Oigawa Railway gets a new steam loco

[marknewton]

Oigawa Railway have a new steam loco. C56135, built by Hitachi in 1938, was withdrawn in 1974 and displayed in a park in Kato city in Hyogo prefecture. The loco was displayed outdoors and had deteriorated over the years, so the city planned to scrap it. Oigawa Railway heard of this, and approached the city, who have transferred ownership to the railway. Apparently their intention is to to rebuild it to run alongside their other C56. I'm wishing them all the best of luck with that project - C56s are lovely little engines.

 

https://news.railway-pressnet.com/archives/36237

 

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/9a53de411272a23e174913d59cdfdd989b9e0cf6

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.
 

 

Edited February 13, 2022 by marknewton

[SL58654号]

Wonderful that steam locos are still getting love and care to working order in Japan. The Oigawa Railway would indeed be the appropriate place, considering they were arguably the earliest "steam for pleasure" locale in the country.
Not to mention they painted their C11 Thomas in that LBSC livery. No other railway ever did that before.