China

[capeklr]

Went to visit China in 2007.
Spent a day in Shanghai, arrived by plane from Beijing and then of to the city by train without wheels.
SMT, aka Shanghai Maglev Train, what an experience.
Don't have many pics as there where lots of people around and so it was difficult to take nice pics, also at the end station the sun was shining in which did not make it any easier.
First pic just before boarding at Pudong international airport.

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Inside, waiting for the train to leave.

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The train is so silent and smooth as there is no contact with the "tracks".
It just keeps on accelerating till it reaches cruising speed witch it maintains for a few km's and then gently slows down again. The track is only 30km's long.

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Safely in the city. There where some static metal models for sale, I bought one set which is roughly HO scale.
Smaller one could be had to, I suspect N scale.

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Last pic is not mine, found on the net, but a nice pic of the outside of the station with the train just leaving.

Next up Beijing Railway museum.

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As promised Beijing Railway Museum.
When we went there in 2007 it had just opened, took quite some time to find it as its out of the city and no taxi drivers knew of it. But we got there and saw a bit of China's railway history.
Huge hall with bad lighting for taking photo's, especially if you only have a simple point and shoot camera.

There is over 120 years of Chinese Railway History.
Prior to 1949 all the Loco's where imported with the result that they had some 4000 loco's of 200 different types.
It was only in 1952 that China started to manufacture their own Loco's.
In 1958 they started to design their own steam, diesel and electric locos as well as rolling stock.
Steam loco production stopped on the 21st of December 1988.
Pic of the display hall.

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Class Mao Zedong Steam Locomotive.
Built 1941 in Japan 2-8-2
23.75 meters long, tractive effort 24030 kg, top speed 80km/h
Withdrawn from service January 1977.

I like those 2 headlights.
Of course I had to get into the cap.

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Heavy goods Locomotive Class Qianjin 2-10-2
26 meters long and has a top speed of 80 km/h.
Tractive effort 33290 kg built by Datong Locomotive Works in China 1964.
I'm also a 1964 model, but seeing that I'm from Germany I still work. 

These Loco's could lift their leading and trailing axles to increase tractive effort when starting a heavy train on an incline.

If you ever visit Germany there is one of these on display at the Speyer Technical Museum, I have a few pics of that one as well.

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Last pic, looking down one of the aisles, lots of big and small steamers.

A few narrow guage loco's as well.
Saw a diesel built by Henschel in Germany as well.
Stupidly we did not have a spare battery for the camera so only got a few pics.
There where 2 very dilapidated layout in one corner, one HO and the other N scale, but not worth photographing.