Mōka Station (真岡駅) is a ground-level station in Mōka, Tochigi Prefecture, run by the Mōka Railway. It opened on 1 April 1912.
History
A government railway, the Mōka Light Railway line, opened between Shimodate and Mōka on 1 April 1912, and Mōka Station opened at the same time. On 11 July 1913, the line was extended from Mōka to Nanai Station (七井駅).
From its opening, the station also handled freight. On 1 November 1982, freight handling ended and it became a passenger-only station. On 1 February 1984, parcel handling ended too. On 1 April 1987, Japanese National Railways was split up and privatised, and the station became part of East Japan Railway Company (JR East). On 11 April 1988, the line became the third-sector Mōka Railway, and the station name's kana spelling changed from もうか to もおか.
On 22 March 1996, a turntable was installed. On 30 March 1997, a new station building shaped like a steam locomotive was completed and opened. In the same year, the station was chosen as one of the 100 Stations of Kanto (関東の駅百選). The stated reason was a station with a large steam-locomotive complex, expected to serve as a core of the local area.
As of 2012, Mōka city had a plan to make the station area an SL museum. The plan moved a 9600-class steam locomotive from Igashira Park to the east side of the station, and moved decommissioned cars there after tidying their outsides. In July 2012, a display car, Suha 44 25 (スハフ44 25), was brought into the station grounds. On 28 April 2013, the SL Kyūroku-kan (SLキューロク館) opened.
Written by an AI from this station's own sourced facts (the dated events in the Data view), nothing else, and checked by a program for dates and numbers that are not in those facts. It can still be wrong. Found a mistake? . Adapted from Japanese Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0; this text is shared under the same licence.