From a Google "steam engine" search this morning:

http://english.rednet.cn/c/2009/03/04/1719319.htm

For those more knowledgeable than me, is this the end of steam in China?

SY Country has a listing of steam lines still working in China. Expect steam into 2010 on some and maybe even beyond that depending on a number of factors. At least one or two have decided to keep working steam for the tourism value.

http://www.sy-country.co.uk/line/lines.htm

It is definitely 5 minutes to midnight for steam in China by Chinese standards. By US standards there is still daily operating steam all over the place.

Take a look at this page which shows images taken in the last couple of weeks at 6 different locations.

Finding a QJ operating is now very rare but it is still possible. One image actually shows a QJ without the skyliner casing around the chimney.

www.farrail.net then click on recent updates and "Ice Quickie"

FarRail Tours - Railway Steam Tours - Eisenbahn Dampflok Reisen.htm

TH

What other countries still run steam.

Wow.......that is a question that cannot be answered in a few words.

I'll assume you mean daily working non tourist steam

Zimbabwe, Botswana, Bosnia, Java (in the sugar harvest season) India

Of which only Zimbabwe and at a stretch Bosnia are for the State Railway. The rest are industrial. A further 2/3 countries also run fire-less

TH

I don't think there is non-tourist steam in India. There is also some steam in Paraguay. Here are some photos I took there in 2007.

http://picasaweb.google.com/tgears1/Sou ... 2995232706

For good information on steam around the world check out:
http://www.steam.dial.pipex.com/

Nice Paraguay pics! I love the pictures of the steamers going down the street. How cool would that be to live/work on that street?

Thanks for sharing!

It was an amazing place. We walked to the steam shop and hear banging 1/2 mile away. We got there and there were three guys hammering the scale off of old boiler tubes so the could weld what was left of them into ones long enough to re-use. That portion of railroad is going to be flooded as they built a dam and the water is rising. It wont be long before that whole part of town including the railroad will be underwater.

Ah, Paraguay. Not only regular service, but over 100 year old wood burning steamer. I was there in 95 & 98. If you've never been, get there soon.

Paraguay was the only place where Ing. Porta ever flat gave up. As he puts it, normal operation was for one man/month to get killed transferring wood into the tender of a moving train, the locomotive shop foreman not only couldn't read blueprints, he was completely illiterate, etc.

The crowning jewel to his work in Paraguay was when he was riding the cab of an engine at night. Porta looked up and noticed that the needle was missing from the unglazed boiler pressure gauge. He pointed this out to the fireman, who looked around on the floor until he found it, stuck it back on, and declared "fixed!". I guess he didn't place much value on accuracy.

Ha! Brilliant story...

Tom, India is on the list because of Tipong. See here:

http://www.steam.dial.pipex.com/trains/india049.htm

I omitted Paraguay as I'd not heard anything for a couple of years.

Bosnia is new because of the news that the Bosnian National Railway has purchased four of the USRA type 0-6-0 tank locos in overhauled condition from Mittal steel for work at Depots.

And it now appears we can add Mexico to the list although I'm still trying to get photographic evidence of a Shay in Durango that switches an industry from the main.

Probably should count the "Wolsztyn Experience" in Poland, since it does use steam to power common-carrier commuter trains on a daily basis 10 months out of the year (September-June). Kind of questionable as to how much to count it, since the only reason it operates steam is because of the fans who pay big bucks to go there and operate the train themselves.