This post has long been on my to-write list. As I will be travelling during August, I figured that would give me the impetus to finally put it together. I’m no trainspotter, but aside from the UK, I don’t think I’ve seen a country more enamoured with its own railway heritage than Japan. It’s all well and good to gaze in wonder at the 300kph bullet trains zooming about the country, but history is also very present.
Old locomotives and trams are scattered about the place, mostly in decent condition, for the public to enjoy. This particular one, C11 292, is a 1945 steam loco that is rather famous for Tokyoites, as it’s been in front of Shimbashi Station since 1972, to commemorate the 100 years of railways in Japan.
The first line was between Shimbashi, just south of Ginza in Central Tokyo, to Yokohama (seen above in 1872), the country’s main port. The first locomotives were imported from England or America; home-grown designs only really started going in the 1890s. We’ve seen a few of those early locos when we visited the National Rail Museum a little while back.
But there are a lot of survivors in unlikely places or, in this case, very logical ones. This 1891 tank locomotive, built by Dübs & Co. of Glasgow, sits within the elaborately train-themed campus of the Showa Railway High School, a private school opened in 1928 to develop human resources for the industry.
We’re going to take a deep dive into this particular one, located at Asukayama Park – one of the city’s historic public green spaces. This locomotive is not special per se, but one can visit the interior, which makes it noteworthy.
By the way, all those displays come with a full detailed historical and specs breakdown – when they were made, where they were used and retired, how many kilometers they travelled, measurements and such… So this is a JNR-class D51 unit that entered service in 1943 and was retired in 1972.
The D51 was manufactured between 1936 and 1950 in about 1200 units – it remains the most-produced type of locomotive made in Japan. It has a 2-8-2 wheel arrangement in narrow gauge (3’6’’/1067mm, though a few standard-gauge units were specially made for use in Korea).
Japanese railways were partially nationalized back in 1906. There were 32 private rail companies active throughout the Empire; government decided to take 17 of them under state control. Rolling stock design was centralized under the Japanese Government Railways company, renamed Japanese National Railways (JNR) in 1949. Since 1987, JNR was divided into six regional branches and re-privatized as the Japanese Railways (JR) group.
The D51 was the work of Hideo Shima, who would later be the chief designer of the Shinkansen (bullet train). Shima-san declared the D51 to be his favourite steam locomotive, and it was definitely one of the best late-model steam engines on the Japanese network. Most D51s were used to pull freight, or at least were originally intended so, but many were also used in passenger service, including for the Imperial train.
These mighty locos remained in service until December 1975 in Japan. They also served in the Philippines and in Korea, albeit briefly. D51’s career lasted until 1983 in Taiwan, 1980 in mainland China, and 1979 on the island of Sakhaline, whose southern half was Japanese prior to 1945, but became wholly Soviet-controlled afterwards. Bit of a regional star, then.
Let’s step inside and take a look at the cab. The tiny driver’s seat is on the right-hand side, with two mysterious levers (surely the HVAC controls? Or maybe the CD player?) at the ready.
The firebox is right next to the driver’s seat, with its multitude of dials, taps and hoses towering over the onlooker like some nightmarish pipe organ. Working this beast by feeding it coal and monitoring its whims must have been a daunting task.
There are at least fifteen knobs or taps here, but only four dials to inform the crew. However, this D-51 type was apparently relatively user-friendly compared to its predecessors and was popular with their operators.
Up to ten different locomotive works were tasked with manufacturing these machines, including such well-known names as Hitachi, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Nippon Sharyo Seizo, the latter being one of the oldest rolling stock companies in Japan (still to this day). Yearly production never quite reached 200 units, though.
There are about 180 of these steamers still extant, of which five are in full working order. I saw one operating in Gunma, where the Japan Rail Club organizes Sunday outings on the mainlines in those more remote prefectures.
Hope you enjoyed this little trip on the other side of the railroad tracks. If so, keep your eyes peeled for part two (sometime this month) where we’ll take a gander at Tokyo trams.
Related post:
Museum / Trackside Classic: The Railway Museum at Ōmiya
The 6 hour round trip from Niigata to Aizuwakamatsu (SL Banetsu Monogatari) is well worth a day spent – scheduled Steam every Saturday at the very least and operated by JR East – unlike England where steam is operated by preservation societies
Here’s me having a squint at a locomotive at the Kyoto Railway Museum – with a squad of primary school kids behind observing the “baka gaijin” !
Thank you Tatra-san for this. As usual, a wonderful read and I look forward to the rest.
I have been a model railroader since the late ‘70’s when it was suggested I switch from static models to models that move. My primary interest is western Canada and west coast logging, but when my wife became interested in her Japanese heritage about 15 years ago I became interested in Japanese trains and now also model them in Japanese n scale.
As is my wont, I wanted to know more about the history of what I was modeling so got a bunch of books and publications on Japanese railways. If anyone is interested in more information, I would recommend the following 3 books to start.
In chronological order:
• Early Japanese Railways 1853-1914: Engineering Triumphs That Transformed Meiji-era Japan by Dan Free. Published by Tuttle Publishing, 2014, ISBN-13: 978-4805312902). A fascinating read, and one of the best railway history books I have read.
• Old Man Thunder: Father of the Bullet Train by Bill Hosokawa. Published by Sogo Way, Denver, Co, 1997, ISBN-13: 978-0965958004). A biography of Sogo Shinji who pushed through the building of the shinkansen. It has a bit of overlap with Dan Free’s book.
• Japanese National Railways: Its Break-up and Privatization by Yoshiyuki Kasai. Published by Global Oriental 2003, ISBN 1-901903-45-1. Written by the eventual president of JR Central, it details how the Japanese National Railways went from money making in the early 60’s (despite significant cost overruns in building the shinkansen) to having more debt than Mexico by the early 80’s (despite the enormous profits from the shinkansen and the main trunk lines), and the eventual breakup of JNR and creation of the JR Group.
The East Japan Railway Culture Foundation has published a 12 part series on Japanese railway history as part of their Japan Railway & Transport Review publication that can be accessed here: https://www.ejrcf.or.jp/jrtr/history/index_history.html. These are short (4 – 12 pages) excerpts from their publications that have been consolidated into the 12 pdf’s. Unfortunately they stopped publishing in 2017 but the series is still available on the web site.
Japanese railway history and operations are very fascinating to me. I was very impressed when I was there back in 1981 and got to ride on a number of trains including the shinkansen. The level of meticulous cleanliness and maintenance is unparalleled and makes every ride a treat.
Nice,,,my son when he was a young tyke was fascinated by trains so we went to a lot of these parks and museums. That one in Omiya is world-class.
Despite a high-pressure coalface assignment in steamy surrounds, you’ve succeeded in blowing the whistle on this history without resorting to boilerplate cliches or smoking similes that are as dull as unpolished brass.
The D-51 is a nice-looking loco, especially for a packhorse. Lots of paraphenalia on it I can’t work out, maybe Japanese-specific things.
Steam locos stuck in a park for kids to climb on – which all three were everywhere in my youth – have the sadness of a circus elephant. They are deteriorating, getting shabby, hiding arthritic rust bulges, left despairing by their welded-up immobilization. The paint is never right: bits over-painted that weren’t when it was free, smudged over edges in ways it was strictly not allowed to be back when, brass and copper returned to dullness. Even in Japan, it seems.
Steam power. So romantic, so mesmeric, yet it was always so hungry for attention and pampering. No wonder the attendant workforces were always outsized. Our local railways had schools too, and chef training, and even a ballroom, perhaps not surprising for what was the State’s biggest employer at its 1920’s peak.
Thanks for the history, Prof. I’ll doubtless be rabbit-holing further.
If you’re ever down near Kyushu check out the Kyushu Railway Museum in Moji. It’s maybe not worth a trip all by itself, but it’s a cool way to spend a couple hours.
Agreed. Manged to get there in 2024 and it was part of an enjoyable day trip from Fukuoka, traveling by local train of course.
I’m a casual rail fan, these are all fascinating .
In the late 1950’s through the mid 1960’s when I left, there were more than a few operating tourist steam railways that were always a magnet for me and other children =8-) .
-Nate
My mother was Japanese and she told me when she was a little girl all the trains were steam powered. When the train approached a tunnel, everyone riding had to close up their window (if it was open), otherwise the smoke from the engine would get sucked into the cabin and choke everyone out.
Referring to the photos you took on the footplate of the D51, the driver is on the left side of the cab. The seat you showed is for the fireman. The two mystery controls are the isolating cock for the butterfly firedoor and the operating cock for the smoke diverter if fitted. The four gauges are from L to R the valve chest pressure gauge, boiler pressure gauge, feedwater pump pressure gauge and steam heat temperature gauge.