A Grand Tour
16 November - 8 December 2013
Report by Duncan Cotterill
The Main Report
This illustrated report covers a three week trip to China from 16 November to 8 December 2013.
The main purpose of the trip was to photograph steam locomotives on the best of the country's industrial lines. Locations visited included the huge opencast coal mine at Sandaoling in the far western province of Xinjiang, the largest industrial steam user, with around 17 locos required in traffic every day, and the last large scale user of JS class 2-8-2s. Visits were also paid to the SY worked Fuxin and Pingzhuang mining systems and the old steelworks at Fushun, all in the North-East.
Diesels and electrics were not ignored entirely with visits to Beijing's main station and to the Fushun Mining Railway, with its remarkable electrics.
The main illustrated report is in pdf format. Click on the cover image (right) or the link below to view or download it. Warning 9.6MB file.
go to the main report
For those with a slower connection, a text only version is also available here as a normal HTML webpage.
