Taiwan C57→CT270 Steam Locomotives

The CT270 class of the Taiwan Railways Administration had two different origins. The prewar C57 class of the Taiwan Government Railway was equivalent to the second-batch JNR C57 class. Two locomotives, originally scheduled for introduction in 1941, were carried over to the following year and built by Hitachi. Another four were built by Kawasaki in 1943 and were used for wartime passenger traffic. After the war, they became the CT270 class of the Taiwan Railways Administration and continued in service under difficult postwar conditions, including war-damaged railway facilities and the relocation of the Republic of China government to Taiwan. After the establishment of the People’s Republic of China and the outbreak of the Korean War, the United States government regarded the stability and development of Taiwanese society as important and provided aid, which included eight additional locomotives built by Hitachi in 1953. These were built as CT270 class locomotives from the outset and were fitted for Taiwanese operating conditions with smokebox-door clamps and cowcatchers. Although the C57 class in Japan had already developed into its fourth batch by that time, these locomotives were deliberately built to the second-batch specification in order to match the prewar C57 class in Taiwan. They were the last JNR-standard steam locomotives built in Japan, and also the last steam locomotives introduced to Taiwan. They were mainly used on passenger trains and remained in service until the electrification of the Western Trunk Line. Today, three examples are preserved statically: CT271 at Lover’s Lake Park in Keelung (基隆情人湖公園), CT278 at Ershui Park in Ershui (二水二八水公園), and CT284 at the Chung Hsing Cultural and Creative Park in Yilan (宜蘭中興文化創意園區). CT273 was restored to working order in 2014 and is used for special event operations.