However the director of the Railway Bureau, Masaru INOUE knew that a railway going up a 60 ‰ grade by rack-style railway (toothprint-style railway) had been completed in Germany in 1885 from a report by Sengoku and Sanjiro YOSHIKAWA who had been studying in Germany at that time, therefore he decided to construct Abt-system railway between Yokogawa Station (Gunma Prefecture) and Karuizawa Station.
しかし鉄道局長官井上勝は、当時ドイツに留学中の仙石と吉川三次郎からの報告により、明治18年（1885年）ドイツで60‰の勾配をラック式鉄道（歯型レール）で登る鉄道が完成したことを知り、横川駅(群馬県)～軽井沢駅間をアプト式鉄道で建設することを決定した。