The Atami Jinsha Tetsudo (Jap. for Atami man(powered) vehicle railway) was a long manpowerered narrow gauge railway in the province of Izu, Japan which was operated around 1900.
The initially long handcar line was opened in 1895Shizuoka Prefecture Railway Stations: Tookaidoo Main Line (Atami City~Shinjohara). and connected the coastal towns Atami and Yoshihama on the Izu Peninsula. The train crew comprised two men and a boy. The men, muscular coolies, pushed the car on the up-grades and jumped on the rear platform for a ride when the car was coasting on a level or down-grade. The boy rode on the front platform, and it was his duty to blow a horn as a warning at hills and curves, and to manipulate the brakes. The fare, including tips for the crew, on the road was equivalent to 21 cents per round trip.An odd Japanese car. In: The Street Railway Review. Vol. 10, No. 12, 15 December 1900, p. 720. The line was expanded by to Odawara in 1896.
In 1907 the track was re-gauged to , and steam locomotives were introduced.Dan Free: Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914: Engineering Triumphs That Transformed Meiji-era Japan. Tuttle Publishing, 27.11.2012. The line closed in 1923 as a result of the Great Kanto earthquake.
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