Ehime: Locals Bid Farewell to Iconic Triangular Roof; Old Building of JR Matsuyama Station to Be Demolished

The Yomiuri Shimbun

10:59 JST, November 17, 2024

MATSUYAMA — Residents in Matsuyama held an event on Nov. 4 to bid farewell to the old building of JR Matsuyama Station that has a triangular roof.

As a new station building was completed in September, the old station building will be demolished.

The old building was the second one; the station building was constructed in 1953 and the roof was refurbished into the triangular shape in 2000.

To bid farewell to the old building that had served as the entrance to Matsuyama for 71 years, about 2,500 people visited the event venue.

The event was organized by Shikoku Railway Co. (JR Shikoku). At the station’s platform, about 650 pieces of railway were on sale.

They included fare charts displayed in the station, a signboard of a station master’s room, markers indicating the stopping positions of trains to drivers, seating surfaces used in Shiokaze and Ishizuchi limited express trains and the “head mark” (nameplate) of an Iyo-Nada Monogatari tourist train.

Railfans eagerly bought up the precious items. Some of them even brought home railway stones and ballast from the tracks.

A man who visited the event from Okayama and bought a board with the station’s name on it said, “Although I’m a little sad that I won’t see the symbolic triangular roof, I can remember again the scene as I keep this at home.”