At the same time freight business fell off sharply for the railroad.

At the same time freight operations were closed between Frenz and Julich.

The Nambu Railway was nationalized on April 1, 1944, becoming part of the Japanese Government Railway (JGR) system, at which time freight services at the station were discontinued.

The locomotives became the L-1 class and were used for powering time freights system wide on both the Minneapolis, St. Paul and Sault Ste. Marie, and Wisconsin Central.