China was the last country in the world to build steam locomotives. The final main line engines emerged from Datong workshops in December 1988 and production of steam locomotives for industrial use continued until 1999. The final few steam locomotives were withdrawn from service in 2003, making China the last country to use steam on its main lines. Total eradication of China's steam programme is set to coincide with the Olympic games in 2008. When this happens, it will be the end of the last mecca for fans of real steam. This is a photo essay detailing the end of this era.

A spectacular, historical perspective and photographic gallery of the last working steam railways in China--the world's largest major concentration of steam locomotives in the 21st Century. In the last half of the 1900s, China built ten thousand coal-burning steam locomotives across the country. These powerful engines ran in a variety of settings, from an open cast coal mine near the Siberian border to the semi-tropical remote hills of Sichuan, powering passenger trains that stretched one thousand kilometres across Inner Mongolia and pulling the local trains on forestry railways in the countryside of northern China. Then, in 2001, Chinese Railways retired almost all its steam locomotives. Nonetheless, some regional, local and industrial operations continued using steam for another decade or more. The photographs and photo essays in this book are a result of visits to dozens of these often-remote railways where steam was still being used. They highlight the skills of workers as they overhauled and maintained the locomotives and reflect on the lives of the people who depended upon them in a rapidly changing world. The Last Steam Railways: Volume One chronicles the last two decades of China's fascinating and picturesque steam railways in a visually dramatic and authoritative presentation. This is the first of three volumes that take the story of the last steam railways across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. With over five hundred original colour photographs, graphics, maps and tables, this is a spectacular addition to any history collection.

China was the last country in the world to manufacture and operate steam locomotives. By the early 1980s, there were an estimated 10,000 operational steam locomotives in the country, but by the 1990s, diesel and electric locomotives started to replace them on the main lines and the number in service reduced substantially as the millennium approached. The last steam locomotives were finally withdrawn from China Rail in 2003. After that, some continued to operate heavy freight trains on local railways for a short while, but most were deployed for use on the country’s industrial railways, mainly at coal mines and steel works. This trend continued into the first decade of the 21st century, but subsequently, the number of steam engines in service declined substantially and were confined to just a handful of industrial locations. Steam rail operations in China are now facing extinction. The modernization of the railways with the switch from steam to diesel, the closure of unsafe and loss-making collieries and China’s drive to reduce pollution and combat climate change from burning coal, have all conspired towards the demise of the industrial lines operating steam in China. This book looks at the last of the standard-gauge steam operations in China, including Sandaoling, the last steam-worked opencast coal mine in the world; Fuxin, a coal-mining city in Liaoning Province, which until recently, operated the largest surviving fleet of SY locomotives; Baiyin, in Gansu Province, which operated some of the last steam-hauled passenger trains in the world; and Wu Jiu, a remote coal-mining outpost in Inner Mongolia. Beautifully illustrated with over 120 color photographs and a description of the operations, this is a striking portrait of the last of the world’s operating steam trains.

A stunning collection of rare photographs documenting the last years of industrial steam around the world. This first volume focuses on scenes captured in the twenty-first century.

A stunning collection of rare photographs documenting the last years of industrial steam around the world. This first volume focuses on scenes captured in the twentieth century.

A stunning and evocative collection of images documenting the final years of steam locomotives on the railways of China.