The JGR Class 3420 (originally the Kitakyushu Railway Class 5) and the related Class 3455 (originally the Ube Railway Class 300) were 2-6-2T Prairie-type side tank steam locomotives operated by the Japanese Government Railways from 1925 to 1949.
History[]
The Class 3420 was an early steam locomotive operated in Japan. The type was manufactured initially for the Kitakyushu Railway, with four locomotives manufactured by Kisha Seizō and delivered in 1925; the locomotive was classified the Class 5 and numbered 5 through 8. Four additional locomotives were manufactured for other private railroads in 1925 and 1926 of the same design.
When the Kitakyushu Railway was nationalized in 1937, the locomotives were reclassified as the Class 3420 and renumbered to 3420 through 3423; while these numbers would have clashed with the last JGR Class 3400 locomotive, those had already been retired at that time. The locomotives were used mainly on the Chikuhi Line until their retirement in 1949; the locomotives on these private railroads were retired by 1967. No Class 3420s have been preserved.
