South Manchurian 2-8-0 Locomotives in Japan

Class 1007 (Locobase 20198)

Data from Catalogue 10036--Locomotives for Export (New York City, April 1910), pp. 62-63. Works numbers were 44008-44022 in September 1907, 44023-44033 in October.

Alco's several works supplied large batches of locomotives to the South Manchuria in the late years of the 20th Century's first decade. The current entry shows the most powerful locomotives of that collection.

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Class 34 (Locobase 13136)

Data from Baldwin Locomotive Works Specification for Engines as digitized by the DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University, Volume 30, p. 233. See also "Locomotives for South Manchurian Railroads," The Railroad Gazette, Volume XLIII [43], No. 23 (6 December 1907), pp. 690-691 and Roger S Greene, "South Manchuria Railway: New American Rolling Stock in Use Throughout the Line," United States. Dept. of Commerce and Labor Daily consular and trade reports, Issues 3256 (18 August 1908), pp. 7-18. (Thanks to Alexander Blessing for his 7 May 2023 email supplying the engine-and-tender wheelbase as well as the tender's coal capacity and revising adhesion and engine weights.) Works numbers were 31263-31268, 31309-31311, 31317-31319, 31343-31346, 31369-31370, 31378-31379 in July 1907.

Although high-boilered and relatively clean in appearance, this set of Consolidations was built according to American practice. Its operating area included 1% grades and relatively gentle 5-deg 45-sec (985-ft) radius curves.

The South Manchurian was built to high standards and at a cost estimated at $100 million. Consul Greene reported from Dalny with a relatively concise update of the now-standard gauge line:

"As previously reported, it was decided to defer using the standard gage [sic] material on the South Manchuria Railway until the whole line was standardized. This work was finished in May [1908], and during the five days from the 22d to the 26th the new American rolling stock was substituted for the old along the whole line, beginning from the north. The service is now being regularly maintained, on a slightly altered schedule, with the new material. The change was effected without interrupting the passenger service, and it was only necessary to suspend through freight shipments for about a fortnight, which was done without great inconvenience, as the busv freight season is now practically over. The old rolling stock will gradually be returned to the Japanese railways from which it was taken during the war.

"The new equipment set up, tested, and ready for service at the time the change was effected was as follows: Locomotives, 121; combination first and second class passenger cars, 10; second-class passenger cars, 44; third-class passenger cars (temporary), 10; mail and bag.gage cars, 15; box cars, 453; gondola cars, 650; flat cars, 197; cabooses, 100; water-tank cars, 3.

"There will be no regular first-class passenger cars until the end of the summer, and possibly no sleeping cars till well into the fall, but a temporary first class has been arranged with chairs, which is attached to the one through train that is now run each day, leaving Dalny at 7 in the evening and Kwanchengtzu at 7.55 in the morning. The new second class really corresponds to the old third class, and the new third class to the old fourth class, consisting of box cars without seats for the coolie traffic, the fares remaining approximately the same for short distances. For long distances fares have been raised slightly, as they are now based on fixed rates per mile, whereas formerly the long journeys were made relatively cheaper. The passenger mileage rates are as follows, per mile: First class, 6,075 sen (3,025 cents); second class 2.7 sen (1.345 cents); third class, 1.8 sen (.896 cent).

"Already it is found that great economy will result from the broader gage, and accordingly a new freight tariff is shortly to be issued which is expected to do much to encourage trade."

See a well-defined map of the road at "Tank Locomotives for the Southern Manchuria Railway," The Railway Age, Vol 45, No 5 (7 February 1908), pp. 187.