#2411
China Railways SL7
Manchukuo ·built by CRRC Dalian Co., Ltd.· from 1934· class of 12 Manchurian / Chinese 4-6-2 locomotive
3 photos from Wikimedia Commons · credits & licences
- 1. Builders Photo of Mantetsu Pashina Type No. 970: PRESSE EISENBAHN· Public domain
- 2. Pashina SL7-751 @ Shenyang Railway Museum: Arnie97· CC BY-SA 4.0
- 3. Pashina SL7-757 @ Shenyang Railway Museum: Arnie97· CC BY-SA 4.0
what is it?
The China Railways SL7 (Chinese: 勝利7; pinyin: Shènglì; lit. 'victory') was a class of 4-6-2 "Pacific" type steam locomotives operated by the China Railway. They were originally built for the South Manchuria Railway (Mantetsu) to pull the Asia Express - Mantetsu's signature train and most iconic locomotive, whose images were used on fliers, posters, postage stamps, and even children's school textbooks, as a symbol of technology and modernism in Manchukuo and was used to demonstrate the success of Japan's imperial project.
who runs it
base stats
Bars compare against all trains: 600 km/h (maglev), 1,700 seats; power, weight and number built on a log scale up to 20 MW, 1,000 t and 20,000 built.
fun facts
- First built 92 years ago, in 1934.
- Top speed is 1.1× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
- Weighs about as much as 20 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 25.7 m long: about 6 cars parked nose to tail.
steam locomotive: Burns coal, wood or oil to boil water; the steam drives pistons that turn the wheels.
spec sheet
- built
- 1934–1936
- in service from
- 1934
- status
- preserved
- number built
- 12
- kind
- Steam
- traction
- steam
- origin
- Manchukuo
- builders
- CRRC Dalian Co., Ltd., Kawasaki Heavy Industries
- designer
- Nobutarō Yoshino (ja, 吉野信太郎)
- operators
- South Manchuria Railway, China State Railway Group
- top speed
- 140 km/h
- power
- —
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- 4-6-2
- length
- 25.7 m
- weight
- 119 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q29075163, Wikipedia: China Railways SL7 (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.