Happy New Year! The year 2025 has begun. I wish all railfans around the world good health and happiness during this festive season and throughout the coming year. At the start of the New Year, I’m going to show you a beautifully preserved locomotive in Nirasaki Central Park, located in Nirasaki City, Yamanashi Prefecture, about 150 kilometers west of Tokyo.
The Class EF15 is a 1,500-volt direct-current electric locomotive with a 1C+C1 axle arrangement (AAR wheel arrangement). It was developed by the Ministry of Transport in 1947 for hauling freight trains. A total of 202 units were built, but today only four remain preserved in Japan. The EF15 measures 17 meters in length and weighs 102 tons. Its 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 Japanese National Railways (JNR) lines, it was retired in 1986 as the very last active EF15. Its total running distance reached an impressive 2.12 million kilometers. Please compare it with the Class EF57, which I introduced last November.
I’m not done yet. Please look at the photo below as well. You can see four freight cars coupled behind Unit 198. They consist of three open wagons of the ToRa 70000 series and one caboose of the Yo 5000 series. The ToRa 70000 was JNR’s standard open wagon. A total of 5,100 units were built, but today only 13 still survive. ToRa701 and ToRa702 on the Mojiko Retro Sightseeing Line are precious survivors of the ToRa 70000 series, preserved after renovation.
