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hide options panelNingxia
19 photos
updated : 2020-11-13
Ninxia is a small desert region on the Yellow River in northern China. The main railway interest is the long route from Beijing and Baotou to Lanzhou, which crosses the region from Shizuishan to Gantang. This remained steam worked until the mid-1990s before dieselisation and then electrification.
Gansu
99 photos
updated : 2022-08-09
Gansu Province lies in China's arid north west. The gallery contains images from the main lines during the transition from steam to diesel and electric around 1990 and from a few industrial lines, the last of which used steam until late 2015. There are also a few fairly recent images of main line diesels and electrics.
Henan
26 photos
updated : 2022-11-24
Henan is a large province in eastern central China and is regarded as one of the cradles of Chinese civilisation. From a railway perspective, the main interest was the coal industry that employed large numbers of steam locos into the early 2000s, many of them powerful modern engines of classes JS and QJ.
Heilongjiang
329 photos
updated : 2022-11-24
Heilongjiang is in China's far north-east where the sub-zero winter temperatures and clear skies made it ideal for steam photography, if you could stand the cold. Main line steam lasted until 1999 but the province was also home to some of the best narrow gauge and industrial lines where steam survived another 10 years.
Nei Menggu (Inner Mongolia)
424 photos
updated : 2022-12-03
Inner Mongolia covers a vast area of northern China was one of the most rewarding provinces for the steam enthusiast. It was home to the JiTong Railway, the Zhalainuo'er opencast coal mine, Baotou, with it's steelworks and JS worked suburban passengers to mention just a few of the many highlights.
Beijing
86 photos
updated : 2024-04-29
Beijing Municipality includes a lot of countryside as well as China's Capital City. Photography in the city isn't easy but there are plenty of good photo locations away from the urban area with dramatic mountains and plenty of railway action with a bewildering number of different classes in evidence.
Jilin
135 photos
updated : 2024-08-04
Jilin Province had much to offer in the 1980s and 1990s. RM and SL6 Pacifics worked from Changchun and Jilin and there was plenty of QJ worked freight. The JS worked lines around Tonghua and Hunjiang were amongst the most photogenic in China and there were a few good industrial operations as well.
Hebei
26 photos
updated : 2024-10-10
Hebei Province surrounds Beijing with high mountains in the north and west contrasting with the flatlands of the south-east. Although its railways include some of the world's busiest main lines, it's the secondary lines through the hills that are more rewarding to visit. Most are still diesel worked.
Liaoning
213 photos
updated : 2025-06-11
Liaoning is in China's heavily industrialised north-east and is home to busy main lines and some of the most interesting industrial systems, several of them electrified. Steam lasted on the main lines until the start of the 21st Century and hung on in industrial service until 2016.
It's difficult to comprehend the scale of China's railway system or the speed with which it's changed over the last few decades. The photos here are the result of dozens of visits to main line and industrial locations across the country since 1984 and depict many classes of steam, diesel and electric loco at work.
