History
Nunohara opened on 10 October 1936 as a signal stop on the Ministry of Railways' Hakubi Line between Niimi and Bitchū-Kōjiro. From roughly 1953 it began handling passengers in a quasi-stop arrangement, with only selected trains calling. At the 1 April 1987 breakup of JNR the signal box was formally elevated to full station status and the location passed to JR West. Nominally on the Hakubi Line, the station is in practice served only by Geibi Line through services; Hakubi Line trains that do stop only do so for crossings, with no passenger boarding or alighting. The two staggered side platforms reflect the original signal-box layout, and the platforms hold only one car in length; no station building remains.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-05-18.
Notes
When steam was still operating on the Hakubi Line, Nunohara — then still a signal stop — was a noted photography spot for the famous Hakubi Line triple-header freight trains hauled by three D51 locomotives, which ran until 1972.