Blasts from the past: a steam-powered taste of old China
The 'world's last working steam railway' is fast becoming a Sichuan tourist attraction. Words and pictures by David Akast
There are hundreds of preserved heritage railways around the globe sharing a common appeal to the sense of nostalgia that the age of steam stimulates. In comparison to their homogenised and characterless diesel and electric successors, steam engines are eulogised as living, breathing engineering marvels; their personality expressed through moving parts, beguiling puffs and whistles, the smell of coal and soaring plumes of smoke.
It is this nostalgia for the golden age of rail travel that has led to an overly romantic notion of how a real railway would have worked. Rather than a refined world of polished wood and gleaming brass, working steam trains offer a much more visceral experience - one of screeches, jolts and dust. Such realities can today only be found in a diminishing number of remote locations.
With the breathtaking expansion of its high-speed rail network (which will connect even Urumqi, in distant Xinjiang, this year) it is easy to forget how recently China emerged from the steam age. Production of its workhorse engine, the 130-ton QJ, only ceased in 1988 and the last steam-hauled main-line service, in Inner Mongolia, ran until 2005. These huge engines, designed in the 1950s, were still in service after the launch of the 431km/h Shanghai Maglev.
In view of recent developments it is remarkable that only two hours from Chengdu - the vibrant capital of Sichuan province whose rapid development, fuelled by the "Open Up the West" programme, has been spectacular even in Chinese terms - a genuine steam-powered railway has survived, unadulterated and with a plausible claim to be the last in the world to still offer passenger services.
Constructed in 1958, the narrow-gauge Jiayang Railway connects the towns of Bagou and Shixi, in Qianwei county. Although primarily built to transport coal, the line proved so popular with locals looking to hitch a ride that a dedicated passenger service was introduced in 1978.
Trains still trundle through 20 kilometres of Sichuan Basin mist, passing villages and bamboo plantations en route to Bagou, a town without a connecting road until 2012 and a destination that has remained essentially untouched by the economic changes of the past 35 years.
