Happy New Year! The year 2025 has begun. I wish all railfans around the world health and happiness over this festive period and for 2025. At the opening of New Year, I’m going to show you a beautifully preserved locomotive in Nirasaki Central Park, Nirasaki City, Yamanashi Prefecture about 150 kilometers west of Tokyo.
The Class EF15 is a 1,500V direct current electric locomotive with an axis arrangement 1C+C1 (AAR wheel arrangement). It was developed by Ministry of Transport in 1947 for pulling freight trains. A total of 202 units were built, but currently only 4 units are preserved in the country. The EF15 is 17 meters long, and weighs 102 tons. The maximum speed was 75 kilometers per hour. Unit 198 (see the top photo) was built by Toyo Denki and Kisha Seizo in 1958. After operating for 28 years on the Japanese National Railways (JNR) lines, it was retired from the track in 1986 as the final survivor of the EF15. Its total driving distance was 2.12 million kilometers. Please compare with the Class EF57, which I showed you last November.
I’m not done yet. Please look at the photo below next. You can see 4 freight cars behind Unit 198. They are 3 open wagons named ToRa70000, and a caboose Yo5000. ToRa70000 was JNR’s standard open wagon. A total of 5100 units were built, but currently only 13 units survive. ToRa701 and ToRa702 on the Mojiko Retro Sightseeing line are precious survivors of the JNR ToRa70000 after renovation.
