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.}}

---

Bit of a weird one, this time around. A C11 in need of some loving care, parked outside a restaurant in Osaka, across the street from the tomb of the 16th Emperor of Japan.

It was early in the morning and the pandemic was in full swing so the restaurant was closed for one of those reasons – perhaps both.

This C11 itself has a fairly standard history – born in Showa 16 (1942), in Hiroshima, it made its way to a new base in Sapporo the following year. It pretty much hung around in Hokkaido until the end of its life, moving to Kushiro in Showa 48 (1973) before being retired 2 years later.

During its time as a train and not a random tourist attraction, it did about 37 laps of the earth – or about 1,483,873 km.

I have no idea how it ended up at a Korean barbecue restaurant, least of all one that also does sushi. Clearly, there are some colourful elements missing from this tale…

---

Here’s a breakdown of the details about this train, taken from the wikipedia page.

---

TYPE C11 (2-6-4T locomotive)

Built by the Japanese Government Railways and the Japanese National Railways from 1932 to 1947. A total of 381 Class C11 locomotives were built and designed by Hideo Shima.

Gauge : 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in)
Leading diameter : 860 mm (34 in)
Driver diameter : 1,520 mm (60 in)
Trailing diameter : 860 mm (34 in)
Length : 12,650 mm (498 in)
Width : 2,936 mm (115.6 in)
Height : 3,900 mm (150 in)
Loco weight : 66.05 t
Cylinder size : 450 mm diameter x 610 mm

---

You can visit C11-218 here.

UPDATE January 26th, 2025: It looks like they moved this loco across the road a couple of years back to put up an apartment building – so it won’t look like this any longer.