JNR Class D50

The Class D50 was a Japanese 2-8-2 Mikado type steam locomotive built between 1923 and 1931 by the Japanese Government Railways, the Japanese National Railways and various manufacturers, with 380 in all. Its design drew on the JNR Class 9600 of 1916, and Hideo Shima designed the later part of the class until 1931. Between 1951 and 1956 the national railways rebuilt 78 of them as Class D60 2-8-4 Berkshire locomotives. Sixteen were exported in 1923 to the Jichang Jidun Railway in Manchuria as class 500, and D50 193 was converted to standard gauge in 1939 and sent to the Central China Railway, where it worked between Nanjing and Shanghai. Two D50s are preserved in Japan, one in a park in Kitami, Hokkaido, and one at the Kyoto Railway Museum. Hitachi lists the D50 among the steam locomotives it built in the 1920s.