After returning from my trip to Miyazaki Prefecture, I visited Niigata Prefecture. It was a family time, so, I was temporally shelving my trainspotting activities, but actually, I was drawn in by a retro climbing car on Mt. Yahiko.
Let me review Mt. Yahiko to start. It’s a sheer mountain with a great view in Niigata Prefecture, some 300 kilometers north of Tokyo. The summit rises 634 meters out of the sea. The easiest way to get to the summit is to use a gondola called “Yahiko-yama Ropeway”. I used it eleven years ago for the first time. Please review my previous post.
So, what’s new with this post? To tell the truth, “Sancho (summit) station” of the gondola is not located at the summit of Mt. Yahiko. We can climb up to a higher spot by a climbing car. Please look at the top photo. You can see a retro vehicle, “Yahiko-yama Climbing Car”, on the mountain. Yahiko-yama Climbing Car was constructed in 1970 by Yahiko-yama Ropeway Company. It’s neither a funicular or a monorail. It’s an inclined elevator. Connecting the parking lot and the mountain park, its route length is 62.4 meters. The inclination is 50 degrees. The vehicle can accommodate 30 passengers. It's operated with a speed of 0.75 meters per second, so it takes about one minute to the mountain park.
Next, please look at the photo below. Aren’t you wondering about the camera angle? The camera seems to be located above the climbing car. Is there any higher place? To be continued…
