JGR Class Ke 100 (1922)

The JGR Class Ke 100 was a 0-4-0WT Switcher-type narrow gauge well tank steam locomotive operated by the Japanese Government Railways and its successor the Japanese National Railways from 1922 to 1954.
==History==
The Class Ke 100 was an early steam locomotive used in Japan. The locomotives were created out of a need for small steam locomotives for industrial use, with the JGR not importing locomotives due to World War I putting a strain on imports; at the time, small steam locomotives manufactured by Orenstein & Koppel in Germany were popular. Two locomotives were manufactured by the Fukagawa Dockyard and Machine Works in December 1922 in Ōkawa, Fukuoka.
This was the second class of locomotive to bear the designation of Ke 100, the previous class being a series of six locomotives manufactured by Amemiya Seisakusho in 1919; despite their similar appearance and both being 0-4-0WT steam locomotives they are essentially completely different locomotives, with Fukagawa's Class Ke 100 locomotives sharing a boiler design with the larger Ke 150 locomotives they also manufactured. 
On records both locomotives were officially numbered Ke 106 and Ke 107, although their number plates read Ke 105 and Ke 106; this led to a numbering overlap with the previous Class Ke 100 locomotives which also had a locomotive numbered Ke 105 in operation at the same time. This in turn made bookkeeping for the locomotives a hassle with numerous mixed up and incorrect records within both classes. Mainly used in Yamaguchi, Okayama and Hiroshima, the locomotives spent their final days in Shimbashi to pull construction trains for extension work for the Yokosuka Line; they were written off in 1954 although they had already been withdrawn for quite some time prior. Both locomotives were subsequently scrapped at Hamamatsu Works. 
No Class Ke 100 locomotives have been preserved.
==References==
Category:Locomotives
Category:JR Group trains
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:0-4-0 steam locomotives
Category:0-4-0T locomotives
Category:Fukagawa locomotives
Category:Four-coupled locomotives
Category:0-4-0 locomotives
Category:0-4-0T steam locomotives
Category:0-4-0WT locomotives
Category:0-4-0WT steam locomotives
Category:Japanese locomotives
Category:Japanese steam locomotives