There are more than a few steam locomotives sitting in parks across Japan, enjoying their retirement.

I wanted to acknowledge the ones I happen across for all their hard work, so I started the Static Life Steam Locomotives Project, SLSL for short.

^{_{A map of the Static Life Steam Locomotives & more about the project is here.}}

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This groovy steam train is about fifteen minutes cycle away from CityHillsAndSea HQ. I’ve probably cycled past the park where it lives a hundred times without even knowing it was in there. You live and learn, eh?

This locomotive is nicknamed “Shiokaze”, which literally means ‘salt wind’ but is probably better translated as ‘sea breeze’. When doing my research I found an image of an information board I didn’t see on my visit (so it’s not featured in the photos above). The image comes from this site, which also has some cool pictures of the park before the shelter was built. If you remember the first person narrative that C57-26 gave us, you’ll probably get a kick out of what C11-245 “Sea Breeze” has to say for itself:

I was born in May, Showa 18 (1943) at Nippon Sharyo, Ltd. I am C11 245.

For a long time I was a rapid locomotive in urban areas. After that, I served in many areas carrying both passengers and cargo – I was loved by many people all over the country. My mates and I took care of cargo in and out of the National Railways station in Fujisawa up until Showa 41 (1966). I was so loved by the citizens of Fujisawa that, thanks to them and to the support of people at National Railways, I ended up moving back here from Morioka to spend the rest of my life in this park.

Please take good care of me.

PS. My mate is in Shizuoka and travels every day on the Oigawa Railway between Kanaya and Senzu. Please go see him.

The data box – which has seen better days – tells us, from top to bottom, left to right:

Locomotive total length: 12,650 mm

Locomotive total height: 3,940 mm

Tender total length: 7,320 mm

Tender total height: 2,936mm

Locomotive weight: 68.06 t

Cylinder: 450 x 610mm

Operating pressure(?): 15kg/cm

Water tank volume: 8.5 m³

Fuel Capacity(?): 3 t

Driving wheel diameter: 1,520 mm

Maximum load: 520 t

Maximum operating speed: 85 km/h

Distance travelled: 917,851km

Do feel free to correct me, particularly about any of the question marked bits above. I’m not much of a kanji reader and the sign is pretty hard to make out.

Something else that isn’t easy to make out is the poster in the right hand corner of the cab window: this explains about the club that looks after the train. It’s a children’s group who are also in charge of driving the mini train that runs around the park. (You can read a little more about that at Tokyo Railway Labyrinth, a pretty cool blog, whose owner has probably forgotten more about trains than I’ll ever know.) I couldn’t find the actual website for the club, so I’m not even sure it’s still a thing; but I hope it is. It sounds like a great experience to be a part of.

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You can visit C11-245 by going here.

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^{Muchas gracias a la senora sin nariz for some translation assistance.}