Taiwan 45→C33 Steam Locomotive

The Jiji Line (集集線), running between Ershui (二水) and Checheng (車埕), was built by Taiwan Electric Power Co. to carry materials for the construction of a hydroelectric power station at Sun Moon Lake (日月潭), and opened in 1921. Six steam locomotives were used on the line, two of which were built by Koppel in Germany in 1923. The railway was purchased by the Taiwan Government-General in 1927 and became the Jiji Line; these locomotives were then classified as class 45, numbered 45 and 46. Under the 1937 revision of locomotive class designations, they became class C33, but both locomotives were withdrawn in 1938. A general arrangement drawing survives in Zenkoku Kikansha Yōran (Japan Locomotive Engineers’ Society, 1939), but no photograph has yet been confirmed. For this reason, the interpretive image shown here was prepared with reference to JNR class 1275, a locomotive built in almost the same period and now preserved statically at Plaza Loco of the Ōigawa Railway.