Sorry for jumping from one topic to another, but I’m going to follow up and post about my recent visit to Miyazaki Prefecture today.
I took JR Kyushu’s limited express train “Hyuga” at Miyazaki Airport station and headed north. My destination was Nobeoka City in the northern part of Miyazaki Prefecture. When I got off the train at Nobeoka station, I found an unfamiliar locomotive in the station yard. What’s that? The answer was JR Freight’s diesel locomotive “Class DB500”. JR Freight (JRF) is one of the JR group railway companies. Unlike the other JR group companies, JRF operates their freight trains on a nationwide scale using the other JR group companies' tracks.
The Class DB500 was commissioned in 2016 as a switcher for freight stations. As I posted before, JRF launched a hybrid switcher, Class HD300, in 2011. It’s a silent and eco-friendly locomotive, but too big for small freight stations. JRF then developed a small switcher Class DB500 for small freight stations. It’s only 7.65 meters long and weighs 26,900 kilograms. A total of four units were built by Hokuriku Heavy Industries. Two of them belong to freight stations on Kyushu Island. With regard to the technical specifications, Class DB500 is classifies as a hydraulic diesel locomotive with an axis arrangement A-A (JNR notation). Unit 51 (see the photos) is equipped with a diesel engine made by Volvo and can pull up to 500,000 kilograms cargo container wagons within freight station yards.
Class DB500… it’s a mini locomotive but a hard worker, isn’t it?
