Nose Electric Railway

Nose Electric Railway logo

The Nose Electric Railway Co., Ltd. (能勢電鉄株式会社, Nose (pronounced No-say) Dentetsu) , occasionally abbreviated as Nose Railway or Noseden (能勢電), is a Japanese private railway company headquartered in Kawanishi, Hyogo, which links several areas in the mountainous Nose, Osaka, area to Kawanishi-noseguchi Station in Kawanishi, where one can transfer to Hankyu Takarazuka Line to Osaka.

Nose Railway is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hankyu Railway. A rush-hour special express train, the Nissei Limited Express, operates from Nissei-chuo Station to Umeda Station, the terminal of Hankyu in Osaka, in the morning and back again in the evening for commuters.

Nose Railway uses second-hand EMUs of Hankyu. Nose Railway's series 1500, 1700 and 3100 cars are originally Hankyu 2100, 2000 and 3100 series respectively. The trains operate on 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 ¹⁄₂ in) track.

Lines and stations

Nose Railway lines in red, with Hankyu Railway network

Nose Railway has two lines:

• Myōken Line (Kawanishi-noseguchi - Myōkenguchi)
• Nissei Line (Yamashita - Nissei-chuo)

The former is the main route and the latter branches off at Yamashita Station.

In addition to the railway, Nose Railway operates a funicular (Myoken Cable) and a chairlift (Myoken Lift).

History

The Kawanishi-noseguchi - Ichinotorii section opened in 1913, electrified at 600 VDC. Due to the cost of construction, the company experienced financial difficulty and it was not until the Hankyu Railway Co. made an equity injection that the extension to Myōkenguchi was able to be opened in 1923.

The line originally featured 52 curves of less than 100m radius, and as the patronage increased due to the growth of Greater Osaka after 1945, the line has been progressively upgraded, including the duplication of the Kawanishi-noseguchi - Hirano section between 1967 and 1969, extended to Yamashita in 1977 in conjunction with the opening of the Nissei line (as dual track) the following year. The line voltage was increased to 1500 VDC in 1995.

Former connecting lines

A 700m line connected Kawanishi-noseguchi to Kawanishi Ikeda on the Fukuchiyama Line between 1917 and 1981.

Proposed connecting line

A proposal to extend the line from Kawanishi-noseguchi to the Hankyu Itami Line was first raised in 1922, and reconsidered in 1956 before being abandoned in 1958.

Operations

• S: Trains stop; |, ↑: Trains pass; ↑: Only one direction
• Myōken Express (妙見急行, Myoken Kyūkō) trains are operated from Myōkenguchi to Kawanishi-noseguchi in the morning on weekdays and Saturdays
• Nissei Express (日生急行, Nissei Kyūkō) are operated from Nissei Chūō to Kawanishi-noseguchi in the morning on Saturdays
• Local (普通, Futsū) trains are operated all day every day
• Limited Express (特急日生エクスプレス, Tokkyū Nissei Express) trains run from Nissei Chūō to Umeda in the morning, and vice versa in the evening on weekdays.

No.	Station	Japanese	Distance (km)	Local	Myōken Express	Nissei Express	Limited Express	Connections	Location
Myoken Line
	Through section						Umeda (Hankyu)
NS01	Kawanishi-noseguchi	川西能勢口	0.0	S	S	S	S	Hankyu Takarazuka Line	Kawanishi	Hyōgo Prefecture
NS02	Kinunobebashi	絹延橋	1.2	S	↑	↑	|
NS03	Takiyama	滝山	2.1	S	↑	↑	|
NS04	Uguisunomori	鶯の森	2.7	S	↑	↑	|
NS05	Tsuzumigataki	鼓滝	3.5	S	↑	↑	|
NS06	Tada	多田	4.2	S	↑	↑	|
NS07	Hirano	平野	5.2	S	S	S	S
NS08	Ichinotorii	一の鳥居	6.4	S	S	↑	|
NS09	Uneno	畦野	7.1	S	S	S	S
NS10	Yamashita	山下	8.2	S	S	S	S	Nissei Line
NS11	Sasabe	笹部	8.6	S	S	Nissei Line	Nissei Line
NS12	Kōfūdai	光風台	10.3	S	S				Toyono, Toyono District	Osaka Prefecture
NS13	Tokiwadai	ときわ台	11.2	S	S
NS14	Myōkenguchi	妙見口	12.2	S	S			Myoken Cable
Nissei Line
NS21	Nissei-chuo	日生中央	2.6 (from Yamashita)	S		S	S		Inagawa, Kawabe District	Hyōgo Prefecture

Myoken Cable and Myoken Lift

Station	Japanese	Connections	Location
Myoken Cable
Kurokawa	黒川	Myoken Line via walk	Kawanishi, Hyōgo
Cable Sanjō	ケーブル山上	Myoken Lift via walk
Myōken Lift
Myōken-no-mizu Hiroba-mae	妙見の水広場前	Myoken Cable via walk	Kawanishi, Hyōgo
Myōkensan	妙見山

Rolling stock

• NoseRailway3170F.jpg

  Nose Electric Railway 3100 series train

• NoseRailway 1757.jpg

  Nose Electric Railway 1700 series train

• Noseden5136.jpg

  Nose Electric Railway 5100 series train

• Noseden 6000 umeda.JPG

  Nose Electric Railway 6000 series train

• Hankyu series 8000 at noseden.jpg

  Hankyu 8000 series on a Limited Express service

See also

• List of railway lines in Japan

References

This article incorporates material from the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia