Greetings friends! In the last couple of weeks weve talked about what we called the Golden Steam era: the years of expansion of the railroad when trains became not just a means of transportation but a symbol for progress, hope, and even freedom. Today we tackle the next period, and again we will talk about some of the historical inspirations for the locomotives you can find in Train Valley 2. This second generation of machines goes from 1920 to 1950. Since they were still powered by coal and steam, we will call it the Silver Steam era. Pack up and prepare for a long trip, because for the first locomotive well talk about we have to cross the globe and travel to the Far East!

The Class D51
Lets go to Japan! The Class D51 was a Japanese 2-8-2 locomotive: it had two leading wheels on one axle, then eight powered and two driving wheels in four different axles, and finally two trailing wheels in another axle. While usually the firebox (where locomotives burnt coal) was placed above the driving wheels, the 2-8-2 arrangement put it behind them, which allowed a larger firebox and therefore more power and higher speeds. This arrangement was first called the Mikado in the West after a previous Japanese locomotive (the Western nickname changed to the MacArthur during the World War II for obvious reasons).

(Photo from Wikipedia)

The Japanese railway system was built and operated by the imperial government with military and political ends, as a means to connect distant feudal communities in order to establish the central imperial power. Thus, it wasnt only a means of transportation for goods and service: it was a political instrument and a symbol of power, a way to tell everyone that the Emperor authority reached the last corners of Japan. The Class D51 was built from 1936 to 1951, and it was designed by no other than Hideo Shima, a legendary engineer: he was the driving force and inspirator behind the creation of the first bullet train! Because of the war efforts, many parts that were meant to be built in steel were substituted by wood but in spite of that, they kept circulating until 1975. They were almost exclusively deployed in Japan, although a small number of them deployed in Russia, Korea, and Taiwan were seized and used after the Japanese retreat at the end of World War II.



Train Valley 2s in-game counterpart is this beauty. You can see the similarities in the front: the circular smoke box door, the lantern and a feedwater heater; after it comes the chimney, and finally the uninterrupted covering for the upper sand box, feedwater and steam dome. How would you call our first Eastern locomotive?

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