In the course of maintaining steamlocomotive.info I've looked at more than 10,000 photos of steam locomotives. Some of these locomotives were "sectioned" for display. Most of the sectioning was predictable and interesting. Today, I had the pleasure of adding a photo of Japanese National Railways 2-8-2 No. D51-542 displayed at the Kokura Factory in Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. I've never seen one sectioned like this. The image below is by Muyo, a Wikimedia Commons contributor.

Forget about the locomotive, I want to see the band saw they used !!!

Cool, thanks for posting.

Kevin

What happened to the center section? Maybe there was something wrong with the center axle(s) and they did this to display the locomotive even though there was some kind of problem in the middle of it?
It'd be interesting to know what happened to the middle, as well as what appears to be 4 drive wheels...

Lee, I've emailed the photographer with your question. Interestingly, there are 179 of the D51 class 2-8-2 preserved in Japan.

179 ?

Where do they fit them all?

There are 179 of the D51 class 2-8-2 preserved in Japan? How about making that 178 and 2/3? Can a locomotive that has been partly scrapped be considered "preserved"?

Maybe it was sectioned this way, among other things, to REALLY PERMANATLY take it out of service...

One thing's for sure, you'd never have to worry about fans looking to restore it to operation late on...

Looks like there's a walkway through the missing center section.

If that argument is to be made, would you consider this locomotive to be preserved? And I definitely agree, where can they store all 179 locomotives!?

Considering the condition of that 0-6-0's boiler (look at the wasted staybolts, for example), and the fact that a number of attempts had been made over the years to "fix it up and run it" before it arrived at Steamtown, I have heard the sectioning of it referred to as a "mercy killing", and think that is an accurate statement.

The sectioning of S-C #8 was artfully done (and a bit humourous-- even the engineer's lunchbox was sectioned, revealing an apple, thermos and waxpaper-wrapped sandwich).

And, like "Clan Line" at York, it looks just fine from the "other side".

Howard P.