The Story of D51620

On a recent trip to the Oki Islands, I stumbled upon these train monuments. So here is the brief story of steam locomotive D51620 and how its wheels ended up on Dogo Island of all places.

D51620 was manufactured in 1941, one of over 1000 D51 steam locomotives that were the work horses of the railways in Japan in the postwar era.

Barring current preserved examples of course, it had the distinction of being Japan’s last working steam train. The final run along the Sanin Main Line between Yonago and Masuda was in 1975, and upon retirement had clocked up an impressive 2,308,453.7km.

Retirement for D51620 meant being placed on display outside Daisenguchi Station in Tottori Prefecture, sitting pride of place for a number of decades. But maintenance costs were becoming prohibitively high and the painful decision to scrap it was eventually made.

But Mr Yoshio Watanabe, a local company president on the Oki Islands, heard about this and decided to use his own money to preserve what parts he could for future generations. Two sets of wheels were transported to Dogo Island, with one set being put on display in 2010 next to Choshi Dam and the other followed two years later next to Okinoshima Town Library.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense having train parts displayed on small islands, but it is certainly interesting!