JGR Class 5700

The JGR Class 5700 (originally the JGR Class AO) was a 4-4-0 American-type steam locomotive operated by the Japanese Government Railways from 1897 to 1936.
==History==
The Class 5700 was an early steam locomotive operated in Japan. The type was ordered by the JGR, Kyushu Railway and Hokkaido Colliery and Railway Company, with a total of fifty-nine locomotives manufactured by the Schenectady Locomotive Works and the American Locomotive Company (after taking over Schenectady) from 1897 to 1906. Ten locomotives went to the JGR, were classified the Class AO and numbered 242 through 251; they were subsequently reclassified as the Class D10. The bulk of the locomotives went to the Kyushu Railway, with thirty-six total; these were classified as the Class 55, 116 and 142 and numbered 55 through 66, 116 through 127 and 142 through 153. The Hokkaido Colliery and Railway Company received the rest of the locomotives; these were classified as the Class L and numbered 55 through 57, 63 through 67 and 71 through 75; 71 through 75 were later renumbered to 74 through 78.
Regardless of railroad, the locomotives were reclassified as the Class 5700 in 1909 when a formal rule regarding standardized classification of locomotives was enacted; the locomotives were thus renumbered 5700 through 5757, with 5758 omitted as one of the locomotives, 242, was scrapped due to an accident in Manchuria the same year before this rule was enacted. Retirements began in 1928, with all locomotives retired by 1936 on the JGR. After retirement a number of these locomotives changed hands a few times, although some were also requisitioned by the Soviet Railways in 1945 after their takeover of Karafuto; it is not clear what happened to them after that although they were most likely scrapped. No Class 5700s have been preserved.
==References==
Category:Locomotives
Category:JR Group trains
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:4-4-0 locomotives
Category:4-4-0 steam locomotives
Category:ALCO locomotives
Category:Schenectady locomotives
Category:Kyushu Railway trains
Category:Hokkaido Colliery and Railway Company trains
Category:Karafuto trains
Category:Scrapped locomotives
Category:Japanese steam locomotives
Category:Japanese locomotives
Category:Tender locomotives
Category:Built in 1897
Category:Built in 1898
Category:Built in 1899
Category:Built in 1901
Category:Built in 1906
Category:Colliery locomotives
Category:Schenectady locomotives
Category:Scrapped steam locomotives