Mojiko Retro Scenic Line

The line runs on a former freight route. On 13 February 1929 the Moji Chikkō company (門司築港, renamed Moji-chiku Tochi Tetsudō in December 1943) opened a 1.5-kilometre line from Moji — today's Mojikō — to Monchiku-Ōkubo. On 1 April 1930 Sotohama Station opened, and the Moji–Sotohama section became a freight branch of the government railways' Kagoshima Main Line. In 1960 the Moji-chiku Tochi Tetsudō line was abolished and, together with sidings as far as Tanoura, was reorganised as the Tanoura Public Rinkai Railway.

With the 1987 break-up and privatisation of Japanese National Railways, the Mojikō–Sotohama section passed to JR Freight. The administration of the line then became tangled: when the Railway Business Act took effect, Kitakyushu City should have obtained a Category-3 licence for the Tanoura line but overlooked it, and the omission — compounded by JR Freight and the Kyushu Transport Bureau also failing to act — left the railway operating without a proper licence, a lapse exposed in 1997. The matter was finally regularised on 27 May 1999, when the Tanoura line was authorised as a siding of Sotohama Station.

The waterfront the line crosses had meanwhile been transformed. In 1988 Kitakyushu City launched the first phase of its Mojikō Retro redevelopment, turning the area into a tourist quarter. From 1991 the city began studying the idea of running a sightseeing train for the visitors the area was drawing.

Freight operations over the line ceased on 25 March 2004, and the whole route was formally suspended on 1 October 2005. Before any permanent service began, the city ran a series of trolley-train events along the tracks. The first, over several days in spring 2006, used cars borrowed from the autumn "Torokko Festa" held near the former Kumagahata Station on the old Kamiyamada Line and ran a train named "Shiokaze"; further events followed in 2007 and 2008, by which time Heisei Chikuhō Railway rolling stock also took part.

The revival was put on a formal footing in 2008, when Heisei Chikuhō Railway and Kitakyushu City obtained a railway-business licence from the Kyushu Transport Bureau of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The JR Freight section between Mojikō and Sotohama was formally abolished on 5 September 2008. On 30 January 2009 the line's nickname was fixed as the "Yamagin Retro Line" — after a naming-rights deal with the Yamaguchi Bank — and the official names of its four stations were settled.

The Mojikō Retro Scenic Line opened between Kyushu Railway History Museum and Kanmonkaikyō Mekari on 26 April 2009. It was quickly recognised, receiving a special award in the 8th "Japan Railway Awards" on 14 October 2009, and it carried its 200,000th passenger on 21 November that year. Service was increased to 14 round trips a day from 13 March 2010. On 3 November 2011 the line's nickname changed from "Yamagin Retro Line" to the "Kitakyushu Bank Retro Line" after the naming rights passed to the Kitakyushu Bank, which had taken over the Yamaguchi Bank's business in Kyushu. From 16 March 2013 the timetable settled at eleven round trips a day.

Trains run chiefly on weekends and holidays, at 40-minute intervals. On 6 July 2018 the heavy rain of the July 2018 floods washed soil onto the track and forced a suspension; service resumed on 21 July 2018. The Shiokaze remains the only train on this isolated line, which runs from Mojikō to Mekari Park, with the Kanmon Strait in view on the final stretch.

4 stations tracked on the map, listed alphabetically. Select any to read its page.

• Idemitsu Bijutsukan出光美術館
• Kanmonkaikyo Mekari関門海峡めかり
• Kyushu Railway History Museum九州鉄道記念館
• Norfork Hirobaノーフォーク広場

• 192913 February: the Moji Chikkō company opens a 1.5 km line from Moji (now Mojikō) to Monchiku-Ōkubo.
• 19301 April: Sotohama Station opens; the Moji–Sotohama section becomes a freight branch of the government railways' Kagoshima Main Line.
• 196015 April: the Moji-chiku Tochi Tetsudō line is abolished and reorganised, with sidings to Tanoura, as the Tanoura Public Rinkai Railway.
• 19871 April: with the privatisation of Japanese National Railways, the Mojikō–Sotohama section passes to JR Freight.
• 1988Kitakyushu City launches the first phase of the Mojikō Retro waterfront redevelopment.
• 199927 May: the Tanoura Public Rinkai Railway is authorised as a siding of Sotohama Station, resolving an unlicensed-operation problem exposed in 1997.
• 200425 March: freight operations over the line cease.
• 20051 October: the whole line is formally suspended.
• 2006Spring: Kitakyushu City holds the first trolley-train event on the tracks, running a train named 'Shiokaze' with 'Torokko Festa' cars from the former Kamiyamada Line.
• 2008Heisei Chikuhō Railway and Kitakyushu City apply to the MLIT Kyushu Transport Bureau for a railway-business licence.
• 2008The Kyushu Transport Bureau issues the licence; the JR Freight Mojikō–Sotohama section is formally abolished on 5 September 2008.
• 200930 January: the line's nickname is set as the 'Yamagin Retro Line' under a naming-rights deal with the Yamaguchi Bank, and the four station names are settled.
• 200926 April: the Mojikō Retro Scenic Line opens between Kyushu Railway History Museum and Kanmonkaikyō Mekari; it passes its 200,000th passenger on 21 November.
• 20113 November: the line's nickname changes from 'Yamagin Retro Line' to the 'Kitakyushu Bank Retro Line'.
• 20186 July: the July 2018 floods wash soil onto the track and force a suspension; service resumes on 21 July 2018.