JGR Class 6500

The JGR Class 6500 (originally the Kansai Railway Class 40) was a 4-4-0 American-type compound steam locomotive operated by the Japanese Government Railways from 1898 to 1925.
==History==
The Class 6500 was an early steam locomotive operated in Japan. The type was ordered by the JGR, with five locomotives manufactured at the Pittsburgh Locomotive and Car Works in 1898. These were classified as the Class 40 locomotives, nicknamed Hayakaze (lit. "fast wind") and numbered 40 through 45. Three more locomotives were manufactured in 1906 by the American Locomotive Company (after ALCO took over the Pittsburgh Locomotive and Car Works).
The locomotives were reclassified as the Class 6500 in 1909 when a formal rule regarding standardized classification of locomotives was enacted; the locomotives were thus renumbered 6500 through 6508. The locomotives were mainly used between Kameyama and Ōji and on the flatter sections of the Kansai Main Line. All locomotives were retired by 1925 as compound steam locomotives were generally disliked by the JGR. No Class 6500s 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:Pittsburgh locomotives
Category:Kansai Railway trains
Category:Scrapped locomotives
Category:Japanese steam locomotives
Category:Japanese locomotives
Category:Tender locomotives
Category:Compound locomotives
Category:Built in 1898
Category:Built in 1906