This can't be serious! November 2006, China's Shanghai 5th Iron Company/Factory is still using steam for switching?! I know it may not be shot in 11/06 but at the beginning, the cars and buses seems similar to the ones I saw in China last year!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Cc4B_QvDs&NR
This is also cool, 2 steam loco's in a lashup!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyAwj_ootHU&mode=related&search=
Cool videos.... thanks for the link!!!
Brian
They do in Cuba, too.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
The Cuban lines are pretty cool. They seem to take pretty good care of them.
PS- I saw a company in E. Ohio was using it's steam locos from it's excursion trains to haul freight during the week. They said it made their museum line profitable.
Thanks for the links. It seems like those two engines are working awfully hard for such a short train, so that viaduct must be on a fairly steep grade...2%, maybe? Also, hand-fired and the engineman sits on the left.
Another observation is that the packing in the cylinders seemed worn...the video seems to show lots of steam escaping from the rear seals. Maybe it was just a poor data density that muddied up the image.
Iceman_c27 wrote: This can't be serious! November 2006, China's Shanghai 5th Iron Company/Factory is still using steam for switching?! I know it may not be shot in 11/06 but at the beginning, the cars and buses seems similar to the ones I saw in China last year!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-Cc4B_QvDs&NRThis is also cool, 2 steam loco's in a lashup!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyAwj_ootHU&mode=related&search=
Yes, it absolutely is TRUE. China used steam locos for everything. China began totally phasing out steam with conversion to diesel in 2005.
I have dial up, so it'd take 20 mins to load the video, but I know what it will be showing. Pentrex, our railfaning video perveyor carries video taken after 2000 of the steam use in China. CHeck out: Pentrex Railroad Videos and Books for the China Steam videos.
AS for the comments about steam escaping the cylinder, could be. If it still gave out some work, but was in need of repair or updating...it would fall in the category of "run it till it drops".
As for the comment about the grades...yes, that also to is true. China does have some steep grades and some strange passes.
It is interesting to see steam operating in the current century, even if only shortly. Beats graining, funky faded coloring or bad black and white.
*sigh*
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Check out the Deming Sub by clicking on the pics:
Great link and I found some other from it. On the steam from the drivers, I was thinking it was a lot as well. On some of the vidos there seem to be snow on the ground so the cold could have something to do with it.
Pretty cool link.
Ken
I hate Rust
Iceman,
Poland and Ecuador still run steam, and there are no doubt other countries as well. There have been several Trains & Locomotives episodes on RFD-TV about China's and Poland's steam railroads.
If you look at a copy of Model Railroader for the Trains Unlimited Tours advertisement, there are several steam railroads listed that you can buy a ticket on, including several in the U.S. of A.
There are at least two tourist railroads in the U.S., one in Iowa and one in New England, that are using Chinese-built 2-8-2 Mikado steam engines that were bought new from China in the 1990's, because they were still manufacturing steam engines then.
el-capitan wrote:Many people don't realize that when labor is cheap and coal is plentiful, steam can still be more economical than Diesel. With the rate of inflation in China, it probably isn't economical anymore.
I think you are right because I was thinking about it as well. China has LOTS of people, LOTS of coal and fresh water but what they don't have is oil! China is actually the world's largest single importer of crude oil and fuel. Besides, lots of the Govt. own remote factories are operating in like pre-war conditions so having a steam loco there doesn't make it out of place! The DVD I was watching the other day also seem to be saying that Baldwin and others shipped a lot of steam engines to Europe during WWII and then to China when the Pacific War broke out. A lot of them might be from that era because they don't like towaste anything, see? ;-)
cacole wrote: Iceman,Poland and Ecuador still run steam, and there are no doubt other countries as well. There have been several Trains & Locomotives episodes on RFD-TV about China's and Poland's steam railroads.If you look at a copy of Model Railroader for the Trains Unlimited Tours advertisement, there are several steam railroads listed that you can buy a ticket on, including several in the U.S. of A.There are at least two tourist railroads in the U.S., one in Iowa and one in New England, that are using Chinese-built 2-8-2 Mikado steam engines that were bought new from China in the 1990's, because they were still manufacturing steam engines then.
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
I didn't know there is still a market for steam engines, must be dirt cheap from China!
I know about the various steam tourist train ride thingy...my brother in-law was telling me last year about this luxury tourist train with double bed suites from Gunazhou to Tibet for a week and apparently it goes all the way to the top of Tibet where they supply oxygen to you because that's how high you go. Cost a bit though...work out to be around 2 or 3 grand...but I suppose it's not too bad, the whole journey is for week...
Great vid Ice! Tks. for the post.
cooltech