On September 23, the JR Yokohama Line (Higashi-Kanagawa - Hachiōji, 42.6 km), linking Yokohama and Hachiōji, Tōkyō will celebrate it's 100th year of operation. While its name conjures up images of a metropolitan loop line, it's actually a "local" line, connecting to Shinshū via the Chūō Line in the Tōkyō suburb of Hachiōji. JR East will commemorate the line's 100th anniversary on the 23rd by running a special train between Yokohama and Shinshū.

The Yokohama Line began operations in 1908 as the "Yokohama Railway," a private railroad. It was planned as a means of transporting raw silk--an important export item--to the port at Yokohama. The silk produced in Shinshū and the Kantō region was amassed at Hachiōji, so much so that the road to Yokohama is still known lovingly today as "The Silk Road."

At the time operations on the Yokohama Line began, however, the transport route through Tōkyō (via the Chūō Line) was becoming more and more established, leaving the Yokohama Line to take up the role of a lifeline route carrying passengers, not freight. Two years after its establishment, the "Yokohama Railway" was taken over by the Ministry of Railways, and in 1917, was later bought out by the national government.

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/life/trend/080913/trd0809131949011-n1.htm