Onoda Line

The line did not begin as a single railway but grew from two separate private undertakings. The older of the two was the Onoda Light Railway, which on 25 November 1915 opened a 2.9-mile line from Onoda to Cement Town (now Onoda-kō) to serve a cement works. The company was renamed the Onoda Railway on 25 June 1923. The second undertaking was the Ube Electric Railway, which on 16 May 1929 opened an electrified line — at 600 V — from Ube Port toward Shin-Okiyama, and on 21 January 1937 added the electrified branch from Sasashida to Honzan, also at 600 V.

Wartime nationalisation brought the two ventures under state control. The Ube Electric Railway was first absorbed by the Ube Railway in 1941; the Onoda Railway was then nationalised on 1 April 1943 to become the Onoda Line, and the Ube Railway followed on 1 May 1943, its lines becoming the Ube West Line. In 1947 a new section from Onoda Port to Sasashida joined the two halves together, after which the old Shin-Okiyama station was closed and the network was reorganised; in February 1948 the combined route was renamed the Onoda Line.

The line was then electrified to a uniform standard. On 1 March 1950 the overhead voltage on the formerly Ube-Electric portion was raised to 1,500 V, and on 10 August 1950 the remaining Onoda Port–Onoda section was electrified, completing electrification of the entire line at 1,500 V DC. Centralised traffic control (CTC) was commissioned in 1983, and the line's freight services ceased in 1986.

Like all of Japan's national railways, the Onoda Line passed from Japanese National Railways (JNR) to the newly created West Japan Railway Company (JR West) on 1 April 1987 when JNR was privatised. Driver-only ('one-man') operation began on the Sasashida–Nagato-Motoyama branch on 11 March 1989, using the veteran KuMoHa 42 railcars, and was extended to the Inō–Onoda main line on 1 June 1990 using 105 series electric multiple units.

The branch line's KuMoHa 42 became a celebrated piece of living heritage. A prewar design of the old national-railway type, by the 1990s it was the last such car still in revenue passenger service in Japan, shuttling along the quiet single-track branch to Nagato-Motoyama and drawing rail enthusiasts from across the country. From 1993 the line's regular fleet was increasingly the KuMoHa 123 single-railcar transferred from the Kabe Line, and KuMoHa 42 operation on the Sasashida–Nagato-Motoyama branch finally ended on 14 March 2003; the last surviving car was replaced the following day by a KuMoHa 123 transferred from the Uno Line. Today the Onoda Line survives as a lightly used local route, with JR West disclosing in 2022 that its traffic density had fallen below 2,000 passengers per day.

• 191525 November: the Onoda Light Railway opens its first section, Onoda–Cement Town (2.9 miles), to serve a cement works.
• 192325 June: the Onoda Light Railway is renamed the Onoda Railway.
• 192916 May: the Ube Electric Railway opens its Ube Port–Shin-Okiyama line, electrified at 600 V.
• 193721 January: the Sasashida–Honzan (Motoyama) branch opens, also electrified at 600 V.
• 19431 April: the Onoda Railway is nationalised, becoming the Onoda Line; the Ube Railway is nationalised on 1 May as the Ube West Line.
• 19471 October: the Onoda Port–Sasashida section opens, connecting the two halves; Shin-Okiyama station is closed and the line merged into the Ube West Line.
• 19481 February: the combined Ube West Line is renamed the Onoda Line.
• 19501 March: overhead voltage on the former Ube-Electric portion is raised to 1,500 V; on 10 August the Onoda Port–Onoda section is electrified, completing electrification of the whole line at 1,500 V DC.
• 19838 March: centralised traffic control (CTC) is commissioned on the line.
• 1986Freight services on the line cease.
• 19871 April: on the privatisation of Japanese National Railways, the line is transferred to the West Japan Railway Company (JR West).
• 198911 March: driver-only ('one-man') operation begins on the Sasashida–Nagato-Motoyama branch, worked by the veteran KuMoHa 42 railcars.
• 19901 June: driver-only operation is extended to the Inō–Onoda main line using 105 series EMUs.
• 200314 March: KuMoHa 42 operation on the Sasashida–Nagato-Motoyama branch ends; the last car is replaced the next day by a KuMoHa 123 transferred from the Uno Line. (Kabe Line KuMoHa 123 had been the regular fleet since 1993.)
• 202211 April: JR West discloses that the line's traffic density has fallen below 2,000 passengers per day.