the Moji-chiku Tochi Tetsudō line was abolished and, together with sidings as far as Tanoura, was reorganised as the municipally run Tanoura Public Rinkai Railway.

With the 1987 break-up and privatisation of Japanese National Railways, the Mojikō–Sotohama section passed to JR Freight. The administration of the line then became tangled: when the Railway Business Act took effect, Kitakyushu City should have obtained a Category-3 licence for the Tanoura line but overlooked it, and the omission — compounded by JR Freight and the Kyushu Transport Bureau also failing to act — left the railway operating without a proper licence, a lapse exposed in 1997. The matter was finally regularised on 27 May 1999, when the Tanoura line was reauthorised as a siding of Sotohama Station.

The waterfront the line crosses had meanwhile been transformed. In 1988 Kitakyushu City launched the first phase of its Mojikō Retro redevelopment, turning the historic port district around the old Moji Station into a tourist quarter. From 1991 the city began studying the idea of running a sightseeing train for the visitors the area was drawing, and that study set the stage for reusing the freight alignment once its commercial traffic ended.

Freight operations over the line ceased on 25 March 2004, and the whole route was formally suspended on 1 October 2005. Before any permanent service began, the city ran a series of trial trolley-train events along the tracks. The first, over several days in spring 2006, used cars borrowed from the autumn "Torokko Festa" held near the former Kumagahata Station on the old Kamiyamada Line and ran a train named "Shiokaze"; further trial events followed in 2007 and 2008, by which time Heisei Chikuhō Railway rolling stock also took part.

The revival was put on a formal footing in 2008. Heisei Chikuhō Railway and Kitakyushu City applied to the Kyushu Transport Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism for a railway-business licence on 13 March 2008, and the licence was granted on 4 June 2008; the JR Freight section between Mojikō and Sotohama was formally abolished on 5 September 2008. On 30 January 2009 the line's nickname was fixed as the "Yamagin Retro Line" — after a naming-rights deal with the Yamaguchi Bank — and the official names of its four stations were settled.

The Mojikō Retro Scenic Line opened between Kyushu Railway History Museum and Kanmonkaikyō Mekari on 26 April 2009. It was quickly recognised, receiving a special award in the 8th "Japan Railway Awards" on 14 October 2009, and it carried its 200,000th passenger on 21 November that year. Service was increased to 14 round trips a day from 13 March 2010. On 3 November 2011 the line's nickname changed from "Yamagin Retro Line" to the "Kitakyushu Bank Retro Line" after the naming sponsor was reorganised, and from 16 March 2013 the timetable settled at eleven round trips a day.

Today the line runs as a seasonal and weekend tourist attraction, operating chiefly on weekends and holidays at roughly 40-minute intervals. Its worst disruption came on 6 July 2018, when the heavy rain of the July 2018 floods washed soil onto the track and forced a suspension; service resumed on 21 July 2018. The Shiokaze remains the only train on this isolated little line, trundling along the Kanmon Strait between the museum quarter of Mojikō and Mekari Park at the strait's narrowest point.

• 192913 February: the Moji Chikkō company opens a 1.5 km freight line from Moji (now Mojikō) to Monchiku-Ōkubo.
• 19301 April: Sotohama Station opens; the Moji–Sotohama section becomes a freight branch of the JNR Kagoshima Main Line.
• 196015 April: the Moji-chiku Tochi Tetsudō line is abolished and reorganised, with sidings to Tanoura, as the municipal Tanoura Public Rinkai Railway.
• 19871 April: with the privatisation of Japanese National Railways, the Mojikō–Sotohama section passes to JR Freight.
• 1988Kitakyushu City launches the first phase of the Mojikō Retro waterfront redevelopment.
• 199927 May: the Tanoura Public Rinkai Railway is reauthorised as a siding of Sotohama Station, resolving a years-long unlicensed-operation problem exposed in 1997.
• 200425 March: freight operations over the line cease.
• 20051 October: the whole line is formally suspended.
• 2006Spring: Kitakyushu City runs the first trial trolley-train event on the tracks, using 'Torokko Festa' cars from the former Kamiyamada Line and a train named 'Shiokaze'.
• 200813 March: Heisei Chikuhō Railway and Kitakyushu City apply to the MLIT Kyushu Transport Bureau for a railway-business licence.
• 20084 June: the Kyushu Transport Bureau issues the licence; the JR Freight Mojikō–Sotohama section is formally abolished on 5 September 2008.
• 200930 January: the line's nickname is set as the 'Yamagin Retro Line' under a naming-rights deal with the Yamaguchi Bank, and the four station names are settled.
• 200926 April: the Mojikō Retro Scenic Line opens between Kyushu Railway History Museum and Kanmonkaikyō Mekari; it passes its 200,000th passenger on 21 November.
• 20113 November: the line's nickname changes from 'Yamagin Retro Line' to the 'Kitakyushu Bank Retro Line'.
• 20186 July: the July 2018 floods wash soil onto the track and force a suspension; service resumes on 21 July 2018.