C11 171

Hokkaido Railway Company
1940 - 1975 Restored : Apr 1999
C11_171 was manufactured at the Kawasaki Sharyo Co. serial No. 2333, on the 19th of July 1940.
Her first deployment was to the Nagoya area and afterward she was moved to the Hokkaido Fukagawa depot during WW2. Later, C11_171 was active in the Hokkaido area.
During July 1974, she was moved to Kushiro depot, and was active on the Shibetsu line. However, Shibetsu line was dieselized on the 25th of April 1975. She was retired on the 25th of June 1975, and was preserved at the Sakura Kids Park in Shibecha town near Kushiro city.

During November 1998, JR-Hokkaido planned restortion of steam train service. Therefore, C11_171 was restored at the Naebo workshop. Her restoration was completed during April 1999, and she started steam train service as the "SL Suzuran (Lily of valley)."


Nemuro-Shibetsu station
Photo ;
The end of the Shibetsu line,Nemuro-Shibetsu station. This station building was also dismantled after the line closed.

The farthest East railway in Hokkaido, Shibetsu line, also saw the last C11 ran line in Japan. During it's last days, six (No. 171, 176, 209, 224, 227 and 274) of C11s survived at the Kushiro depot for Shibetsu line operations. However, after dieselization, Shibetsu line was still in the red, so it was closed by the 30th of April 1989.





Biographic Data Chart

Date Location Application
Jul 1940 Kawasaki Syaryo Co. Manufacture
Jul 1940 Inazawa Deployment
1942 Fukagawa Service
Jan 1944 Kikonai Service
Jan 1945 Syumarinai Service
1947 Naebo Service
? 1950 Kushiro Service
Sep 1953 Hakodate Service
Date Location Application
Aug 1953 Kikonai Transferred
Sep 1956 Oshamanbe Transferred
Jul 1974 Kushiro Transferred
Jun 1975 JNR, Kushiro Deregistered
Jun 1975 Shibecha town Preserved
21 Apr 1999 JR-Hokkaido, Asahikawa Restored






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