International Railroad Discussion > Another JiTong steam report.

For those interested in this sort of thing, there is a new report on the steam-in-china yahoo discussion group that the target date for ending steam between Daban and Chabuga is now October 31. Supposedly the plan allows for an additional month (until November 30) to take care of any hiccups in the transition. While the report comes from Peter Patt who I consider a pretty reliable source, my suggestion would be not to take this date too literally, since reality has a way of differing from plans, especially in China. But clearly the end is near as they say. The last regular real mainline steam in the world. End of an era and all that.

Seperately, if things happen as advertised, GW Travel will be running one more steam powered "Jingpeng China Orient Express" over the JiTong in November. Supposedly this private luxury train will use steam between Chabuga and Hoaluku, and will include several trips back and forth over Jingpeng Pass....presumably the last steam over the pass. An expensive trip but perhaps the final chance to see steam on this line, especially over the pass.

But to keep things in context, there is still a fair amount of (industrial) steam in China so long as you are willing to chase around to find it. And some of it is pretty interesting.

And the usual plug for my China rail website:

http://andrewbwest.home.att.net/wsb/html/view.cgi-home.html-.html

John West

John,

This is the same report that I got several days ago. My operator in China said that it would be till the end of October and then a few locomotives for a few weeks into November. Maybe that is to satisfy the needs of the GW Travel excursion in November.

Still it is safe to say if someone has not traveled to China to see the mainline steam on the JiTong line this is the year to do it. There will be lots of pockets of steam still operating for many years to come. However, even old reliable steam venues have been converted to diesel overnight.

Also a shameless plug for my "Last stand of Steam in China Tour" for Oct 8-23, 2005. Check out my website at www.wingsandrails.com for details.

Dale Brown

I wonder how long it will take them to realise that importing ever increasingly expensive petroleum might not be so wise. With a population of over a billion people, surely the labour intensive nature of steam locomotives is not the problem here. They are simply getting rid of steam, as they don't want to look backwards progressive on the international scene. Too bad though, running freight using domestically available heat units seems smarter than relying on imported oil.

The issue isn't black and white because there is also a shortage of coal, and China's coal mining industry is plagued with death and danger....this mornings news reported 102 miners trapped by flooding yesterday, 2700 have died so far this year, and 6000 died last year. So the coal has its own price. But yes the coal IS available domestically, and mining will eventually be made safer.

JBW