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 C57 is probably quite familiar to anybody who’s ever ridden a JR train to Shinagawa from Yokohama; you can see it from the train windows on the right hand side (if you’re heading up to Tokyo.)

It’s current location is a long, long way from its original stomping ground: it started off its career in Umekoji, down Kyoto way, all the way back in Showa 13 (1938) before making its way steadily south: moving to Moji in the northern part of Kyushu in April 1946, heading down to Oita 14 years later before finishing up all the way at the bottom of the region, in Miyazaki, in 1969.

Not much to tell about this particular beautifully cared for train except that it travelled 3,124,321 km in its life – 79 times around the earth, or 4 times to the moon and back.

Same facts and figures as our very first SLSL post:

Locomotive total length: 12,960 mm

Locomotive total height: 3,945 mm

Tender total length: 7,320 mm

Tender total height: 3,080mm

Locomotive weight: 67.5 t

Tender weight: 48t

Maximum indicated horsepower: 120ps

Maximum operating speed: 100 km/h

Water tank volume: 17 m³

Driving wheel diameter: 1,750 mm

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You can visit C57-66 here.