Loose_Grip/Pete's photos with the keyword: 2-10-2

Now that we can no longer travel very far, a post from better days - 20th October 1983 in China. We spent an afternoon on the lineside southwest of Harbin in Manchuria and the last train we saw on this day was Chinese Railways QJ 2-10-2 273, built in 1966, as it slowly made its way out of the yard to run down Wanggang bank into Harbin. Open countryside in 1983 but looking at Google maps the whole area seems to be built up today!

In the beautiful forest setting of Steinerne-Renne station HSB Class 99 7239 barks away from its station stop on the 09.40 Wernigerode to Brocken service.

The first steam engine we saw on our 1983 trip was QJ 2-10-2 2929 on a freight train at Fengtai in the west of Peking.

QJ 2-10-2 847 puts up a fine performance on a passenger train out of the city of Changchun on the evening of our arrival from Harbin.

Chinese steam working hard. 2-10-2 QJ 440 &QJ at Honggong. A double-headed freight train heading south on the railway out of Harbin powers up the Wanggang bank. Back in 1983 independent visitors were not allowed. I spent 3 weeks with a group of enthusiasts on an organised tour visiting railway, and cultural, sites across China where steam still reigned on the main line. Investment in new lines was high even then and it's interesting to realise that the lines in western China where the last steam strongholds were recently dieselised were not even built at the time of my visit.

QJ 1187c

Double-headed QJ 2-10-2s head a freight train out of Datong shortly before the end of steam at this location after which all freight was electric hauled. I joined a group of enthusiasts for a 3 week trip to China to see steam throughout the country.

A QJ 2-10-2 departs Changchun on an evening service.