JNR Class EF55

The Japanese National Railways Class EF55 was a small class of three streamlined electric locomotives built in 1936 by Hitachi, Kawasaki and Toyo Electric. It was intended to replace steam locomotives on express trains after the Tanna Tunnel opened on the Tokaido Main Line, and it was based on the earlier EF53 design but used an unusual non-symmetrical wheel arrangement with a streamlined cab at one end only and a conventional cab with an access deck at the other. Welding was used to give a smooth surface, and a 1936 trial showed a nine percent reduction in air resistance when the streamlined end ran first. The need to turn the locomotives round because of the single streamlined cab proved the downfall of the class: they were stored in 1958 and officially withdrawn in 1964. Nicknamed the hippos and, in the 1980s, Moomin, the class survives through EF55 1, which was restored to running order and exhibited at the railway museum in Omiya.