The is a former class of steam locomotives operated in Japan. The class was the first type in Japan to use the 4-6-4 "Hudson"

wheel arrangement In rail transport, a wheel arrangement or wheel configuration is a system of classifying the way in which wheels are distributed under a locomotive. Several notations exist to describe the wheel assemblies of a locomotive by type, position, and c ...

. A total of 33 locomotives were built between 1947 and 1949 and designed by

Hideo Shima was a Japanese engineer and the driving force behind the building of the first bullet train (Shinkansen). Shima was born in Osaka in 1901, and educated at the Tokyo Imperial University, where he studied Mechanical Engineering. His father was p ...

, (one in 1947, 19 in 1948, and 13 in 1949). The locomotives were not built entirely from new, however, but used the boilers from former D51 2-8-2 "Mikado" freight locomotives. The immediate post-war years saw a dramatic decline in freight, while at the same time passenger traffic once again surged, requiring a programme to rapidly build new passenger locos (classes C57 and C58) as well as rebuilding passenger locos from former freight types (classes C61 and C62). These nominal conversions were also seen as a way of bypassing the difficulties in obtaining approval from GHQ (or Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers) for building completely new locomotives at the time. The locomotives were notable in being the first in Japan to incorporate automatic stokers. The first eighteen locos delivered were allocated to Utsunomiya and Sendai depots to work express passenger duties on the

Tōhoku Main Line The Tōhoku Main Line ( ja, 東北本線, ) is a long railway line in Japan operated by the East Japan Railway Company (JR East). The line starts from Tokyo Station in Chiyoda, Tokyo and passes through such cities as Saitama, Utsunomiya, Fuku ...

. Nine locos were allocated to Oku and Mito depots to work on Jōban Line duties, and six locos were delivered to Tosu depot in Kyūshū to work on the

Kagoshima Main Line The is a major railway line operated by the Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu) between Mojikō in Kitakyushu, and Kagoshima Station in Kagoshima City, at the southern end of Kyushu. Until March 13, 2004, it extended 393 km between its ...

. With the spread of electrification together with the influx of C59s displaced from

Tōkaidō Main Line The is a major Japanese railway line of the Japan Railways Group (JR Group) network, connecting and stations. It is long, not counting its many freight feeder lines around the major cities. The high-speed Tōkaidō Shinkansen largely parallel ...

duties, the C61s found themselves gradually pushed further north to Morioka and Aomori depots. In later years, they were to be seen at the head of the newly inaugurated '' Hakutsuru'' limited express (between Sendai and Aomori) and the ''

Hayabusa was a robotic spacecraft developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to return a sample of material from a small near-Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa to Earth for further analysis. ''Hayabusa'', formerly known as MUSES-C fo ...

'' blue train (between Hakata and Kagoshima). With the completion of electrification from Morioka to Aomori in October 1968, the six last remaining C61s were moved to Aomori depot where they worked on the Ōu Mainline between Akita and Aomori. The six Kagoshima-based locos originally delivered new to Kyūshū were withdrawn, but the six remaining Tōhoku locos were transferred to Miyazaki depot in October 1971 to work on the

Nippō Main Line The is a railway line in Kyushu, in southern Japan, operated by Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu). The line connects Kokura Station in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, and Kagoshima Station in Kagoshima via the east coast of Kyushu, passing through the p ...

between Miyazaki and Kagoshima. They worked there until finally being withdrawn in 1974.

Specifications

Fleet details

(Source: )

Preserved examples

Japanese-national-railways-C61-20-20110223

* C61 2 (formerly D51 1109) -

Umekōji Steam Locomotive Museum The (formerly the until 2016) is a railway museum in Shimogyō-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The original Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum opened in 1972, but was expanded and modernized in 2016, becoming the Kyoto Railway Museum. The museum is owned by We ...

in Kyoto (in working condition) * C61 18 (formerly D51 874) - Front section only preserved privately in

Yatsushiro, Kumamoto is a city located in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan. Geography Located at the geographic center of Kyushu, Yatsushiro City is situated on the aptly named Yatsushiro Sea in between Kumamoto and Ashikita City. Climate Yatsushiro has a humid su ...

* C61 19 (formerly D51 1027) - Shiroyama Park in

Kokubu, Kagoshima was a city located in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. The city was founded on February 1, 1955. As of 2003, the city had an estimated population of 55,237 and the density of 450.88 persons per km². The total area was 122.51 km². On November 7, 2 ...

* C61 20 (formerly D51 1094) - JR-East

Takasaki, Gunma is a city located in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 372,369 in 167,345 households, and a population density of 810 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Takasaki is famous as the hometown of th ...

(Operating condition - April 2011)Jumo Shimbum
上越線で復元のC61試運転 (27 April 2011)
. Retrieved 4 June 2011

References

{{Jrwestloco Steam locomotives of Japan 4-6-4 locomotives 1067 mm gauge locomotives of Japan Preserved steam locomotives of Japan Railway locomotives introduced in 1947 Passenger locomotives

Specifications

Fleet details

Preserved examples

See also

References