The very beginning of the "Afterword" to "Data on Japanese Private Railways" by WAKUDA YASUO published in 1968 reads,

　　"The author came across prewar railway statistical materials at the University of Tokyo Library, realized that these were important basic materials for the study of private railway history, and began to make notes on them in 1955, the year the authors formed the University of Tokyo Railway Research Society.

From that point on, I had to grapple with a collection of over 70 documents, organized by fiscal year, which held by the Ministry of Transport Library and the Japanese National Railways headquarters' Railway Library.

It took approximately 10 years to complete writing the notebook by hand, on all private railway companies operating since the Meiji era, detailing the openings, closures, mergers, transfers, section distances, and number of vehicles, organized by each company.

During that time, the author also added information about vehicle approvals based on documents from the Ministry of Transport, and it can be said that most of the author's free time in his twenties was spent compiling these private railway notebooks.

Based on this notebook, this book aims to organize all the private railways that have existed in Japan in the past by prime mover, gauge and prefecture, etc., and present them in the form of a table, with an outline of the development history of each prime mover and gauge."

　

Based on this thorough research, WAKUDA YASUO began writing a series titled "Data on Japanese Private Railways" in 1965, at the age of 31, in the monthly railway magazine "The Railway Pictorial（TETSUDO PICTORIAL「鉄道ピクトリアル」）" published by the Electric Railway Research Association, Inc.（DENKISHA KENKYUKAI 株式会社電気車研究会 Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo）.

The series ran for 20 installments, intermittently, from issue 170 in May 1965 to issue 210 in June 1968.

　

The book lists all private railways that have existed in the past, divided by prime mover and track gauge, with accompanying graphs (photos), and discusses the characteristics of each and the historical background from their birth to distribution to their disappearance. It also lists them in tables by tramway/railway and track gauge, with the following structure：1. Horse-drawn tramway, 2. Hand-propelled tramway, 3. Steam tramway and Internal combustion tramway, 4. Electric tramway, 5. Steam railway, 6. Internal combustion railway, 7. Electric railway, and 8. Special railway.

　

At the same time, WAKUDA YASUO wrote I. Distribution table of private railways by prefecture, II. Table of increase/decrease of private railways by fiscal year (railways and tramways), III. Index of private railway names in alphabetical order, IV. Private railway route maps by region, and V. Reference bibliography of Japanese private railways. The serialized content was placed in the first half of the book as "Part 1", and additional writings in the second half as "Part 2", resulting in a book titled "Data on Japanese Private Railways（SHIRYO NIHON NO SHITETSU「資料・日本の私鉄」）" published by the Railway Book Publishing Association（TETSUDO TOSHO KANKOKAI 鉄道図書刊行会, effectively the same company as the Electric Railway Research Association, Inc.）. The first edition was published on June 25, 1968, and the content was current as of the end of fiscal year 1967 (March 31, 1968).

　

The photograph at the beginning of this volume,in the center of the top graph page, shows a young Wakuda (34 years old at the time) with a serious expression, pretending to push a handcart on the Matsuyama Hand-propelled Tramway（松山人車軌道）, and the caption reads, "This tramway was located in Miyagi Prefecture. Standing nearby is the author, Transportation Museum（交通博物館）, Photographed by Wakuda Kikuko（和久田喜久子）on April 28, 1968". At the very end of the "Afterword", he writes, "It was only thanks to the encouragement of my family that this book saw the light of day", and this photographer Kikuko is his wife herself.

　

It's worth noting that in Part 2 of this book "Data on Japanese Private Railways", each private railway company is arranged by prefecture and given a fixed four-digit operator code number（Author's company code number）.

The first digit represents the jurisdictions of the nine Land Transport Bureaus (now the Transport Bureaus) at the time, numbered 1 through 9 from north to south, while the second digit represents the prefectures within each Land Transport Bureau, numbered consecutively from north to south, starting with 1 (Hokkaido is 0, with 10 Hokkaido, 21 Aomori Prefecture, ... 98 Okinawa Prefecture).

The last two digits represent private railways originating from the same prefecture, numbered in order of their opening, starting with 01 for railways and 51 for tramways. For this reason, private railways that have both railways and tramways have two numbers, and even if they were operated by the same operator at the same time but had different route networks or different origins, they may have been given different company code numbers.

　

※On June 25, 1968, the "JIS City, Ward, Town, and Village Code" did not exist (established December 1, 1968), and there was no option other than numbering based on the jurisdiction of the Land Transport Bureau.

※For a comparison of the first two digits of the company code number ("Code No1, 2 digits") and the JIS "Pref No." (a fixed two-digit code from north to south, 01 to 47), please refer to "Transport Bureau（Origin of "WAKUDABAN top 2 digits"）".

　

This book "Data on Japanese Private Railways", was well received as the first comprehensive guidebook on the history of private railways, and has undergone several revisions, including the seventh edition, which was published when WAKUDA YASUO was 80 years old.

　

① Data on Japanese Private Railways = June 25, 1968, First Edition, Price: ￥600, Railway Book Publishing Association

② New Edition：Data on Japanese Private Railways = June 20, 1972, Reprint, Price: ￥1,250, Railway Book Publishing Association

③ Revised New Edition：Data on Japanese Private Railways = December 25, 1976, Third Edition, Price: ￥1,800, Railway Book Publishing Association

④ Fourth Edition：Data on Japanese Private Railways = December 20, 1984, Fourth Edition, Price: ￥3,200, Railway Book Publishing Association

⑤ Private Railway History Handbook = First Edition, December 1, 1993, Price: ￥2,600 (￥2,524 + tax), Electric Railway Research Association, Inc.

⑥ Private Railway History Handbook = Second Edition, December 20, 1995, Price: ￥2,600 (￥2,524 + tax), Electric Railway Research Association, Inc.

⑦ Private Railway History Research Materials for Railway Fans = First Edition, April 25, 2014, Price: ￥2,685 + tax, Electric Railway Research Association, Inc.

　　　※English title："HANDBOOK FOR PRIVATE RAILWAY HISTORY STUDIES -1882 to 2012-"

　　　　ISBN 978-4-88548-124-6 C3065 ￥2685E

　　　　⑦ will be abbreviated as "WAKUDA BOOK" below.

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Japanese title & WAKUDA YASUO's age

①Aged34　1968.06.25　『資料・日本の私鉄』第１版（初版）　　　鉄道図書刊行会 TETSUDO TOSHO KANKOKAI

②Aged38　1972.06.20　『資料・日本の私鉄』第２版（新版）　　　鉄道図書刊行会

③Aged42　1976.12.25　『資料・日本の私鉄』第３版（改訂新版）　鉄道図書刊行会

④Aged50　1984.12.20　『資料・日本の私鉄』第４版（四訂版）　　鉄道図書刊行会

⑤Aged59　1993.12.01　『私鉄史ハンドブック』第１刷　　　株式会社電気車研究会 DENKISHA KENKYUKAI

⑥Aged61　1995.12.20　『私鉄史ハンドブック』第２刷　　　株式会社電気車研究会

⑦Aged80　2014.04.25　『鉄道ファンのための私鉄史研究資料』第１刷　　株式会社電気車研究会

　　　※Home Page of "The Railway Pictorial　鉄道ピクトリアル（株式会社電気車研究会）"　　http://tetsupic.com

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WAKUDA YASUO also interacts with railway fans overseas, and his books often include English explanations and indexes.

This consideration provides concise and to-the-point English information for overseas railway fans who travel all the way to visit Japanese private railways.