Tachikawa Trains Guide: Railway History and Where to Watch Trains

The Tachikawa locomotive depot at Nishi-Kunitachi: the steam age and the “Choco-den”

Take the Nambu Line one stop from Tachikawa and get off at Nishi-Kunitachi. The name means “West Kunitachi”, but the station is at 1-chome Hagoromo-cho, in Tachikawa, some distance from the border with the city of Kunitachi. A station in Tachikawa that calls itself Kunitachi. The people of Tachikawa got used to this small absurdity long ago.

Beside this station there was once the Tachikawa locomotive depot. The encyclopedia’s entry for Nishi-Kunitachi Station says the depot opened on the neighbouring site in May 1944 and closed on 1 July 1984. The entry for the Nambu Line gives the opening as May 1945. The sources differ by a year. A single year at the very end of the war must have been a very long year.

A locomotive depot is where engines come and go, are serviced, and rest. Nothing of it can be seen now. But the station keeps traces. According to the same entry, the station building and platform 1, for trains towards Kawasaki, are linked by a short passage built on the site of the old tracks into and out of the depot. Before the depot closed, the Kawasaki-bound platform was an island, with two platforms and three tracks. Where locomotives once rolled in and out, commuters now walk to the ticket gates.

Nishi-Kunitachi has one more small mystery. Two trains a day start here for Kawasaki, yet not one train ends here. The stabling tracks at Tachikawa are not laid out to let trains run straight into the platform, so the first trains run out of service to Nishi-Kunitachi and start carrying passengers from there. A way out, but no way back. Nishi-Kunitachi is the Nambu Line’s morning front door.

Showa-era electric locomotives ran around here as well. A photograph on a photo-sharing site shows a Class ED16 working the Nambu Line near Nishi-Kunitachi in 1975. The encyclopedia’s Ome Line entry records that the Class ED16, long used for freight on the Ome Line, ended regular service on 25 March 1983.

And the stars of the Nambu Line were, for a long time, brown trains.

According to the encyclopedia, brown old-type electric trains ran on the Nambu Line until 1978. Nicknamed Choco-den — “chocolate trains” — they became the very symbol of the line. Until the 1960s they ran mostly as four-car sets of 17-metre cars; four 20-metre cars could not be run because the platforms, unchanged since the Nambu Railway days, were only 71 metres long. The dimensions of the private-railway era set the length of the national railway’s trains.

The Choco-den were replaced by Series 101 trains transferred from other lines. Repainting could not keep up, and many ran in their old vermilion or sky blue, so passengers at the time complained that they could not tell what colour the Nambu Line was. Hand-me-downs from all over, coupled together into one train in mismatched colours. In a series in a travel magazine, one writer recalled that in his high-school days the Nambu Line was a mismatched string of old Yamanote and Sobu Line cars, teased as “the Nambu Line’s dagashi train”. Dagashi are cheap Japanese penny sweets, sold in a riot of colours at little corner shops — he must have meant the trains looked like a sweet-shop counter. A perfect description.

In 1989, Series 205 trains built new for the Nambu Line went into service. It was the first time in 47 years — since 1942, in the Nambu Railway days before nationalisation — that new trains had come straight to the line. The colours of the body stripes were decided by a survey of residents along the line: the brown of the old-type trains, the orange of cars borrowed from the Chuo Line, and the yellow of the line’s own colour. All of them were the colours of trains that had run on the Nambu Line.

Today’s Nambu Line trains are Series E233, which entered service on 4 October 2014. According to the encyclopedia, the stripe on the side of the lead car carries a logo showing the cityscape along the line. From the Kawasaki end come Muza Kawasaki concert hall, the towers of Musashi-Kosugi and Todoroki Arena; then the Tama River, the Ferris wheel at Yomiuriland and Hitotsubashi University; and it ends with the Tama Toshi Monorail, the arch at Tachikawa Station’s North Exit, and Lumine Tachikawa. On the flank of a train that has run all the way from Kawasaki, Tachikawa sits in the very last seat, at the end of the line. If you spot a Nambu Line train at platform 7 or 8 at Tachikawa, take a close look at the lead car’s stripe. The order of the buildings is said to be reversed on the left and right sides.

Then and now

Then: the Nambu Line ran short sets of brown cars nicknamed the Choco-den, and one side of the Nambu Line platform at Tachikawa did not even have a track number. Now: it runs six-car silver trains with yellow stripes, the arch of Tachikawa’s North Exit is drawn at the end of the stripe, platform 8 has been built, and the whole line, including Tachikawa Station itself, is double-track.

Tachikawa’s railways by the numbers

• 8 — tracks at Tachikawa Station’s four island platforms, plus four more for freight, stabling and so on.
• 200 — metres: how much longer the Ome Shortcut Line is than the main line. More than 80 years have passed since the vanished railway’s track was kept as a connecting line.
• 71 — metres: the length of the platforms in the Nambu Railway days. That is what held the Choco-den to short four-car sets.
• 1999 — the year platform 8 was built at Tachikawa and the Nambu Line finally became fully double-track. The station itself was the last bottleneck.
• 154,091 — Tachikawa Station’s average daily boarding passengers in fiscal 2024 (JR East’s figures, as given in the encyclopedia). The most of any station in Tama.
• 47 — years the Nambu Line waited for brand-new trains. The age of hand-me-downs was long.

The wanderer’s quiz

What was the Ome Shortcut Line between Tachikawa and Nishi-Tachikawa originally? (A) the Ome Railway’s main line; (B) the track of the Itsukaichi Railway and the Nambu Railway’s link line; (C) a siding to Tachikawa Airfield. The answer comes at the end.

Line up the numbers and Tachikawa’s tracks start to look like a story of detours, shortness and delays. So where can you actually go to see the trains?

Where to watch trains in Tachikawa: from the platforms to the Tama River bridge

For watching trains, Tachikawa is a fortunate town: three railway lines and a monorail overlap around its station.

Start with Tachikawa Station itself. Nambu Line platforms 7 and 8 are where the yellow-striped trains to Kawasaki begin, and smart platform doors came into use there in 2023. On the Chuo and Ome Line platforms, every Azusa and Kaiji limited express has stopped since 2005, and from March 2022 every regular limited express on the Chuo Line stops. Limited expresses bound for the distant mountain towns always pause once at Tachikawa. Each time, the Tachikawa residents on the platform feel a little proud.

Next, the monorail. The Tama Toshi Monorail runs north–south along the west side of Tachikawa Station, crossing above the JR tracks between Tachikawa-Kita and Tachikawa-Minami stations. A seat looking down on the rails is yours for the price of a ticket. (More in our Tama Monorail guide.)

Nishi-Tachikawa Station is where the Ome Shortcut Line ends. According to the encyclopedia, the Ome Line main line and the shortcut join west of the station, and up trains using the shortcut pass through without stopping here. The station is linked by a deck to the Nishi-Tachikawa Gate of Showa Kinen Park (the Showa Memorial Park), so on your way to or from the park you can see the end of that “detour shortcut”. (See our Showa Kinen Park guide.)

This station has a slightly funny story, too. On 31 March 2006 its departure melody was changed to “Ame no Station” (“Rainy Station”) by the singer-songwriter Yumi Matsutoya — a song inspired by this very station. It was originally meant to be used for three months. That was extended by a year, and in the end it stayed in use until 19 January 2026. Three months turned into nearly twenty years. At Nishi-Tachikawa, “just for a bit” is evidently a long time.

Walk south from Tachikawa Station to the Tama River and you reach the Chuo Line’s Tama River bridge. Built by the Kobu Railway in 1889, it is 444 metres long, and the piers on the up-line side still include oval brick piers. As I wrote in the article on the Tama River’s floods and bridges, this railway bridge crossed the river before the people did. Watching an orange-striped train cross its 19 spans from the riverbank is a fitting end to a railway walk in Tachikawa.

Finally, a railway with no tracks left. Freight-only sidings were laid to the east and west of Tachikawa Airfield; when the base was fully returned to Japan in 1977 they were removed, and in 1980 one was reborn as a footpath, the Sakae Green Space. No trains come, but a long, narrow strip of green runs exactly as wide as the line once did.

Etiquette for train watching: a Meiji-era law even bans firing guns at stations

If you are going to watch trains, we must talk about manners.

At the foundation of Japan’s railway rules is the Railway Operation Act, a law of 1900 that still lives on in its old katakana-mixed wording. Its Article 37 says that anyone who enters a station or other railway premises without good reason shall be fined. Stepping onto the tracks for a photo is not a breach of manners; it is a breach of the law.

Read on in the same law and Article 39 sets a penalty for firing a gun in a train, a station or other railway premises. Article 40 punishes throwing tiles or stones at a train. Meiji-era stations, it seems, had to allow for passengers who might open fire. What is asked of photographers today is, naturally, nothing so dramatic: don’t set up a tripod, don’t lean out. That sort of thing.

On 15 December 2025, JR East announced a campaign warning against dangerous recording and photography on station platforms, and from the next day put up posters at major stations. According to a transport news site, dangerous photography such as approaching tracks and equipment risks electric shock and contact with trains, bothers other passengers, and affects train operations.

The photography rules posted by the JR companies are broadly the same. JR Hokkaido, for example, lists what it asks you to avoid: using flash at a moving train; using stepladders, tripods or selfie sticks on platforms; leaning out from the platform over the tracks; stopping or leaving bags on the tactile paving for the visually impaired; and getting into arguments with other passengers by staking out spots or shouting.

Tachikawa is the busiest station in Tama. If you take photos on the platform, do it when the commuter tide has ebbed, from behind the yellow line, with the attitude of someone being allowed to take pictures. That, I think, is the courtesy owed to this station with its double life.

If you go to see the Yokota Base line, remember one more thing. According to the travel site, the track is a US Air Force facility, so entry is forbidden; the line itself is treated as part of the base. You watch from the level crossings, and some have neither barriers nor warning lights, so take care when a train is coming. The rarer the train, the more careful you need to be when it does come.

Answer to the quiz

The answer is (B). The track from Tachikawa to Musashi-Kaminohara belonged to the Itsukaichi Railway, opened in 1930, and from Musashi-Kaminohara to Nishi-Tachikawa it was the freight link line laid by the Nambu Railway in 1931. After the Itsukaichi Railway’s Tachikawa–Haijima section was suspended in 1944, only this part survived, as a connecting track for the Ome Line. The name “shortcut” is a keepsake of a vanished railway.

Before you go

• Getting to Tachikawa Station: From central Tokyo, take the JR Chuo Line from Shinjuku to Tachikawa without changing. From the Kanagawa side, the Nambu Line runs from Kawasaki to its terminus at Tachikawa without changing (the line is 35.5 km long). Check the station layout and facilities in the station information on JR East’s official website. (Our Tachikawa Station history tells the station’s own story.)
• Nishi-Kunitachi Station: 1-chome Hagoromo-cho, Tachikawa; one stop from Tachikawa on the Nambu Line. The passage built on the depot site runs between the station building and platform 1.
• Nishi-Tachikawa Station: 1-chome Fujimi-cho, Tachikawa; one stop from Tachikawa on the Ome Line. A deck from the park exit leads to the Nishi-Tachikawa Gate of Showa Kinen Park. Check the park’s hours and admission on its official site: https://www.showakinen-koen.jp/
• To view the Tama River bridge: from the riverbank on the left (north) bank of the Tama River, south of Tachikawa Station. Do not enter the bridge or the railway land.
• Railway history in documents: Tachikawa City Museum of History and Folklore (3-12-34 Fujimi-cho, Tachikawa; check opening hours and closing days on the city’s page): https://www.city.tachikawa.lg.jp/kanko/bunka/1004244/1004849/1004905.html — see also our article on the museum.
• Before you take photos: Do not enter tracks or railway land, do not use tripods or stepladders on platforms, and do not point a flash at moving trains. Watch the Yokota Base line only from the level crossings.
• Practical tips: Carry an IC transport card such as Suica or PASMO; it works on JR and the monorail, and makes hopping one stop to Nishi-Kunitachi or Nishi-Tachikawa easy. Combine Nishi-Tachikawa with a stroll in Showa Kinen Park for a half-day outing.

At the weekend, take the Chuo Line from Shinjuku, get off at Tachikawa, check the Nambu Line’s stripes, then go and see the end of the shortcut at Nishi-Tachikawa. For a rail fan, that is probably a full day.

At the North Exit of a railway town

A railway walk uses your legs more than you expect. Walk from one end of the platforms to the other, go back one stop to Nishi-Kunitachi, climb down to the Tama River bank, and the seat on the train home will feel strangely precious.

One minute’s walk from the North Exit of Tachikawa Station, on the third floor of the Etoile Building at 2-14-10 Akebonocho, Tachikawa, is On the Shore Tachikawa (オンザショア立川店), a hot yoga studio heated by lava-stone plates. As well as lava-stone hot yoga, it offers room-temperature yoga, Pilates, women-only kickboxercise, boxercise, HIIT and personal training, with more than 25 kinds of yoga lesson.

It is open every day from 8:00 to 23:30, the same hours whatever the day. Whether you have just seen off the first Nambu Line train of the morning or watched the last limited express at night, there is time to drop in.

A trial yoga lesson costs ¥1,980 including tax, with two bath towels, one face towel and a yoga mat included in the rental. Even with a camera hanging from your shoulder, you can come with nothing else.

Pregnant guests cannot take part in lava-stone hot yoga, but room-temperature maternity yoga is available.

Many of our yoga instructors speak English, and the studio’s owner, Naomi Fujita — who holds Eiken Grade 1, Japan’s top English qualification, and a perfect TOEIC score, worked as a translator and overseas interpreter at Nomura Securities, and lived in Alaska for three years — often helps guests from the US bases in English herself. Overseas guests have praised the English support in their Google reviews. If you would like help in English, just mention it when you book.

Studio information: https://ontheshore.jp/ — prices: https://ontheshore.jp/price/ — trial lesson booking: https://site.locaop.jp/C0aVK?_src=hp

The detour that calls itself a shortcut is still crossing the Chuo Line west of the station today. It seems to be telling you there is no need to hurry.

Cover photo: Nambu Line platforms 7 and 8 at Tachikawa Station, with yellow- and orange-striped trains on both sides. (Photo: MaedaAkihiko / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons)

Information as of October 2026.

More Tachikawa Walks

• Tachikawa Air Raids: WWII History and a Memorial Walk Guide
• Tachikawa Autumn Leaves Guide: Ginkgo, Zelkova and Where to Walk
• Tachikawa Base Town History: Cola Bottles, Yuming, the Laundry Gate
• Tachikawa Air Base History Walk: The Sunagawa Struggle and After
• Tachikawa Sento Guide: Public Baths, Their History and Bath Etiquette
• Tachikawa Disaster Base and Life Safety Learning Center: A Guide
• Tachikawa Bridges Walk: ‘Nameless Bridge’ to a Double-Deck Crossing
• Tachikawa Cinema City Guide: Tokyo’s First Multiplex and Its Big Sound
• Tachikawa Museums Guide: Art, 2,558 Instruments and Things to Do
• Tachikawa Cycling Guide: Showa Kinen Park’s 14 km and the Tama River
• Tachikawa Festivals Guide: Bon Dances, Flamenco, Nebuta and Yokai
• Tachikawa History Walk: Famous People, from Seiji Ozawa to a Comet
• Tachikawa History Walk: Famous People Who Passed Through the Town
• Tachikawa Public Art Walk: A Guide to the 109 Works of Faret Tachikawa
• Tachikawa Farms Guide: Farm Stands, Harvest Days and Tokyo’s Fields
• Tachikawa History: Japan’s Firsts, from Electric Cars to Sazae-san
• Tachikawa Folktales and Legends: A History Walk Through Old Stories
• Tachikawa Walk: Fusai-ji Temple’s National Treasure and Suwa Shrine
• Tachikawa Business Guide: Where West Tokyo Works and Starts Up
• Tachikawa Culture Guide: Ballet, Ice, Anime and Art Near the Station
• Tachikawa’s Green Future: Zero Carbon, Farmland and Springs Guide
• Tachikawa for Foreign Visitors: Haneda Bus, Things to Do, Future
• Tachikawa Population and Family Life: A Guide to the Town’s Future
• Tama Monorail Extension: When It Opens and Tachikawa’s Future Guide
• Tachikawa and Tokyo’s Next Big Earthquake: Disaster Base Guide
• Showa Kinen Park Guide: The Future of Tachikawa’s Unfinished Park
• Tachikawa Station Redevelopment: A Guide to the Future Station Area
• Tachikawa’s Next Decade: Tachihi, GREEN SPRINGS and a New Hotel Guide
• Tachikawa GREEN SPRINGS Guide: Goats, a Rooftop River, Things to Do
• Tachikawa Travel Guide: Things to Do, Walks and History West of Tokyo
• Tachikawa Walk: Slopes, River Terraces and a Flat City’s Hidden Tilt
• Tachikawa History Walk: How a Mulberry Village Became Tama’s Hub
• Tachikawa Airfield History: The 2:12 a.m. Flight to London, 1937
• Tachikawa Was Once in Kanagawa: A History Walk to the 1893 Transfer
• Tachikawa Keirin Velodrome: History, Guide and the Grand Prix’s Home
• Tachikawa Childhood History: Candy Shops, a Base Christmas, Showa Kids
• Tachikawa Aviation Shrine History: The First ‘Tokyo Airfield’ Walk
• Showa Kinen Park Guide: Komorebi Village, Japanese Garden and Bonsai
• Tachikawa Libraries Guide: Raccoon Dogs, Lucky Cats, Local History
• Tachikawa Live Music Guide: Basement Venues and Where TM Meant Tama
• Tachikawa Manga Park Guide: 40,000 Manga in a Former City Hall
• Tachikawa Fireworks Festival Guide: History, Tips and Things to Do
• Akishima Day Trip from Tachikawa: Whale Fossil, Wisteria and History
• Fussa Day Trip from Tachikawa: Yokota Air Base History, Route 16 Walk
• Fussa Sake Brewery Walk: Day Trip from Tachikawa, Water and History
• Hachioji Castle Ruins from Tachikawa: History Walk and Silk Town Guide
• Mount Takao Day Trip from Tachikawa: Hiking Guide, History and Forest
• Hino Day Trip from Tachikawa: Shinsengumi History Walk and Guide
• Kokubunji Walk from Tachikawa: Otaka-no-Michi Springs and History
• Kunitachi Walk from Tachikawa: Daigaku-dori, History and Yaho Tenmangu
• Mount Mitake Day Trip from Tachikawa: Wolf Shrine, Valley Walk Guide
• Ome Day Trip from Tachikawa: Showa Retro Walk, Things to Do, History
• Tachikawa Walk: Nekawa Green Path to the Tama River, a Riverside Guide
• Tachikawa Cat-Return Shrine Guide: History, Ema and Suitengu
• Tachikawa Night Views and Mount Fuji at Dawn: A Walking Guide
• Tachikawa at Night: Bar Alleys, Black Markets and Cinema History Walk
• Tachikawa Ramen and Udon Guide: Ramen Square and Noodle History
• Tachikawa vs. Central Tokyo: Why the West Side Wins on Space and Sky
• Tachikawa Old Villages Walk: History Guide, Shibasaki to Nishisuna
• Tachikawa Oni Park Guide: A Red Demon Slide and Trains for Kids
• Tachikawa Parks Guide: Things to Do Beyond Showa Kinen Park, a Walk
• Tachikawa Place Names: A History Walk Through Its Town-Name Origins
• Tachikawa Antarctic and Arctic Science Museum: Free Guide and History
• Tachikawa on a Rainy Day: Indoor Things to Do, a Local Guide
• Tachikawa History Museum Guide: Local History and Folklore, Free
• Tachikawa Cherry Blossoms Guide: Where to See Sakura, and the History
• Tachikawa Schools Walk: History of Night Classes, Bells, Antarctica
• Tachikawa Filming Locations Guide: Anime Pilgrimage and TV Dramas
• Tachikawa Silk History Walk: Japan’s No.1 Mulberry Village, Sunagawa
• Tachikawa Shopping Guide: Why It Has Everything, a History Walk
• Showa Kinen Park, Tachikawa: A Walking Guide to Highlights and History
• Tachikawa and San Bernardino: The History of Tokyo’s First Sister City
• Tachikawa Souvenirs Guide: What to Buy, from Tokyo Sake to Paper
• Tachikawa Sports Guide: Things to Do for Fans, Runners and Walkers
• Tachikawa Station Guide: The History Walk of Tama’s Busiest Station
• Tachikawa in Summer: Things to Do, Water Play and Heat Tips Guide
• Tachikawa Sun Sun Road Walk: History, Festival and Winter Lights
• Tachikawa Tachihi History Walk: Aircraft, a Beach and Things to Do
• Tachikawa History: The Samurai Clan Behind the City’s Name, a Walk
• Tama Monorail from Tachikawa: A Guide to Views, Mt. Fuji and History
• Tachikawa Tama River History Walk: Floods, Ferries and Bridges
• Tachikawa Walk: Tamagawa Aqueduct and Sunagawa History Guide
• Tachikawa Udo Guide: History of Tokyo’s Underground White Vegetable
• Tachikawa Water History: Where the Tap Water Comes From, and Wells
• Tachikawa History: Why Tokyo’s First IKEA and Cinema Complex Came Here
• Tachikawa Wildlife Guide: Birdwatching, Fireflies and Tanuki Walks
• Tachikawa Yagawa Green Space Walk: Springs, Hake Cliffs and History
• Tachikawa from Yokota Air Base: A Weekend Guide and Things to Do

All Tachikawa Walks (English)