Kumagawa Railway Yunomae Station Building

The Line's Only Pre-War Station Building

The Kumagawa Railway Yunomae Station Building (くま川鉄道湯前駅本屋, Yunomae-eki Hon'ya) is a timber station building in Kamimakihara, Yunomae Town, Kuma District, Kumamoto Prefecture, built in 1924 and registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 19 December 2014. It went up in the year the Yunomae Line opened and was altered in 1928 and 1967. Hon'ya is railway shorthand for the main building of a station.

It is the terminus of the Kumagawa Railway, about 500 metres east of the Takahashigawa Bridge. The Agency for Cultural Affairs describes it as the only station building on the line that keeps its pre-war appearance.

A Carriage Porch and a Block-Signal Room

The Kumagawa Railway Yunomae Station Building is a single-storey gabled structure 10 and a half bays long and 2 and a half bays deep, with a tiled roof and a building area of 127 square metres. The walls are clad in overlapping horizontal weatherboards. A carriage porch one bay wide projects at the front, and a block-signal room projects at the back.

The block-signal room is where staff worked the block system, the procedure that allows only one train into a section of single track at a time. At a single-line terminus it was the heart of safe operation. Porch for passengers at the front, signal room for the railway at the back: the building's two jobs are written into its outline.

Inside, the joinery of the ticket window survives well, its frame and counter still showing how the station worked in the Taisho era. The building was registered as a structure that contributes to the historic landscape of the country.

Front, Back and the Ticket Window

Start in the station forecourt. Beneath the tiled roof, the weatherboarded wall runs long and low, with the porch jutting out at its centre. Then walk round to the platform side to see the compact mass of the signal room. Reading the two projections together tells you how the building functioned.

In the waiting room, look for the old ticket window. Next to the station stands Yunomae Rail Wing, an arched symbol tower and timber-decked plaza completed in 1990, so a Taisho timber station and a Heisei structure share the scene at the end of the line.

Visiting

The Kumagawa Railway Yunomae Station Building is still in use, and arriving by train is the easiest way to see it. The adult fare from Hitoyoshi Onsen is 700 yen, and the journey takes around 45 minutes. The ticket counter opens on planned weekends and holidays; the ticket machine can be used while trains are running. There is no toilet in the building, but the adjoining local products hall has one. Bicycle and car parking are available.

The waiting room is for passengers, so look around without getting in the way of people waiting for trains. The Takahashigawa Bridge, about 500 metres to the west, makes a short walk from the station.