Growth of Independent Technology Eiichi Aoki

JAPANESE RAILWAY HISTORY 3 Growth of Independent Technology Eiichi Aoki Absorbing Foreign Railway Technology Since Japan lacked railway technology, foreign engineers were hired by the Japanese government to work on all aspects of the railway between To- kyo and Yokohama, including direction and supervision of surveying and construction, inspection of imported machinery and materials, train opera- I Portal of Osakayama Tunnel, completed in 1880. Both portals are nowpreserved as a national railway monument. (Transportation Museum, Tokyo) tion and preparing of timetables. However, Japan already had some ematical theories. Advanced math- lished at Osaka Station in May 1877 engineering knowledge in the Edo pe- ematical theories such as differential was Japan's first school teaching rail- riod that could be applied to railway and integral calculus were in use in way construction, as mentioned in the construction. For example, cutting, Japan, but people did not think of ap- first article in this series. Graduates embanking, drifting and artesian well plying them to engineering. participated in construction of the rail- construction were widely used. How- Railway construction requires a basic way between Kyoto and Otsu, including ever, these techniques had been deve- knowledge of mathematics, physics, ge- the 646-meter Osakayama Tunnel com- loped through long experience and ology and modern civil engineering. pleted in 1880, which was the first were not based on scientific and math- The Engineer Training College estab- mountain tunnel designed and built by Japanese engineers. The Engineer Training College graduates were later engaged in surveying and construction of the Tokaido railway and other new railways elsewhere. In the 1880s, many graduates from the National Col- lege of Technology (which later became the Imperial College of Technology) be- gan playing an active role as railway engineers. In the Edo period, few permanent bridges were built across large rivers, because the river flows tended to change drastically with the season, and wooden bridges were easily washed away by frequent floods. When the Tokaido railway was built, solid brick piers were sunk more than 20 meters I American 2B tender engines were popular for passenger trains. Kansei Railway had locomotives below riverbeds to ensure that bridges with large-diameter driving wheels(5'2"). Built at Pittsburgh Works. (Transportation Museum, Tokyo) 56 Japan Railway & Transport Review / October 1994 Copyright © 1994 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Civil railway engineering was the eter of 4'6 4/5" (1,397 mm) for passen- first field in which the shift from for- ger transport. This large-scale remod- eign to Japanese engineers occurred. elling was conducted under the supervision of W.M. Smith, a locomotive su- Foreign and Domestic perintendent. The first railway in Hokkaido was Production of Steam constructed for shipment of coal be- Locomotives tween Temiya (Otaru) and Horonai coal mine. The line went into service The locomotives, passenger carriages between Temiya and Sapporo, in 1880, and wagons used in Japan's first rail- and was extended to the mine in 1882. way between Tokyo and Yokohama, Since this railway was designed and which went into service in 1872, were built like an American frontier railway all made in the UK. The design of ten imported tank locomotives was en- I Richard F. trusted to British locomotive builders, Trevithick who were provided only with simple specifications and performance requirements. The names of the builders and the number of locomotives they manufactured are shown below. The I Type 1B1 compound tank engine. First 1B (2-4-0) wheel arrangement was used domestically-built locomotive. (Transportation Museum, Tokyo) for all the locomotives. However, since the types varied among the five build- would not be destroyed by floods. The ers, and five types were delivered to Ja- bridge construction set a new standard pan, operation and maintenance must of engineering in Japan. The bricks for have been challenging. the piers were made of clay from along Tender locomotives and more power- the railway line. However, the bridge ful locomotives capable of running on trusses were made of either wrought gradients were imported along with iron or steel, designed by C.A.W. tank locomotives for use in the railway I Francis H. Pownall, a British engineer, and manu- built between Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto Trevithick factured in the UK, based on three after 1874. They were all British as (Transportation Museum, Tokyo) standard types (100 feet, 150 feet and well. In 1876, two C (0-6-0) tender loco- Richard F. Trevithick (1845-1913) 200 feet). The graduates from the Engi- motives with a driving wheel diameter Francis H. Trevithick (1850-1931) neer Training College were also en- of 3'7" (1,092 mm) for freight transport Richard and Francis Trevithick were grandsons of gaged in designing and directing bridge Richard Trevithick (1771-1833) who is well-known as were converted into 2B (4-4-0) tender one inventor of the steam locomotive. Since their father, construction. locomotives with a driving wheel diam- Francis Trevithick (1812-1877), was a locomotive superintendent for the London & North Western Railway, they were both born in Crewe, UK, where the railway had a works. Hired by the Japanese government railways, Francis, the third son, came to Japan in September 1876; Richard, the first son, came in March 1888. The railways had works in Shinbashi and Kobe where locomotive superintendents were responsible for designing, manufacturing and maintaining rolling stock. Francis took up the position of locomotive superintendent at the Shinbashi works in June 1878; Richard was appointed locomotive superintendent at the Kobe works in March 1888. Both held office for many years until March 1897 serving as leaders in the field of rolling-stock technology. Francis started production of carriages at the Shinbashi works in 1897. In 1893, he was in charge of importing and making a trial run of an Apt rack-and-pinion locomotive to be used in the section of the Shin-etsu line between Yokokawa and Karuizawa which had a 1/15 gradient. He helped ensure a successful trial run. In 1893, Richard succeeded in building prototypes of locomotives at the Kobe works for the first time in Japan. He trained many Japanese locomotive engineers who became leaders in locomotive design in the early 20th century. Francis and Richard both married Japanese women. Francis' two sons became naturalised Japanese citizens and their descendants, named Okuno, still live I Twin-axle third-class passenger carriage with five compartments. in Japan. (Reprinted from RAILWAYS AN ROLLING STOCK IN JAPAN) Copyright © 1994 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Japan Railway & Transport Review / October 1994 57 JAPANESE RAILWAY HISTORY 3 under the direction of J.U. Crawford, an American engineer, 1C (2-6-0) ten- Table 1 First Ten Locomotives Introduced to Tokyo-Yokohama Railway in 1872 der locomotives, manufactured by Por- ter Inc. (H.K. Vertec) of Pittsburgh, USA, were used. They weighed only 16.5 tons and were suitable for light railways which could be built quickly. These locomotives were famous, because they were named after Yoshitsune and Benkei, popular heroes in the Japanese medieval period. The Iyo railway, which went into service in 1888 between the outer port and *1 Now preserved at Transport Museum, Tokyo. inner city of Matsuyama, Shikoku, was *2 Two locomotived of same type additionally imported in 1874. One now in operation a narrow-gauge railway using 2'6" (762 at Meiji-mura Open Museum near Nagoya. mm)-gauge tracks for the first time in *3 Transferred to Taiwan in 1900, and No.7 now preserved in Taipei. 4 Japan. 7.8-ton, B (0-4-0) tank locomo- * Preserved at Ome Railway Park near Tokyo. tives, manufactured by Lokomotivfabrik Krauss of Munich, use of compound locomotives and Mal- In addition, Kisha Seizo (Locomotive Germany, were used. lard articulated locomotives still re- Manufacturing) company set up in British locomotives accounted for mained at an experimental stage, Osaka in 1899, as an independent pri- most of the locomotives imported in the Sanyo Railway introduced a large vate enterprise, manufactured 58 loco- 1870s and 1880s, but many American number of Vauclain compound locomo- motives from 1901 to 1908. Fifty-one and German locomotives were also im- tives—24 in total— of which 12 were were exact copies manufactured from ported in the 1890s and 1900s. A small manufactured at the railway's Hyogo the plans of the government 1B1 tank number of locomotives was also im- works. locomotive. ported from France, Switzerland and The first locomotive manufactured in Full-scale steel production started in Belgium. Japan, which was rapidly ex- Japan was a Worsdell compound tank Japan when the Yawata ironworks was panding its railway network, was a big locomotive with a 1B1 wheel arrange- set up in 1901. However, the quality market for American and European lo- ment. It was test manufactured at the and quantity of domestic steel did not comotive manufacturers. government Kobe works in 1893. It was fully meet the requirements of locomo- Most of the imported locomotives designed and built under the supervi- tive production. As a result, imported used a single expansion system with sion of R.F.Trevithick, a locomotive su- or spare parts were used for the main external cylinders based on an ortho- perintendent at the works. How- locomotive parts, and parts that did not dox design concept. In the early 20th ever, very few domestically-produced require difficult processing technology parts were used in its construction, be- were made in Japan. The locomotives cause main parts such as the main made of imported parts and some do- frame, boilers, wheels, axles and cylin- mestic parts were said to be domesti- ders were imported from the UK, and cally-produced at that time.

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