Japanese National Railways class 72

The poor manufacturing quality and high wear and tear of the class 63 meant that from 1952 the improved vehicles of the class 72 were built. For faster and cheaper production in wartime, some reinforcements in the body of the class 63 had been removed, which were now reinstalled. The electrical equipment has also been upgraded. The first examples still had the old traction motors, each with 128 kW, but new ones with 142 kW were soon installed.

490 class 72 vehicles were built ex works, which were either MoHa 73 motor control cars or MoHa 72 powered trailers. Between 1953 and 1955, a total of 667 class 63 vehicles, i.e. almost the entire stock, were converted to class 72 status. This resulted in the non-driven trailer KuHa 79 and the control car SaHa 78. Production and conversion measures were completed in 1958, and the successor, the class 101, had been in production since the previous year. The class 72 remained in service with passengers until 1985. Some vehicles were converted into postal vehicles that reached a maximum speed of 100 km/h.