Japan has some many light railways for the past 80-90 years, the last light railway in Japan and the last industrial steam railway in Japan ended in 1982.
Itoigawa is a city in Niigata Prefecture, Japan with a population of 40,000 people, with commercial fishing and the production of limestone and cement are the mainstays of the local economy, this city also had the last 2 foot(610mm) gauge industrial railway in Japan to use steam locomotives. Built in 1950, the lines main revenue is activated clay and acid clay with a length of 800m. The line brought 2 steam locomotives, Unit 1 built by an unknown source, Unit 2 is built in 1956 by Kyosan Kogyo affectionately nicknamed Kurohime, to some older Japanese railfans would say that unit 2 was the last steam locomotive to be built for a Japanese railway. The photos you see are what daily operation look like on the line, the railway rolling stock is 5 clay trucks to haul the clay and a oil tanker. The railway looks like a garden railway, but this is a active industrial line, since it's so hidden that only a few railfans that actually know about this line and able to take a few photos of the operation. If you're visiting Itoigawa in the 1970s you would not know of this operation, even the most knowledgeable international(and native) railfans that knows about japanese steam locomotives would not know about this operation.
The railway did very well, lasted till 1982, making this the last industrial railway in Japan to use steam locomotives under 3'6 gauge.
