Do you remember Shimbashi SL (steam locomotive) Square, which I introduced 11 years ago in this blog? I revisited there after a long time.
To start, let me quickly review Shimbashi SL Square. It's located next to JR East Shimbashi station, and is a famous meeting spot among businesspeople in Tokyo. They meet up at the square after office hours, and enjoy drinking, chatting and singing Karaoke for relieving stress from work.
The symbol of the square is a steam locomotive, unit 292 of the ex-Japanese National Railways Class C11 (hereafter C11 292). C11 292 was built in 1945 at Nagoya Factory of Nippon Sharyo Company. It had been used for freight transportation in the western part of Japan. After retirement from the track, it was moved to Shimbashi station, and has been preserved there since 1972. As you know, Japanese railways originated in Shimbashi, so, C11 292 must be proud to be preserved in front of Shimbashi station.
Now then, let's observe C11 292. It's a 2-6-4 type (Whyte notation) small tank locomotive. You see box-shaped steam and sand "domes" at the top central part of the locomotive, don't you? Why aren't they dome-shaped? It was because of WWII. Due to the emergency, these box-shaped steam and sand "domes" simplified the manufacturing process at that time. The war had changed designs of the locomotives. That's so sad. After observing the old locomotive, I pulled myself together, and went to a dinner party in a peaceful era with my friends.
