History
Yokokawa Station opened on 15 October 1885 as the terminus of the Government Railways line from Takasaki. With the inauguration of the Usui Pass section on 1 April 1893 — initially worked on the Abt rack-rail system — it became an intermediate station on what was renamed the Shin'etsu Line in 1909 and the Shin'etsu Main Line in 1914. Through the pass, the EF63 banker locomotives handled gradients of 66.7‰, JNR's steepest. When the Hokuriku Shinkansen Takasaki–Nagano opened on 1 October 1997 the Yokokawa–Karuizawa section was closed and the station returned to terminus status. Suica service began on 14 March 2009.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
The former depot for the Usui Pass banker locomotives is now the Usui Pass Railway Heritage Park, which preserves and displays the EF63 class engines that once propelled every Shin'etsu Line train over the 66.7‰ grade.