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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One of the signs gives a breakdown of the functions, bits and bobs and other whatchamadoodads that make the train run. The other explains a bit about the general history of this particular “degoichi” (essentially just D51 in Japanese: ‘de’ is ‘D’, ‘go’ is ‘5’ and ‘ichi’ is ‘1’) and then about the D51 class itself – the D51 locomotives are the most ubiquitous park residents in Japan, and the sign lets you know why: there were about 1115 of them built between 1936 and 1945.

This particular D51 started life off in Aomori in 1941. It moved to Sendai in 1957; then off to Shinjo in 1967, Akita in 68, Okayama in 1971 where it spent almost a whole year before being scrapped and finding its way to this little park in the burbs of Tokyo.

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Here’s a breakdown of the details about this train, taken from the 国鉄D51形蒸気機関車 entry at wikipedia.

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TYPE D51 (2-8-2 locomotive)

Built by the Japanese Government Railways (JGR), the Japanese National Railways (JNR), and Kawasaki Heavy Industries Rolling Stock Company, Kisha Seizo, Hitachi, Nippon Sharyo, Mitsubishi, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries from 1936 to 1945 and 1950 to 1951.

Axis arrangement : 1D1
Gauge : 1,067mm
full length : 19,730mm
Overall height : 3,980mm
Locomotive weight : 78.37t (operation maintenance)
Tender weight : 47.40t (operation maintenance)
Gross weight : 125.77t
Driving wheel diameter :1,400mm
Axis load : 14.30t
Number of cylinders : Single 2-cylinder
Cylinder (diameter x stroke) : 550mm x 660mm
Valve device : Walschaert style
Boiler pressure : 14.0 kg f / cm² (1.373 MPa; 199.1 psi) (when first introduced)
15.0 kg f / cm² (1.471 MPa; 213.4 psi) (all cars afterthe war)
Boiler water capacity : 6.0m³
Large smoketube (diameter x length x number) : 140mm x 5,500mm x 35
Small smoketube (diameter x length x number) : 57mm x 5,500mm x 94
Grate area : 3.27m²
Total heattransfer area : 221.5m²
Overheat heattransfer area : 41.4m²
Total evaporation heattransfer area : 168.8m²
Smoketube evaporation heattransfer area : 147.4m²
Firebox evaporation heattransfer area : 17.5m²
Fuel load : 8.0t (Unit 1-954) / 10.0t ( Unit 1001-1161 )
Watertank capacity : 20.0m³
Braking device : Automatic air brake
Security device : ATS-P / Ps (498), ATS-SW / ATS-P (200)
Maximum driving speed : 85km/h
Maximum output : 1,400 PS
Rated output : 1,280 PS
Rated output : 1,280 PS

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You can visit D51-428 here.