Tobu Tetsudo has recently restored 2-6-4T C11 123, which had been out of service since 1975. The operator now has three C11s, used during the summer months on SL Taiki services between Shimo-Imaichi and Kinugawa Onsen, in the mountains close to the Nikko National Park in Tochigi Prefecture, north of Tokyo.
With its 463.3 km 1,067 mm gauge rail network, Tobu Tetsudo is the second largest private rail operator in Japan, after Kintetsu. Like the latter, it operates a mix of suburban, local and Limited Express services. The Tobu network covers parts of Greater Tokyo, Saitama, Gunma, Chiba and Tochigi Prefectures. Tobu is also the owner of the 634 m high Tokyo Skytree.
The C11s were designed in 1930 by the Ministry of Railways for use throughout the country on branch line services, as a lighter andSakhalin in 1942 and 1944, their fate unknown following the seizure of the island by Russia towards the end of the Pacific War. One was acquired by the Tobu Tetsudo in 1945, but scrapped in 1963. Most members of the class were withdrawn during the 1960s on account of the increasing use of DMUs and diesel railcars on local railways.
