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As the successor to the C53 express passenger locomotive for trunk lines, 173 type C59 locomotives were built between 1941 and 1947 by Kisha-Seizo, Kawasaki, and Hitachi.
The specifications of prewar and postwar models differed, and some parts were changed in terms of appearance too.
They were used on the Tokaido and Sanyo Main Lines for limited express trains, but as the electrification of these lines progressed, they were moved to lines in the Kyushu and Tohoku regions.
For use on lower grade tracks, 47 of them were converted to type C60.
The last ones were used until 1970 on the Kure Line in Hiroshima Prefecture, which was a high grade railway track, high grade because of the presence of a naval base there before the war.
Currently, a total of 4 trains are in static preservation (refers to locomotives that are preserved in a way that does not allow them to be immediately operated, and/or that are simply on display), at the Kyoto Railway Museum and at the Kyushu Railway Memorial Museum.
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