JGR Class 190

The JGR Class 190 (originally the JGR Class D) was a 2-4-0T Porter-type side tank steam locomotive operated by the Japanese Government Railways from October 1872 to 1927.
==History==
The Class 190 was one of the earliest steam locomotives operated in Japan. The type was ordered by the JGR as one of their earliest steam locomotives, with two locomotives built by Dübs & Co.; these were one of ten British-imported steam locomotives operating in Japan around that time. These were assigned the Class D and numbered 8 and 9. 
The two locomotives were shipped with a peculiar appearance. They lacked a steam dome and had large side tanks covering the wheels. Both engines were originally coupled directly back to back to each other with a brake van placed between the two of them almost giving the engines an appearance similar to that of a double fairlie locomotive. The brake van was meant as a sort of adapter car for when the engines were working individually.
The locomotives began operation on October 14, 1872 with the opening of Japan's first railway line; October 14 is celebrated as Railway Day in Japan even today to commemorate the line's opening. Due to the lack of brakes, the awkward need to drag a brake van around both to stop and to couple to ordinary cars, and the oversized water tanks that obscured the motion making maintenance difficult, these engines were the bane of any crews that worked on them. By 1873 the JGR decided to rebuild the two engines into separate more conventional tank engines with normal handbrakes and steam brakes.
The locomotives were later reclassified as the Class AI, then Class A5 and were retired from JGR service around 1893 or 1895 and sold to the Bisai Railway. After the Railway Nationalization Act was passed in 1909, the locomotives were renumbered the Class 190. After serving on the Bisai Railway, the locomotives were retired in 1927. No Class 190s have been preserved; this was one of five classes of locomotives to be operational during the opening of the first railway line and the only class where no examples have been preserved.
==Gallery==
File:Dubs 9.png|Builder's photo of No. 9 (later JGR 190)
==References==
Category:Locomotives
Category:JR Group trains
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:2-4-0 locomotives
Category:2-4-0 steam locomotives
Category:2-4-0T locomotives
Category:Dübs locomotives
Category:Pre-Meitetsu trains
Category:Japanese locomotives
Category:Japanese steam locomotives
Category:Built in 1872
Category:2-4-0T steam locomotives
Category:Side tank locomotives
Category:Scrapped locomotives
Category:Scrapped steam locomotives