My railfan friend Mineo Kawasaki made a 10-day mid-winter trip to Hokkaido in 1972 on a student Hokkaido rail pass, sleeping on trains at night, unlike those soft western railfans who stayed in hotels or youth hostels (on my summer time Hokkaido trip we only spent 2 nights on trains in deference to this presumably soft westerner). Here are a couple of photos of photos he took of C55
4-6-2s on the way to Wakkanai at the northern tip of Hokkaido.
A C55 hauled train a couple of miles before the end of the line at Wakkanai. Mineo and I hiked here the following year, in June 1973, avoiding the extreme cold of winter in northern Hokkaido.