The Pashini class (パシニ) locomotives were a group of

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

tender locomotive A tender or coal-car (US only) is a special rail vehicle hauled by a steam locomotive containing its fuel (wood, coal, oil or torrefied biomass) and water. Steam locomotives consume large quantities of water compared to the quantity of fuel, so ...

s of the Chosen Government Railway (''Sentetsu'') with

4-6-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, represents the wheel arrangement of four leading wheels on two axles, six powered and coupled driving wheels on three axles and two trailing wheels on one axle. The locomotiv ...

wheel arrangement. The "Pashi" name came from the American naming system for steam locomotives, under which locomotives with 4-6-2 wheel arrangement were called "Pacific". In all, Sentetsu owned 144 locomotives of all Pashi classes, of which 141 survived the war; of these, 73 went to 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 ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

and 68 to the

Korean State Railway The Korean State Railway (), commonly called the State Rail () is the operating arm of the Ministry of Railways of North Korea and has its headquarters at P'yŏngyang. The current Minister of Railways is Chang Jun Song. History 1945–195 ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu River, Y ...

Description

Following the success of the Pashii class, Sentetsu took delivery of six locomotives from ALCo of the United States in 1923. they were originally numbered パシ913–パシ918, but after six

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese-built copies of the Pashii class were delivered later in the same year, in 1924 the ALCo engines were renumbered パシ919–パシ924 in order to free 913–918 up for the new Pashii units. When Sentetsu introduced its new numbering system in 1938, these engines were redesignated パシニ (''Pashini'') class and numbered パシニ1 through パシニ6. These engines represented a milestone in Korean railway history, having been the very last class of locomotives imported by Sentetsu from outside the Japanese Empire.

Postwar: Korean State Railway 바시두 (Pasidu) class

After the

partition of Korea The division of Korea began with the defeat of Japan in World War II. During the war, the Allied leaders considered the question of Korea's future after Japan's surrender in the war. The leaders reached an understanding that Korea would be li ...

, all six of the Pashini-class locomotives were in the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

, and were taken over by the

(''Kukch'ŏl'') and were initially designated 바시두 (''Pasidu'') class. Little of their service lives in the North is known. It's uncertain whether they remained in service long enough to be renumbered with a four-digit serial number, and their subsequent fate is unknown; they were likely retired in the late 1960s or early 1970s. After retirement, one of them, 바시두3, was fully restored to its original condition, including the original Sentetsu "パシニ3" number plates, and is now on display at the Wŏnsan Revolutionary Museum in

Wŏnsan Wŏnsan (), previously known as Wŏnsanjin (), Port Lazarev, and Genzan (), is a port city and naval base located in Kangwŏn Province, North Korea, along the eastern side of the Korean Peninsula, on the Sea of Japan and the provincial capital. ...

, which was opened in 1975 in Wŏnsan's original Sentetsu-built railway station building.

Construction

References

{{DPRKloco Locomotives of Korea under Japanese rule Locomotives of North Korea Railway locomotives introduced in 1923 4-6-2 locomotives ALCO locomotives