Bungomori Roundhouse

The old Bungomori-Roundhouse in Kita-Kyushu is a relict from the days of steam trains.
The train station of Bungomori is located on the train line which connects the western and eastern part of Northern Kyushu. The line was constructed in the years of industrial development of Japan. As the small valley gives not enough space a turntable was needed to enable the steam trains to be turned around as technically they could only “steam” in one direction.The following graphic shows this in detail.

The Bungomori Roundhouse was inaugurated in November 1929. Some old pictures in a pamphlet one can receive in today´s train stations are from prewar days.

At it´s peak around 200 people worked here. Up to 12 locomotives could be parked in the roundhouse and turned around. With the emergence of diesel-engine the roundhouse ceased to function in 1970. The city of Bungomori bought the site from Japan Railway Kyushu in 2006, but efforts to keep it as a museum failed. Locomotives on exhibition were moved out. I do not know if the night illumination of the Roundhouse to attract tourist still works. The place looks really abandoned.


It is easy to image though how the turntable must have worked, turning the locomotives 180 degrees. But the rails connecting the twelve segments of the Roundhouse are gone.

Inside, the building reveals the charme of decay.

Only two signs are left, signs of encouragement and safety.

In 2012 the site was listed as “heritage of the modernisation and industrialisation” (近代化産業遺産).So far it does not have an effect on the preservation. Local trains are speeding by and rice fields have embedded this forgotten place.