The JNR Class C63 was a proposed 2-6-2 Prairie-type steam locomotive that was to be operated by the Japanese National Railways.
History[]
The C63 was developed starting from approximately 1955 when the increase in electrification was not the biggest of the JNR's concerns, along with the company being inexperienced with diesel locomotives. The C63's performance benchmark was the C51. Design drawings were completed in 1956 with a prototype to be built, although with JNR noting that there was not such a great demand for new steam locomotives due to JNR's campaigning of a "smokeless railway", further development and construction of the locomotive was postponed, while the company invested in building more diesel and electric locomotives.
This postponement would eventually turn into a cancelation, with JNR enacting the Power Modernization Plan in 1959 to completely phase out the steam locomotive on the JNR within 15 years, starting from fiscal 1960; following the enactment of this plan any concerns regarding a steam locomotive shortage disappeared and any plans to build any new steam locomotives were thus shelved, the C63 included. Although the locomotive was never built, numerous documents and blueprints regarding the locomotive have surfaced and have been published while a number of small scale replicas and models have since been built; one notable replica is a 1/12 scale replica built by Kōriyama Works based on the original blueprints and later put on display at the Umekoji Steam Locomotive Museum, later the Kyoto Railway Museum. The number plate of C63 1 is also on display at the Kyoto Railway Museum.
Due to no examples ever being built, the C63 is popularly known as The Phantom Locomotive among Japanese railfans.
Specifications[]
The C63 was heavily based on the earlier Class C58 locomotives. Compared to the C58, the C63 has a larger firebed area to improve combustion efficiency; however, similar to the C58 it was based on the locomotive featured a short wheelbase with large overhang at the front and rear, which on the C58 caused significant body roll when running at higher speeds. It is speculated that with the C63's larger firebox the locomotive would have had more severe body roll than the C58 due to its short wheelbase.
Some however have noted that this issue may have been caused by the locomotive's short coupling rods and poor track maintenance, with these body roll issues occurring only on one major line and never on other lines; because of this, some have argued that the locomotive could have matched the Class C51s in performance and demonstrated the advantages of a locomotive similar to the C58.