Beipiaonan and on to Yebaishou - Summer Trip to China 1996?
This video: As we move from Beipiaonan to Yebaishou on a back route from Shenyang to Chengde, it is nice to see steam on passenger trains and back-to-back double heading on freights. The effect of the humidity on visibility is clear to see on these rural sequences.
General notes to this series: This rare summer trip to see mainline Chinese steam was not improved by hot, very humid weather after a period of extreme rainfall with extensive flooding. We started at Beipiao which had a number of coal mines and associated railways but apart from one SY, I don't remember finding anything interesting there and anyway, there were still JS and QJ working the branch from Beipiao to Beipiaonan Junction and in all directions from there. We moved on to Yebaishou where lines radiate in 3 directions to Chifeng, Chengde and Shenyang and then on to Chengde for the steelworks branch. I made the trip with Ted Talbot and a new guiding service introduced to us by Japanese enthusiasts called (I think) Liaoning Business Travel. It was run by Mr Fu and he assigned us guide George who eventually moved to Singapore. Mr Fu's friend Mrs Sun (former Jiling CITS, I believe) was also with us at times along with Mr Fu. The trip include Beipiao, Yebaishou and Chengde so there is more to come.
China Steam, Yebaishou 2
Double headed QJs work tender to tender on the line to Chiefing. March 1997
Yebaishou by Night
Picture this - it was a hot and humid August trip to China around 1994. Ted Talbot and I arrived in China after a period of heavy rain and flooding in June and July and the result was very high humidity and poor air clarity throughout and very trying daytime conditions. Ted’s still cameras stayed mainly in the camera bag. I showed the cook in the restaurant how to cook proper chips and made up a tomato kechup from tomato paste and vinegar. This night shot was my best bit of video of the whole trip! We left Yebaishou around 23:00 and before our steam-hauled overnight train to Chengde arrived, these two back-to-back QJs on an engineers’ train with another QJ on the rear set off along with a shunting JS in parallel. Magic! Oh to have the chance to do this again with a current generation video camera.
Steam Locomotives in China - 1981
The Datong locomotive factory situated in the Northern Shanxi province of China, was a major producer of steam locomotives for the Chinese railway system up to 1988 when production switched to diesel-powered locomotives. Our correspondent visited the location and surrounding area in 1981 where the majority of this short film was shot. The services in and around this area were 100% steam-powered at this time.
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Chinese Steam, Fuxin 1
Like many industrial locations, Fuxin in Liaoning Provence, NE China is a shadow of its former self with regard to steam activity. However, in December 2009 it was still possible to see a good line up at the stabling point ready for the morning shift. Soon after assembling, the locos depart for duties between the mine and power plant. During our visit we saw twelve different locos in steam. A pleasant surprise in this industrial city is a clear blue, pollution free sky. At about 5:12 note the flag-man on the last wagon. Despite a temperature of about minus 10 degrees C he has no protection from the elements. The strange repetitive voice that can be heard in the background near the end of the clip is a woman selling sweets intoning her sales pitch into a megaphone. December 2009.
Chinese Steam, Nanpiao 2
After a long wait on a cold hillside, the exhaust steam of an SY becomes visible through the morning mist. It soon becomes apparent that all is not as it should be. The increasing rumble confirms the initial suspicions. As the train passes, the offending diesel loco can be seen assisting at the rear. This indicated that the end of steam activity at this once excellent centre was shortly to take place. One less place to visit, but who would have thought that real steam would still be working at the end of the first decade of the 21st Century? Filmed December2009
Chinese Steam, Nanpiao 1
Viewed from beside a noisy road high on a hillside above the mine, an SY 2-8-2 pushes a rake of three spoil wagons towards the tip. Frequent blasts on the air horn and one with the steam whistle warns anybody near the track of its approach. December 2009
LCGB China Nancha Part 1
In steam days, Nancha was a famous destination for Nancha Bank on the branch line north towards the Russian border. The locos were QJ and often double headed and banked trains. One of the challenges with video is when trains slow to a crawl so much of my filming was done while the trains were still travelling at speed. A bit of hard editing has been necessary with some of the slow stuff. This was filmed on video 8 and the image quality and the drop outs are part of the footage. Despite that, I hope you will find this enjoyable.
Chinese Steam 2009 Baiyin 9
The combination of hazy atmosphere and difficult light causes the camcorder's autofocus to have difficulty locking onto the loco as it negotiates the curves through the bleak landscape of the Loess Mountains on its way to the mine. I hope the sound of the loco working hard makes up for the poor video quality.
Shot from the roadside, the same train the following day races tender first up the valley.
Amid the clutter of an industrial landscape a SY class loco waits at the head of a mine workers' train. After briefly opening the regulator to get the train on the move, the driver lets it drift downhill towards Baiyin.
After a brief station stop, the passenger proceeds on its way whilst an SY backs onto a rake of wagons. After coupling up this train also departs on its way. December 2009
8 a.m. Departure
Iowa Interstate operated two days of steam excursions with their Chinese-built 2-10-2's October 18-19, 2008. The two engines and a long freight left Iowa City IA headed eastward toward Rock Island about 8 a.m. in fog and with a temperature of about 30 degrees. See all my clips at user Tedeboy999.
Vanishing World Steam 4 Steamiest Place on Earth - Telerail
Superb steam action from around china at Yebaishou, Xilin, Mulling, Tumen and the famous Jinpeng Pass . For more details please look at
Steam in China 1997 Part 2
Some of the scenes on Steam in China parts 1 & 2 were uploaded to You Tube in 2009. Upload size restrictions at that time meant they were only a minute or two long. I have now re-uploaded those scenes together with extra material.
Part 2
Nancha was popular with rail enthusiasts because on the Wuylin branch both northbound and southbound trains had to negotiate a steep bank on the outskirts of town. Like Yebaishou, diesels were appearing here in increasing numbers. Diesel/steam combination double heading was quite common. North of Nancha, on the Wuylin branch was the Xilin zinc and lead mine using 720mm gauge C2 class 0-8-0 locos. The mine itself was served by antiquated overhead-wire electric locos.
China photo slide show part 1
People and steam locomotives at various locations in China
Steam in China 2003 Ji Tong Railway Part 3 Daban Shed
Daban loco depot was probably the very last main line standard gauge steam shed active in the world. A full range of maintenance operations were carried out including refurbishment of QJ class locomotives bought second hand from China National Railway (CNR)
Jitong Railway 2001 Part 2: Daban
This video documents my one and only visit to the Jitong Railway, Inner Mongolia, China in 2001. It will be launched in several parts over Christmas 2021 - twenty years on from when I originally filmed it! The original footage has been enhanced and upscaled to 4K from 720 SD footage. Look out for further parts as we move from East to West towards the Jingpeng Pass which will be the highlight of this series of videos.
China Steam, Baotou area 6
A pair of QJs emerge from the smog near Aobaogou on the Shenmu to Dongsheng line. November 2000.
Loco change at Chabuga, heading for Daban
Switching from diesel engine to steam at Chabuga station, April 2005.
[China] Train Ride 4/4; arriving in Qingdao (2002)
I visited Qingdao and Jinan, China in Feb., 2002.
354.7152 Czech 2-6-2 in 2006
CSD owned 152 of these 354.7 class locos. They were designed by Gölsdorf as Austrian kkStB Class 429 with a clench steam drier linking the two domes on the boiler. Originally built as compounds, the Czech examples were all converted to 2-cylinder simples. These locos were widely spread over a number of countries including Austria, Germany, Poland, Romania and Hungary as well as the Czech Republic.
This video was taken near Luzna u Rakovnika (I think the sequence starts there) and heads through Svojetin but I am not sure of the train destination - possibly Louny. Shot in 2006 on a series of charters - I can’t remember who the organisers were.
British Rail 1999 - England, Scotland and Wales
Filmed in 1999, footage includes Birmingham New Street, Glasgow Central, Stafford, Newport, York, the West Highland Line, and finally Ipswich