JNR Class C62

The Class C62 was a Japanese 4-6-4 steam passenger locomotive designed by Hideo Shima for the Japanese National Railways. Forty-nine were built in 1948 and 1949, each rebuilt around the boiler of an older Class D52 2-8-2 locomotive. They were the largest and fastest steam passenger locomotives to run in Japan and hauled the Tsubame express on the Tokaido Main Line between Tokyo and Osaka. After electrification of that line displaced them, five worked the Teine express in Hokkaido between Otaru and Hakodate, where pairs double-headed trains up the 2.5 percent grades until 1971, and the last examples in regular service were withdrawn in 1973. On 15 December 1954 C62 17 reached 129 km/h on the Tokaido Main Line, a record for a narrow gauge steam locomotive. Five survive, including C62 2 at the Kyoto Railway Museum. Hitachi was among the builders of the class.