The JGR Class 3980 (originally the JGR Class C3) was a 2-6-2RT Prairie-type side tank Abt rack rail steam locomotive operated by the Japanese Government Railways from 1906 to 1919.
History[]
The Class 3980 was an early steam locomotive operated in Japan. The type was manufactured for the JGR, with two locomotives manufactured by Kisha Seizō and delivered in 1906. The locomotives were classified the Class C3 on the JGR and numbered 512 and 513. The locomotives were ordered out of necessity as the JGR had required a dedicated rack rail locomotive to scale the 66.7‰ (1/15 gradient) gradients of the Usui Pass, as well as to exploit foreign employees in Meiji Japan. The locomotives were in essence a locally-produced copy of the Class 3950s (also called the Class C3 at the time; the Class 3980s were considered an extension of the C3s) as manufactured by Beyer, Peacock and Company in the United Kingdom. Two more locomotives were then manufactured, numbered 514 and 515.
The locomotives were reclassified as the Class 3980 in 1909 when a formal rule regarding standardized classification of locomotives was enacted; the locomotives were thus renumbered 3980 through 3983. Two more locomotives were manufactured during this time; they were initially intended to be numbered 516 and 517 but since they were completed when the naming rule took effect they were numbered 3984 and 3985. These can be differentiated by their sloped boilers. The locomotives were initially used on the Usui Pass section they were designed for, and when the section for the Usui Pass was electrified, the Class 3980s were no longer needed there and as such they were used to haul normal freight trains. The locomotives were moved to the Ōu Main Line and hauled trains between Fukushima and Yonezawa Stations; they were also modified to have their rack systems removed, but were regarded as "too slow and not very useful". The locomotives retired in 1919. No Class 3980s have been preserved.
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