what is it?
The Pureha-class (プレハ) locomotives were a group of steam tank locomotives with 2-6-2 wheel arrangement of used by the Chosen Government Railway (Sentetsu) in Korea. The "Pure" name came from the American naming system for steam locomotives, under which locomotives with 2-6-2 wheel arrangement were called "Prairie". In all, Sentetsu owned 227 locomotives of all Pure classes, whilst privately owned railways owned another 52; of these 279 locomotives, 169 went to the Korean National Railroad in South Korea and 110 to the Korean State Railway in North Korea.
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 94 years ago, in 1932.
- Weighs about as much as 11 African elephants (~6 t each).
- 10.8 m long: about 2 cars parked nose to tail.
- Served for 7 years (1932–1939).
steam locomotive: Burns coal, wood or oil to boil water; the steam drives pistons that turn the wheels.
spec sheet
- built
- 1932–1939
- in service from
- 1932
- retired
- 1939
- status
- retired
- number built
- 38
- kind
- Steam
- traction
- steam
- origin
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- builders
- Hitachi, Kisha Seizo
- operators
- Chōsen Government Railway, Korea Railroad Corporation, Korean State Railway, Korean National Railroad
- top speed
- 90 km/h
- power
- —
- gauge
- 1,435 mm standard gauge
- wheel arrangement
- 2-6-2T
- length
- 10.8 m
- weight
- 67.7 t
From the Wikipedia infobox and Wikidata. Blank means the sources don't say.
Sources: Wikidata Q47422039, Wikipedia: Sentetsu Pureha-class locomotives (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-25.