Iwate Light Railway Class 7

The Iwate Light Railway Class 7 was a 0-6-0WT Switcher-type narrow gauge well tank steam locomotive operated by the Iwate Light Railway and later other railway companies from 1916 to October 1950.
==History==
The Class 7 was an early steam locomotive used in Japan. The locomotives were ordered by the Iwate Light Railway in 1916, with two locomotives completed by Dai-Nippon Kidō Tekkōbu in October 1916; with the locomotives being ordered around the period of World War I, Japanese railways were forced to look for domestically-manufactured locomotives as Germany had cut off locomotive importations to fund their war efforts. These two locomotives were numbered 7 and 8.
In 1919, a third locomotive, 9, was built; it featured a slightly smaller boiler and differently-shaped steam domes. When the Iwate Light Railway was nationalized on 1 August 1936 to become the Kamaishi Line, the locomotives came under the jurisdiction of the Japanese Government Railways; 7 and 8 were reclassified as the Class Ke 237 and renumbered Ke 237 and Ke 238, while 9 was reclassified as the Ke 239 and renumbered Ke 239. The locomotives were moved to the eastern portion of the Kamaishi Line with the progress of track regauging works, with all works completed by October 1950 and the locomotives put out of service; they were officially withdrawn in December 1950. 
No Class 7 locomotives have been preserved.
==References==
Category:Locomotives
Category:JR Group trains
Category:Steam locomotives
Category:0-6-0 steam locomotives
Category:0-6-0T locomotives
Category:Amemiya locomotives
Category:Iwate locomotives
Category:Six-coupled locomotives
Category:0-6-0 locomotives
Category:0-6-0T steam locomotives
Category:0-6-0WT locomotives
Category:0-6-0WT steam locomotives
Category:Japanese locomotives
Category:Japanese steam locomotives