JNR Class ED15

The Class ED15 was a Japanese electric locomotive built by Hitachi and operated from 1924 until 1960. It holds a place in the country's railway history as the first mainline electric locomotive type to be built domestically in Japan. Hitachi's founder Namihei Odaira and other Hitachi engineers visited the Omiya Works of the Japanese Governmental Railways in 1922, saw the imported electric locomotives there and resolved to build one themselves. The first unit, ED15 1, was completed in 1924 and two more followed in 1926. Under the original numbering the class was Class 1070, and it became Class ED15 from 1928. The locomotives hauled freight on the Tokaido Main Line and were later used on the Chuo Main Line before being withdrawn in 1959 and 1960. ED15 1 is preserved at the Hitachi Mito Factory in Hitachinaka.