History
Shimmachi Station opened on 27 December 1883 with the Nippon Railway's extension from Honjō, making it the first railway station to open in Gunma Prefecture — and indeed in the whole of northern Kantō (Gunma, Tochigi and Ibaraki). It is the only station in Gunma on JR lines that lies within 100 km of Tokyo Station, at 64.2 km along the Takasaki Line from Ōmiya. Nippon Railway was nationalised on 1 November 1906, and JNR's 1987 privatisation transferred the station to JR East with freight operations under JR Freight. The original 2-platform, 3-track layout was rationalised: platform 2 (the inner island face) is now fenced off and unused.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
On 8 December 1939 a goods train shunting in the yard collided with the southbound Ueno–Niigata semi-express; both locomotives and five carriages derailed, killing one and injuring thirteen.