Taiwan C55→CT250 Steam Locomotives

The C55 class of the Taiwan Government Railway was of the same type as the first-batch C55 class of Japanese National Railways. Five locomotives were first built in 1935: four by Mitsubishi and one by Kawasaki. A further four were built by Mitsubishi in 1938, bringing the total to nine. In Japan, the C55 class also began to be built in 1935, so the type was introduced in Taiwan and on the Japanese Government Railways at roughly the same time. The year 1935 marked the fortieth anniversary of the beginning of Japanese rule in Taiwan, and it was a year in which the authorities sought to present the achievements of industry, tourism, and administration both at home and abroad. In April of that year, however, the Shinchiku-Taichū earthquake caused severe damage in central Taiwan. Railway damage was especially serious on the Mountain Line, or Taichū Line, and repairs took about three years. At the same time, the Taiwan Exposition was held in Taipei for fifty days from October of the same year. Total attendance is said to have exceeded 2.5 million, and the need to strengthen passenger transport capacity was considerable. It was in this context that the Taiwan Government Railway introduced the new C55 class. After the war, these locomotives became the CT250 class of the Taiwan Railway Administration and were used mainly for passenger service. Even after electrification of the Western Trunk Line, they remained for a time as reserve locomotives, before the class disappeared in 1982. Today, CT251 is preserved at Tainan Sports Park, and CT259 is preserved at the Hamasen Railway Cultural Park in Kaohsiung.