Steam Train

Steam Train

In the forests on the northern slopes of the Wandashan Mountain Range in Northeast China, there lies a winding forest railway that cuts through towering mountains and steep ridges. It is operated by the Huinan Forestry Bureau, which preserves the last steam trains in Northeast China. The old station buildings and maintenance workshops retain traces of history from the 1960s. Two forest steam trains sit on the narrow-gauge railway, creating a scene straight out of a nostalgic movie. Guide Lao Wang, a veteran employee of the forest railway, recounts the history of this small railway line: In the 1940s, the Japanese invaders, in order to smoothly plunder the forest resources of Wandashan as well as develop coal and gold mining, built a narrow-gauge forest railway over 40 kilometers long. After the liberation of the nation, to accelerate socialist infrastructure development, the forestry department added two more small forest railways. At that time, a wide variety of steam trains were used, including British and German water-tube 21-ton steam trains. Starting in 1957, domestically produced steam locomotives were put into operation. Now that logging is prohibited in the forested areas and transportation in the mountains has become more convenient and advanced than before, the forest steam trains have become largely obsolete. The later-built small railways have been dismantled, leaving only this oldest and longest small forest railway still in operation—because raw coal from a coal mine deep in the mountains still needs to be transported out by these forest trains.

Hongguang Township is where the forest steam train comes to haul raw coal. On the vast snowy ground, a small forest railway extends from the mountains to where we are standing. In front of the brick house beside the railway, the station attendant is preparing to welcome the arrival of the little train. The steam train arrives, billowing clouds of smoke. For over half a century, it has influenced the lives of generations of people in the mountains. Today, with social progress and the impact of modern transportation networks, it will eventually reach its final stop one day not too far off.

Address: Hongguang Township, Huanan County