Chōshi Electric Railway Line

• 0-6-0T steam locomotives 1 and 2 (former JNR 1102 and 1107) (Choshi Sightseeing Railway, December 1913 – November 1917)
• Ro 1, RoHa 1, Ha 1, HaNi 1 4-wheel coaches (Choshi Sightseeing Railway, December 1913 – November 1917)
• HaFu 1 and HaFu 2 non-powered trailer cars, withdrawn in September 1978 and cut up in 1979[8]
• 100 series EMU car DeHa 101, built 1939, withdrawn in 1999, and scrapped in September 2009[5][9]
• 200 series EMU car DeHa 201, (former Keisei MoNi 7, built in 1925), operated from 1949 until 1978,[9] and officially withdrawn in 1979[8]
• 300 series EMU car DeHa 301 (former Tsurumi Rinkō Railway MoHa 115, built in 1930), operated from 1951, withdrawn in 2008, scrapped in October 2009[8]
• 500 series EMU car DeHa 501 (former Ueda Kōtsū MoHa 2321, built in 1939), operated from 1972, later sectioned at Inuboh Station,[9] and cut up on-site in July 2012[10]
• 700 series EMU car DeHa 701 (former Ohmi Railway MoHa 50 built in 1942), withdrawn in September 2010
• 700 series EMU car DeHa 702 (former Ohmi Railway MoHa 50, built 1942), withdrawn in January 2010
• 800 series EMU car DeHa 801 (former Iyo Railway MoHa 106 built in 1950), withdrawn in September 2010
• Yu 101 open car, (former WaMu 80000 freight car number WaMu 183983, built in 1969), operated from 4 August 1985, but taken out of service since 2004 due to safety regulations, and stored first at Tokawa Station and then at Kasagami-Kurohae Station[5][11] before being official withdrawn on 30 June 2012[12]
• 1000 series EMU car 1001 (former TRTA 2000 series built in 1960), withdrawn in February 2016
• 1000 series EMU car 1002 (former TRTA 2000 series built in 1959), withdrawn in February 2015[13]

• 
  Withdrawn car DeHa 101 in December 2006
• 
  DeHa 301 in December 2006
• 
  700 series car DeHa 701 in March 2010
• 
  DeHa 702 in March 2008
• 
  800 series car DeHa 801 in July 2010
• 
  Yu 101 stored at Tokawa Station in January 2007
• 
  1000 series car DeHa 1001 in December 2012
• 
  1000 series car DeHa 1002 in January 2012

Moto-Choshi Station under construction by army engineers circa 1913

A Chōshi Sightseeing Railway train between Moto-Choshi and Ashikajima stations hauled by locomotive No. 1

The predecessor to the present-day line opened on 28 December 1913 as the Chōshi Sightseeing Railway (銚子遊覧鉄道, Chōshi Yūran Tetsudō), operating a distance of 5.9 km between Chōshi and Inuboh using steam haulage.[14] The 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge line was laid by a team of 235 army engineers in just 11 days.[14] There were four intermediate stations, at Nakanocho, Kannon, Moto-Choshi, and Ashikajima, and by 1914, eight return services operated daily, with journeys taking 23 minutes.[14] The line used two former JNR 0-6-0T steam locomotives built by Nasmyth, Wilson in the UK.[14] These were numbered 1 and 2 (former JNR numbers 1102 and 1107 respectively).[14]

Faced with poor ridership figures and increases in material costs caused by the outset of the First World War, the operating company announced its intention to close the line and sell off the infrastructure. This was met with violent protests from local residents, which resulted in the arrest of three people, recorded as the first public protest against railway closure plans in Japan.[14] Despite the protests, the railway company terminated services on the line from the afternoon of 20 November 1917, and formally closed the line as of 30 November.[14] The line's trackbed was converted to a dedicated bus route,[9] but the station buildings remained intact.[14] The two steam locomotives, 1 and 2, were sold to Yawata Steel Works, where they were renumbered 200 and 201, and operated until after the Second World War.[14] The line's four passenger coaches were sold to the Rikuu Railway (now part of the JR Gono Line) in Aomori Prefecture, ultimately becoming numbers Ro 790, Ha 2555, Ha 2556, and HaNi 3680 in JNR days.[14]

On 10 October 1922, the Chōshi Railway Company (銚子鉄道株式会社, Chōshi Tetsudō Kabushikigaisha) was formed, and the line was reopened from 5 July 1923 using the former Chōshi Sightseeing Railway trackbed and structures between Chōshi and Inuboh Stations, with an extension south to Tokawa. Rolling stock consisted of two petrol-engined locomotives and two two-axle carriages. The locomotives proved unreliable, however, and the line was electrified at 600 V DC from 1 July 1925, with a fleet of three electric cars purchased from the former Ina Electric Railway (伊那電気鉄道, Ina Denki Tetsudō) (present-day JR Iida Line).[1][9]

Services on the line were suspended from 20 July 1945, following air raid damage. A C class steam tank locomotive was borrowed from JNR to resume operations on the line from December 1945, and electric train operations resumed from 4 April 1946.[1][9]

On 20 August 1948, the operating company was renamed Chōshi Electric Railway (銚子遊覧鉄道, Chōshi Denki Tetsudō).[1]

In 1956, a private track was laid directly from Chōshi Station to the nearby Yamasa soy sauce factory, which virtually eliminated freight operations handled by the Chōshi Electric Railway. And, this company was invested by Chiba Kotsu which has been an affiliated company of Keisei Electric Railway on 1 November 1960 and had been a subsidiary of Keisei Group since then until 1990. In 1963, a decision was made to close the line, but this decision was overturned following opposition from the local communities and funding from Chōshi City. To the present day, the line is largely subsidized by Chiba Prefecture and Chōshi City.[9] Freight operations on the line were discontinued from 1 February 1984.[1] On 21 December 1989, Chiba Kotsu transferred a 52% share of this company which was owned by Chiba Kotsu to Choden Kosan which was managed by Uchino Komuten. That's because this railway line was competitive with a lot of bus routes which were operated by Chiba Kotsu of the parent company, which caused that a bus company and railway company both were in red. After that this company got to a subsidiary of Choden Kosan in January 1990 by transferring right to management. From 1 April 1995, operations on the line switched to wanman driver-only operation because this company would extremely decrease expenditures.[9] But, the pure loss of the management had increased because Uchinoya Komuten of a parent company had nine hundred ninety billion yen as debt and took an application of bankruptcy.

From 21 November 2013, services were cut back from two trains per hour to one train per hour during the daytime.[3]

In 2019, the company announced the production of a movie called "Don't Stop the Train! – The Cursed 6.4 km –" (『電車を止めるな! – 呪いの6.4 km -』, "Densha wo Tomeru na! – Noroi no 6.4 km -"). The 84 minute long horror comedy is set on the Chōshi Electric Railway line and was first shown in cinemas in 2020.[15]

As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic starting in early 2020 and the associated dramatic decline in passenger numbers, the company has started to produce and publish short videos about the railway on YouTube. The channel is called Chōshi Electric Railway Fierce Channel (【銚子電鉄】激つらチャンネル, (Chōshi Dentetsu) Gekitsura Channeru) and contains videos about various places on and around the railway, such as the railway shed, the main office and various stations along the line. The videos often feature different staff members, mainly Katsuki Takemoto (CEO), Riho Sodeyama (conductor) and more recently also Kazuki Fukushima, a young station attendant.[16]