A friend of mine who knows nothing of my hobby sent me a couple of pictures he thought I'd like. For obvious reasons, I could not post them as is here so I used Microsoft Paint to edit out the naughty parts. In the white areas, there stood an Asian female in all her glory but what REALLY caught my eye was the steam locomotive in a sad state of repair.
Just would like to know more about this engine if anyone knows. And if you wanna see what the model looks like, go to web address at bottom of picture. Not my cup of tea...more interested in the train!

Here is the last picture...sorry I forgot to upload it on initial post.

I don't claim to be an expert on Chinese steam, but I believe this is a C2 class 762mm 0-8-0. I know one of these was recently moved to the Ffestiniog Railway in the UK for preservation. C2project.org has more info on that locomotive, and the entire C2 class. I'm surprised non of these pocket 0-8-0's have been imported to the US.

I agree it is a Chinese C-2 locomotive; looking at the landscape around it, and the fact that an Asian female was used as a model; it was probably filmed on it's home line in China. There is a number plate on the cab; if it is possible to zoom in close enough to read it, you could probably nail down which railway it is from.

The thought occurred to me nearly 24 years ago when I saw them operating in China, especially the very well-kept ones on the forestry railway we rode in Manchuria.

I think none were imported because the generation that had the money and inclination to do that, to operate a private narrow gauge railroad - like Ward Kimball - is gone, and those who currently have enough money have other interests.

Really, the money it would take to import one of these engines should probably be put towards preserving our important basket cases.

That's it. It's a C2 0-8-0, which seems to have been the narrow gauge engine of choice in China. The specific line in the photos is commonly referred to as Shibanxi, and is located in southwestern China. Still 100% steam powered at this point, and a real time warp.

One of many pages online that covers the railroad and coal mines
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/john.raby1/railway.html
Kevin

My friends and I rode this line and fondly refer to it as "The Pig Train". It is an amazing place.

These things are pretty amazingly modern for such small narrow gauge locomotives. They have all-weather cabs, they're superheated with piston valves, many have roller bearing axles, and some even have roller bearing rods.

Roller bearing RODS? That's a new one to me! I heard of bearings or journals but how can you incorporate bearings in or around rods? Isn't that what the grease is for? Not familiar with this concept at all. Please elaborate if possible...thanks!

Steve- The rods on steam locomotives have bearings where they connect to the crank pins on the drivers. On most locomotives, these bearings are brass or bronze bushings. On the most modern steam locomotives, roller bearings were used. N&W 611 and C&O 614 are two good examples of locomotives equipped with roller bearing rods.

If you compare photos of the rods on the 611 and 614 to other locomotives, like 1218 for instance, the difference is readily apparent.

If you are interested in seeing the hows and whys of roller bearing equipped side rods, check out the ATSF 2926 web site http://www.nmslrhs.org/index.php. They are in the midst of disassembling the rods and have posted many photos of the rods and the bearings. Look in the photos tab in the Jan 2011 section. Fairly detailed set of photos of the disassembly process.