397 Sendo to Okajoki [The Barge Driver and the Steam Train]

In 1889, the Chikuho Kogyo Tetsudo Railway Company was licensed to build a railway line between Wakamatsu and Iizuka as well as one between Nogata and Kanda (Kanada today). The railway service between Wakamatsu and Nogata started in 1891. In 1892, the Nogata-Kotake Line began service. In 1893, the Nogata-Kanada and Kotake-Iizuka Lines began service. The railway lines were extended to Usui, Shimoyamada, Futase, etc. by 1901.
The Kyushu Tetsudo Railway Company was licensed in 1888 and started their railway service between Moji and Takase in 1891.
The Hoshu Tetsudo Railway Company was licensed to build a railway line between Yukuhashi and Yokkaichi and one between Yukuhashi and Soeda via Kawara and Imato in 1889.
The company started their service between Yukuhashi and Ita in 1895.]

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In 1889, the Chikuho Kogyo Tetsudo Railway Company started their railway service between Wakamatsu and Nogata. The company started their service between Iizuka and Usui in 1895.
In April of 1897, the Kyushu Tetsudo Railway Company was licensed. The railway lines of the company reached Okuma in 1898, Kamiyamada, Tento, Nagao (Keisen) in 1901, and Yamano (for freight trains) in 1902. Their Tagawa Line and Ita Line were completed in 1903 and 1911 respectively.
In this way, railway lines extended their branches day by day. Lots of barge drivers who had used Onga River for transporting coal lost their jobs rapidly. From around 1895, lots of barge drivers began to work at coal mines (yama) one after another, leaving their useless river barges. Many of them were tough and strong enough to quickly adapt to life at coal mines as miners called gezainins [ex-convicts: Some miners were real ex-convicts and other miners sometimes humbly called themselves in this way].

The Barge Driver’s Complaint
“Oh shit! That damned steam train (okajoki) came here to finally rob me of my job.”

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In spring of 1898, I saw a very small steam locomotive like a tin toy crossing Yoshio Railroad Bridge over the Kama River with twelve or thirteen 8-ton coal cars. The locomotive was puffing and crawling up a gradual slope, stretching from Iizuka Station. Only the brass covering of the stand-up steam dome (sutongappu) on its boiler was shining and glittering.