JGR Class 1630

The JGR Class 1630 (originally the Echigo Railway Class 1) was a 0-6-0T Switcher-type well tank steam locomotive operated by the Japanese Government Railways from 1912 to 1937.
==History==
The Class 1630 was a well tank locomotive originally ordered by the Echigo Railway. Five locomotives were produced by J.A. Maffei in 1912 and were classified as the Class 1 and numbered 1 to 5. Some time in 1927, two locomotives were transferred to the Awa Railway, reclassified as the Class 2 and renumbered 3 and 4.
When the Echigo Railway was nationalized in 1927, the three locomotives were renumbered the Class 1630 and renumbered from 1630 to 1632. When the Awa Railway was nationalized in 1933, the locomotives were initially intended to be named the Class 1560, but as there was no formal policy for naming locomotives acquired by the JGR from private railroads, a special case was granted in this case; as a result, the locomotives were classfied as the Class A 2, with the "A" (read: "ah") being used to designate locomotives acquired from the Awa Railway. Despite all five locomotives being the same, they are designated different depending on where they came from. The locomotives were used until 1937. No Class 1630s survive, although Awa Railway's 3 was spotted by railfans at JGR's Ōmiya Works in 1951; it was likely scrapped after that.
==References==
Category:Locomotives
Category:JR Group trains
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:0-6-0 locomotives
Category:0-6-0 steam locomotives
Category:0-6-0T locomotives
Category:Maffei locomotives
Category:Awa trains
Category:Echigo trains
Category:0-6-0T steam locomotives
Category:Japanese locomotives
Category:Japanese steam locomotives
Category:Well tank locomotives
Category:Scrapped locomotives
Category:Built in 1912
Category:Scrapped steam locomotives