See http://www.chinasteam.com/trains/china259.htm

For March 2008 update on the efforts to secure the 600 mm gauge line at Shibanxi.

See here for a video clip from last week.

www.livesteaming.com/uploads/Video/shibanxi04.wmv

TH

I'm really surprised by the size of the drivers on that little steamer.

This particular bunch of steam locos always looked, to me, like something a thresher reunion might cobble together using an old thresher boiler, some Fairmount car parts, and old pump engine cylinders. Take a close look--they even have truck-style air horns!

They are actually pretty nifty little engines. They're superheated, some (all?) have all-weather cabs, some even have roller bearing connecting rods. I saw where a group exported one to the UK recently.

They are indeed useful engines and quiet powerful as the video "Logging Off" depicts very well.

They are Chinese built copies of a Polish design built as as late as 1988

I've been fortunate to have driven several including the one imported to the UK last year when it was still in daily service in China.

TH