train

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The last China Steam locomotive

The steam locomotive was central to the Industrial Revolution.

For the first time in history, goods were transported by something other than the muscle of man or animal.

However, it was replaced by diesel locomotives and electric locomotives in the twentieth century.

Except for a portion of steam trains reserved for tourist purposes, there are few places in the world where steam locomotives still operate commercially.

The Sandaoling open-pit mine (三道嶺露天礦), located in Xinjiang, China, is the largest open-pit coal mine in northwestern China. Since 1958, the total mining area has exceeded one thousand square kilometers and transportation within the mine still relies on steam trains.

There is no doubt that the steam train is a superstar of railway photography while breathing rhythmically smoke, like a living thing.

Every winter, there will be railroad fans all over the world gathering in Sandaoling.

Sandaoling steam locomotive is expected to be fully suspended in 2018, this railroad reputation as the last steam train shrine is about to disappear!

China continued to build mainline steam locomotives until the late 20th century, even building a few examples for American tourist operations. China was the last main-line user of steam locomotives, with use ending officially on the Ji-Tong line at the end of 2005. Some steam locomotives are as of 2017 still in use in industrial operations in China.

Some coal and other mineral operations maintain an active roster of China Railways JS (建设, “Jiànshè”) or China Railways SY (上游, “Shàngyóu”) steam locomotives bought secondhand from China Railway. The last steam locomotive built in China was 2-8-2 SY 1772, finished in 1999.

Source: Youtube, Wikipedia

Topic: steam locomotive, China steam locomotive, steam locomotive video

from-moscow-to-beijing
China Underground >

KM7402 – From Moscow to Beijing

“At the first route, from Moscow to Irkutsk, I’ve passed four days and a half in the train, passing through 5000 kilometers of forests…”

Text & images by Aristide Russo

“Impossible, you’re crazy, i could never stay four days and half in a train, what have you done four days and half in a train?
“and this was only the first step…”

Round and round this is the answer that more or less everybody gives me when I start to tell you about that mystical trip, the transmongolic. The curious thing is that in the end, nobody wants to know how did it go for real, or what means doing a trip like this, sensations, emotions, how to stay in a train for so much time can change you, how much can be important to share your life with people that normally live in the opposite sides of the world, or simply to taste a mutton soup in the Mongolian dining car on a Chinese train crossing the Gobi desert, to ride a Mongolian horse for about 5 hours in the Mongolian steppe, to loose almost half hour for only 3 stops of the Chinese subway of Beijing, to be lost to find the most unlikely places and the most incredible people…

But most of all, how is to feel like a traveler?

maybe is dull listen to someone telling all these stories, probably is hard to be so much curious, or more simply often is not interesting, but maybe, actually, it’s impossible to tell this trip without photography.

Moscow-Mosca-Moscu-Москва- нисэх-莫斯科

from-moscow-to-beijing

0 – 5185 KM
Moscow – Irkutsk

from-moscow-to-beijing---Moscow - Irkutsk

Koty

from-moscow-to-beijing---Koty
from-moscow-to-beijing---Koty

Baikal Lake – Bolshie Koty

from-moscow-to-beijing---Baikal Lake - Bolshie Koty

Irkutsk
Иркутск – Эрхүүгийн – 伊尔库茨克

from-moscow-to-beijing---Irkutsk
from-moscow-to-beijing---Irkutsk

5185 – 6305 KM
Irkutsk – ulaanbaatar

from-moscow-to-beijing---Irkutsk - ulaanbaatar
from-moscow-to-beijing--Nature Reserve Gun Galuut---Irkutsk - ulaanbaatar

Nature Reserve Gun Galuut
Заповедник пистолет Галуут – Байгалийн нөөц буу Галуут – 自然保护区枪Galuut

Nature Reserve Gun Galuut

Ulaanbaatar
Ulan Bator – Улан-Батор – Улаанбаатар хот – 乌兰巴托

Ulaanbaatar

6305 – 7402 KM
Ulaanabaatar – Beijing

Ulaanabaatar - Beijing
Ulaanabaatar - Beijing

Beijing
Pechino – Пекин – Бээжин – 北京

Pechino - Пекин - Бээжин - 北京
train trips in China
China Underground >

Getting home: unforgettable moments of train trips over the Chinese New Year – from 1990 to 2010

Train trips in China during the Chinese holidays

Every year, hundreds of millions of migrant workers go back to their hometowns to celebrate the Chinese New Year Festival.

Trains are packed to capacity and trip conditions are scarcely bearable. Sometimes the travel to home can last two days. China expects 3.6 Bln Trips Over Lunar New Year.

Images of train trips in China during the Chinese New Year

train trips in China
train trips in China

1999

train trips in China

train trips in China

1991, Shanghai-Chongqing.

train trips in China

1995. Wuhan-Changsha

train trips in China

1992. Heilongjiang

train trips in China

1996. Guangzhou-Chengdu

train trips in China

1996. Qiqihar-Beijing

train trips in China
train trips in China

2001

train trips in China

2001

train trips in China

2010

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