China - Steam to the Gobi Desert - English • Great Railways

This classic documentary by Nick Lera takes us on a 1991 journey on China’s railways, the world's last great bastion of steam operation. Starting in the last standard gauge steam locomotive factory at Tangshan, where we join coal miners in their steam-hauled shuttle to the pithead, we travel from Beijing past the Great Wall of China and on through the wilds of inner Mongolia to Zhongwei on the edge of the Gobi desert. En route we enjoy a good lunch in our dining car express, and take a dramatic cab ride aboard our steam locomotive, one of China’s famous QJ class 2-10-2 locomotives. Other classic steam types featured are YJ 2-6-2 at Baotou steel works, plus JF 2-8-2 and SY 2-8-2 on branch line and mine service. A rare archive clip shows an ex-Soviet Railways FD class 2-10-2 filmed inside the great Yangtze bridge.
We conclude with double-headed heavy freights in stunning mountain scenery on the horseshoe curves beyond Zhongwei en route to China’s Far West. In all, a fascinating portrait of a now vanished era.

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[brucewilliams]

This sweeps me back to January 1995, based in Zhongwei, at the Hotel Zhongwei, to video and photograph the line to the west. We saw train 43 go through every day, and captured many QJs heading their trains.
Electrification masts were being erected in preparation.
The whole sojourn there was hugely rewarding - both visually and aurally.
Many thanks for posting this valuable record of a lost era. Greetings from Australia 🇦🇺

[uberkelvin]

What an incredible video - the clarity of the film, the cinematography and the audio are all amazing. I was born in Beijing 2 years after this was filmed - I didn't get to see any working steam as a child - only the big old QJs enjoying well-deserved rest at the Beijing Railway Museums but the scenes (especially Beijing central station) are very evocative of the late 90s China I remember. I'm a little sad I missed it all but this is the next best thing. Unbelievable we went from these puffing beasts to 350km/h high speed trains in half a lifetime. Thanks for sharing.

[oldschool]

My first trip to China in 1981, we road a steam train from Guangzhou to Nanning- took 27 hours in hot humid weather sitting on wooden benches.

[PharaohDeathMask]

What a fabulous documentary. This was filmed beautifully. Thanks for uploading it.

[TERRYBIGGENDEN]

Magic. The last scene is unforgettable. :-)

[steamsearcher]

I eventually got to China in 2004 at Christmas to meet someone very special who I have spent the evening with watching this wonderful film. Yes we went on a train up to the mountains 13 hours and looking out of the carriage in the morning saw a QJ sat in a siding. On future journeys we ventured down to the local line which is still steam hauled but mostly for the tourists these days. On one occasion we got invited to join the crew for breakfast which we enjoyed, but even having a Local Girl for a wife did not get me onto the footplate!!! David and Lily.

[kirabay]

The change in China in 3 decades is amazing, this documentary is a gem that captures a China of that time that along with steam trains has been disappearing.

[yusu]

Great video, I was born in Tangshan in the same year when this video was made. Really happy to see my city and those steam locos before I started to take photos.

[Huttworker]

Nick Lera productions are well rounded showing another side to the rail, great to watch

[SouRwyProductions]

Excellent footage! Those QJs are marvelous engines. They look like something straight out of the 1940s, and the shots look like they could be used in a movie. I’m glad the Chinese know how to build and run a proper railroad. It may be dirty and outdated, but it still works as good as when it was built. It reminds me of the waning days of the American age of stean, but with Chinese scenery.

[manhunter]

Well, props to China for keeping an age of Steam in mainline use for so long. The old Iron horses, from those who are permitted to make occasional mainline runs, to those on their own private lines, seeing them show the modern world a glimpse of when they were the life lines of the world.

[geoffreyswan]

There is truly fascinating about the charm of steam engines, Sadly consigned to history in most parts of the world .❤❤❤

[MrBnsftrain]

They were right in estimating most QJs would last until 2010. The last mainline use was 2005 and many industrial sites used QJs, SYs, and some JSs into the 2010s. One site, the Sandaoling coal mines, still use steam but the site will be closed by the end of 2023.
Thirty years later, China is building the biggest high-speed rail network in the world. A nation that once relied on others to build railways is now advanced enough to build them for other nations.

[benediktmorak]

Definitely Kudos to you that you made a railway film and left politics out of it.
Wonder what a follow up film, about now, 2023, would show?

[johnkeepin]

This was well worth watching. I see that the production year was 1996; this was the year when I travelled through China by train, and the last time I saw a service train hauled by steam was when passing through Wuhan, when a double headed freight passed by, hauled by a couple of them. The one I was on was from Guangzhou to Beijing, where we arrived at the relatively new station there. After a few days in Beijing, we did use the older main station in Beijing (shown in this movie) for the next train out, though. That one was a service from Beijing to Moscow via Mongolia. There was a bogie change at the border with Mongolia, onto Russian gauge. Diesel traction as far as Sludianka (Слюдянка), from where is was electric all the way west via various systems.

[Vuhd]

I retrieved my childhood memories by watching the movie.Thank you.

[consruction]

Whet a treat it was to see the last of the big huffier puffers still running. Thank you for your time and effort you did making this

[survivingworldsteam]

To those who cannot understand the narration, it is because of the poor quality of the speakers built into computers and phones. I first listened to it on a computer with the built in speakers, and had the same issue. I then watched it again on a big screen connected to a stereo system, and I could understand it loud and clear, with the exception of the last part of the blowdown sequence. The train sounds are wonderful and in stereo on a stereo system.

[parthasarathibiswas]

Mesmerizing Presentation !! Thanks a lot !!!

[ahilltodieons]

Wringing a tear from me at every beautiful opportunity...