Description

After first visiting China in 1994 the Tele Rail team have been privileged to return no less than 26 times!

Sadly in 2011 just a few tiny pockets of industrial steam remain – a mere shadow of their former glory days, so this really is the end of the line for Chinese working steam. This last programme documents the essence of what remained at the end of 2008 when the Tele Rail crew decided on one last visit. Featuring:-

Panzhihua Incredibly after lengthy negotiations we managed to get permits to visit this large steelworks in the South of China, where there were still 8 active SYs.

Tiefa There’s a return visit to this huge coal mining area. With 3 SYs in steam to work some of the passenger turns the glory days of freight operations are well and truly over. However, what remains has considerable charm particularly the night time departures.

Jixi There’s some wonderful action here on a network that still boasted 100% steam on the interesting Didao system which was still very busy. Zhalainur (Jalainur) nothing can compare to the wonderful complex system that still boasted 21 locomotives within a single opencast mine ! This really was one of the wonders of the modern world.