On 23rd, I went listening to a lecture by Taku Kitamura, a teacher at Tokyo Metropolitan Mitaka Junior High and High School, and who wrote several essays on "Railway Pictrial", at Shakujii-koen Furusato Museum in Nerima-ku, Tokyo, to celebrate 100th anniversary of Seibu Ikebukuro Line.
The lecture mainly featured the complex history of Seibu Railway, the difference between Seibu Ikebukuro Line and Shinjuku Line, the development of the residential area by Seibu Railway and Hakone Resorts Ltd. established by Tsutsumi, and Seibu Railway in the present.
His address first picked up the history of the formation of Seibu Railway, which was created by the merger of Musashino Railway (Ikebukuro Line in the present), former Seibu Railway, which had been first named Kawagoe Railway (Kokubunji Line and Shinjuku Line), Tamako Railway, affiliating company of Musashino Railway (Tamako Line), and Tama Railway (Tamagawa Line).
What I attracted in the lecture
Kawagoe Railway (Kokubunji Line and Shinjuku Line between Higashi-murayama and Hon-kawagoe) used to go through Kobu Railway (JR Chuo Line) to Tokyo Metropolitan area until the nationalization of Kobu.
Musashino Railway (Ikebukuro Line) was first planned and opened to revitalize Hanno City to carry goods to where Yamanote Line connected directly to confront Kawagoe Railway, which made merchandising in Tokorozawa City had risen.
As the result of the upper two, at Tokorozawa Station, shared by both Kawagoe and Musashino but managed by Kawagoe Railway or former Seibu Railway, a station staff told the way to Ikebukuro via Shinjuku Line and JR Yamanote Line to keep passengers from switching to Ikebukuro Line, which had Musashino Railway's staffs in trouble.
The difference of the passengers' tendency of Ikebukuro Line and Shinjuku Line was the number of the stations; at first those on Ikebukuro Line were built only at the centre of each town, which were gathered many passengers, because steam locomotive train's slow acceleration, but those on Shinjuku Line, especially between Tokorozawa and Takadanobaba, originally opened as a electrified railway, were at short intervals, the more stations might make the more passengers to be useful for commuting.
The major shareholder of former Seibu Railway was Kaichiro Nezu, who also be known as the first president to create the growth of Tobu Railway, and Keio Corporation used to invest some money. In addition, Nezu also invest in Musashino Railway and Tobu's related company send electricity to trains on Musashino Railway.
Ikebukuro Line between Hanno and Agano was built by force of Asano Cement Company to carry lime-stone mined in Agano, which made terrible financial trouble. Musashino Railway recovered from slumping business by a support of Yasujiro Tsutsumi.
Oizumi-gakuen Station was built and doneted by Hakone Resorts Ltd. in 1924 and it was the first relation between Musashino Railway and Tsutsumi. Tsutsumi first planned to make Hitotsubashi University moved there, but the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 turned the plan got cancelled and moved to Kodaira and Kunitachi. At first, because the sales of the newly-built houses in Oizumi-gakuen wouldn't grow, Musashino Railway presented the persons who bought them the three-year discount ticket between Oizumi-gakuen and Ikebukuro. Kunitachi Station on JR Chuo Line was also built in the same way.
It was a good opportunity to hear the story of a railway history. I would like to join the same kind of lecture again.