The China Railways KD23 class locomotive was a class of

2-8-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle, usually in a leading truck, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and no trailing wheels. ...

steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...

s operated by the

China Railway China State Railway Group Company, Ltd., doing business as China Railway (CR), is the national passenger and freight railroad corporation of the People's Republic of China. China Railway operates passenger and freight transport throughout Ch ...

. Originally amongst the first locomotives ordered by the South Manchuria Railway (''Mantetsu''), they were built by ALCo of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1906, and they were later operated by the privately owned

Jichang Jidun Railway Jichang, may refer to: Town * Jichang (Shuicheng County), a rural town in Shuicheng County, Guizhou, China * Jichang (Qinglong County), a rural town in Qinglong County, Guizhou, China Garden * Jichang Garden (Chinese: 寄畅园), a garden in Xih ...

and its successor, the

Manchukuo National Railway The Manchukuo National Railway (Traditional Chinese and Japanese kanji: , Japanese romanization: ''Manshū Kokuyū Tetsudō'') was the state-owned national railway company of Manchukuo. Generally called the "國線" ("National Line", ''Kokusen' ...

. The "Sori" name comes from the American naming system for steam locomotives, in which the 2-8-0 wheel arrangement is called "Consolidation".

History

Part of the first group of locomotives ordered by Mantetsu after converting to

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

was two 2-8-0 locomotives from ALCO. The Mantetsu records indicate that the engines were built at ALCo's

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

works, originally for the Boston & Maine Railroad. However, ALCo's records indicate that they were built at the

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

facility. Numbered 1 and 2 when first delivered, they were designated class H and renumbered 1000 and 1001 when Mantetsu introduced its second

classification system Classification is a process related to categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood. Classification is the grouping of related facts into classes. It may also refer to: Business, organizat ...

in 1907. After brief use on the mainline, they were reassigned to haul goods trains on the Anfeng Line in 1912. Due to the inconvenience of operating and maintaining only two locomotives of distinctive design, Mantetsu transferred both to the Jichang Railway in 1919, which in 1931 merged with the Jidun Railway to form the

, where they were numbered 301 and 302. In 1933, the

was created through the nationalisation and merger of several privately owned railways, including the Jichang Jidun Railway, and these locomotives passed on to the Manchukuo National, which classified them Sorishi (ソリシ) class, numbered 6050 and 6051, becoming Soriro (ソリロ) 505 and 506 in 1938. The Manchukuo National had eight other locomotives in the (1938) Soriro class, numbered ソリロ501–ソリロ504 and ソリロ507-510, but the origins of these engines is unknown; these were all sent to the Chosen Government Railway (''Sentetsu'') in Korea by 1942.

Postwar

After the end of the

Pacific War The Pacific War, sometimes called the Asia–Pacific War, was the theater of World War II that was fought in Asia, the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and Oceania. It was geographically the largest theater of the war, including the vast ...

the two built for Mantetsu were operated by the

as class ㄎㄉ23 (KD23) until 1959, when they became class KD23 (written in Pinyin instead of Zhuyin). The eight that were on loan to Sentetsu remained in Korea and were taken up by the Korean State Railway in North Korea, where they were designated 소리유 (''Soriyu'') class, and the

Korean National Railroad The Korea Railroad Corporation (Korean: 한국철도공사, Hanja: ), branded as KORAIL (코레일, officially changed to in November 2019), is the national railway operator in South Korea. Currently, KORAIL is a public corporation, managed ...

in South Korea, where they were designated 소리6 (''Sori6'') class. Known to have been operated by the KNR was 소리6-507, formerly Sentetsu ソリロ507 and previously Manchukuo National ソリロ507.

References

{{DPRKloco 2-8-0 locomotives ALCO locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1906 Steam locomotives of China Standard gauge locomotives of China Rolling stock of Manchukuo Locomotives of Korea Locomotives of South Korea Locomotives of North Korea Freight locomotives