Former Watauchi Station Building
It has been 13 years since the Yashiro Line of Nagano Electric Railway was discontinued.
The original plan was to keep the station buildings at Watauchi, Shinano-kawada, and Matsushiro stations and utilize them.
In the previous articles, I wrote about Matsushiro and Shinano-kawada stations, so this time I will write about Watauchi station.
The station building will be demolished around 2020 and will no longer remain.
There is an explanatory board at the bus waiting area that reads, “The site of Watauchi Station".
Transcribe the explanation.
“The 24.4-km Kato Line between Yashiro and Suzaka was opened in 1922 by Kato Railway Company (now Nagano Electric Railway). The main purpose of the railroad at that time was to transport raw silk from Suzaka to Yokohama via Yashiro Station for export. After the World War II, fruit cultivation flourished and logistics were active, but from the 1965-1970s, the spread of automobiles led to a decline in rail transportation, and finally, the Yashiro Line (renamed in 2002), which had become difficult to maintain in operation, was discontinued on April 1, 2012, and Watauchi Station also closed."
After the line was closed, the station building was used as a waiting area for buses.
However, due to aging and security reasons, it was demolished in 2020.
A farewell event was held at the end of September 2020.
The area where the station used to be is now called “Watauchi Central Square". There is a pavilion and benches, but the rest is a gravel plaza.
The plaza is managed by the local “Watauchi Machizukuri Executive Committee". It is said that they leases the plaza from the city of Nagano to operate it.
Actually, I have photos taken in early November 2020, just before the demolition.
This is the Watauchi station building. While it was in operation, there was a large signboard above the eaves of the entrance that read “Watauchi Station".
The entrance door and windows had aluminum sashes.
Inside the waiting room. There is a built-in bench.
The ceiling of the waiting room.
We are now on the platform side.
Station building and platform. Toilets in front of the station building.
The platform and station building seen from the track side.
The side of the station building was a garbage dump.
The locals seemed uncomfortable with it, when I was taking pictures, a woman advised(?) me to “take pictures of these places, not just the nice ones".
That was a mixture of old trash and recent ones. For example, the door before it was replaced by a sash, a TV antenna, a bicycle saddle, and so on, even garbage from convenience store lunches and other items were left in plastic bags.
Perhaps she was just teasing me, but I think there was also some criticism that said, “They don’t even use the station properly on a daily basis, so don’t just say nice things when they’re talking about preserving the station."
If it was left in such a state and there were even “security concerns,” I’m sure some people in the community would want it demolished.
The station building is similar to Shinano-kawada Station.
The building used to be located in this area, but the platform has been demolished and is now connected to the plaza by a downhill slope. The gravel area on the right is where the tracks originally stood.
A bicycle and pedestrian path has been maintained for about 1.5 km from a little south of the former Watauchi Station to the former Wakaho Station. Apparently it is also used as a school route.
The last photo was taken where Wakaho Station used to be.
Wakaho Station has been demolished and no longer exists. The roof and benches on the right seem to the point where the station building had been.
