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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Daimotsu is a little place within the borders of Amagasaki City in Hyogo prefecture, a city that became famous when a local official managed to lose a USB drive with a bunch of citizens’ data on it. Nothing quite so dramatic today, I’m afraid; just your standard D51 cargo loco sitting in a park quietly minding its own business.

The D51 locomotives are – as I mention all too often – the most ubiquitous park residents in Japan. They’re also known as the “degoichi”, a nickname name that is essentially just D51 in Japanese: ‘de’ is ‘D’, ‘go’ is ‘5’ and ‘ichi’ is ‘1’.

This particular one, as you might have gathered from its low number, was built early on in the D51 lifespan. It entered service in March of Showa 11 (1936), in Kawasaki. It worked up until Showa 47 (1972), ferrying cargo in Yamaguchi prefecture down on the southern island of Kyushu.

And, as is also standard with these information boards, we find out that this particular loco has been to the moon and back 3 whole times; having travelled 2,404,191 kilometres throughout its lifetime of service.

TYPE D51 (2-8-2 locomotive)

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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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

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You can visit D51-8 by going here.