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This locomotive type was the strongest freight locomotive ever made, manufactured for heavy freight on the Tokaido and Sanyo Main Lines and other priority transportation routes, and to cope with increased wartime freight traffic during the Pacific War. They were manufactured between 1943 and 1945 at Kisha-Seizo, Kawasaki, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Nippon-Sharyo, Japan National Railways (JNR) Hamamatsu and Takatori factories.
More than 400 were planned to be manufactured, but due to the defeat in the war, production was discontinued after 285 were made.
Therefore, there are many missing numbers.
With a wartime design intended to just be used for a few years until the war was over, it was introduced with a simplified construction method and substitute materials.
This resulted in many accidents, and they were restored to the original standard design form after the war.
Some were converted to the C62 type for passenger use, and some were converted to the D62 type with reduced axle weight to accommodate lines with lower track strength, but the last ones were used until 1972.
Currently, in addition to some of this type dynamically preserved (refers to locomotives that have been preserved in a ready-to-operate state, and/or are still running today) by compressed air at the Yamakita Railway Park, 6 are being statically preserved (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 other locations.
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