Wakasa Railway Hosomi River Bridge

Wrought Iron on a Small Tributary

Wakasa Railway Hosomi River Bridge (若桜鉄道細見川橋梁, Hosomi-gawa) is a 39-metre, three-span wrought-iron girder bridge over the lowest reach of the Hosomi River, a tributary of the Hattō, at Tomieda in Yazu Town, Tottori Prefecture; its mid-Meiji girders were modified and moved here in 1930, and it was registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on 8 July 2008.

It stands 375 metres west of Hatto River Bridge No. 3, between Tampi and Wakasa stations, and carries the track on top of its girders as a deck bridge.

It is the only bridge on the line whose girders are wrought iron rather than steel. Wrought iron was the structural metal of choice before cheap steel took over, and on Japanese railways it belongs to the Meiji generation of bridges.

Why It Was Registered: Japan's First Standard Girder

It was registered as a structure that would be difficult to reproduce. The girders are of the type known in Japan as Sakuren-shiki. According to the railway, this was the country's first standardised plate-girder design, drawn up by British engineers between 1885 and 1889, and the Hosomi girders are clearly a set that was cut down and adapted for reuse on the Wakasa Line.

Maker's plates are said to show the modification was done at a Ministry of Railways works under the Nagoya Railway Bureau. Girders produced for the government railways of the Meiji era were trimmed nearly half a century later and put back to work on a branch line in the San'in region. The metal carries that early chapter of Japanese railway engineering with it, which is exactly why it cannot be replaced.

What to Look For

Along the sides of the girders on Wakasa Railway Hosomi River Bridge run stiffeners whose lower ends curl into a J. The Agency for Cultural Affairs treats these as the signature of the Sakuren-shiki design. On Iwabuchi River Bridge they alternate with straight stiffeners; here the J-shaped ones set the character.

Wrought iron can weather differently from steel. Look along the three spans for the joints and the places where the original girders were cut and shortened.

Visiting

The bridge is in service, and the deck and track are closed. Trains cross it between Tampi and Wakasa and reach Hatto River Bridge No. 3 a moment later. To study the stiffeners, view it from nearby roads or the streamside.

Keep well back from the rails and stay off farmland and private land. Travel to the line and tickets are covered on the Wakasa Railway page.