Historic steam locomotive returns

SHIZUOKA (Kyodo) A railway in Shizuoka Prefecture on Sunday restarted regular operations of a Japanese-made steam locomotive that had been used in Thailand until 1979.

A Class C56 steam locomotive at Shinkanaya Station in Shimada, Shizuoka Prefecture, is ready Sunday morning to resume operations on the Oigawa Railway. Built in Kobe in 1936, it ran in Thailand from 1941 to 1979. KYODO PHOTO

Oigawa Railway Co. held a ceremony on the platform of Shinkanaya Station in Shimada to mark the return of the Class C56 locomotive. It has been repainted green, the same color when it was used in Thailand.

The railway brought the locomotive back into service to mark the 120th anniversary of the Japan-Siam amity treaty.

Before the train pulled out, popular Thai actress Kanyarat Jiraratchakit broke open a "kusudama" decorative ball hung from the platform's ceiling.

Oigawa Railway President Masaru Ito said, "We would like to start friendly exchanges with Thailand by seizing this opportunity."

The locomotive was manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. in Kobe in 1936. It was transported to Thailand in 1941 by the Imperial Japanese Army. After World War II, it was operated by the Thai National Railway until 1979 before being returned to Japan.

Oigawa Railway then used the locomotive, painted black, for more than 20 years.

It transported both local residents and railway fans in Shizuoka until 2003, when it was taken out of service due to an aging boiler.

Following Sunday's ceremony, the three-car train left the station with 240 passengers aboard.

Dozens of train fans took photos or video footage of the locomotive belching black smoke.

"I came here as I had boarded this locomotive when I was in Thailand," Hiroyuki Shimamura, a 59-year-old company worker from Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture, said. "I am pleased to get on the green locomotive with which I had become so familiar with in those days."