The Yinghao Coal Mine Railway in China was built in 1962.

To a gauge of 762mm, it ran 9.8 km between the loco shed in Yinghao Meikuang through Xiangyang Chezhan to Yinghao.

There was a junction at Xiangyang Chezhan where the line drops down to the mine and coal loading facilities at Liangjiawajing.

The Xingyang Brickworks Railway is 15 km west of Zhengzhou in Henan Province in China.

The line is 762mm gauge, approximately 5km long and is worked by two C2 0-8-0 steam locos.

Set in an almost tropical part of China, the Jiayang Coal Railway is well worth a visit.

The line climbs steeply to the 'half-way' point at Mifengyan, where the trains reverse before continuing the climb to Huangcunjin.

A very interesting exercise this.  I visited the Jinxi Railway just once in March 2005.  It was a pretty dull day, with the overcast getting worse as the day went on.

One of the things I love about digital photography is you just keep on learning. 

I’ve been back ‘mining’ my pictures from a visit to China in March 2005.  It was the first time I visited China chasing steam – I’ve been back three times since. 

It’s an amazing country with some amazing steam action – even now in 2008.

 It's that time – looking back across an old year done and wondering what the next will bring.  So I’ve been looking back across the crop of railway pictures I took in 2008.

More older picture mining - this time of our visit to the Tiefa Coal Railway in China in March 2005. 

It continues to amaze me how Photoshop and Raw Converters have progressed over three years - some of these frames were unusable at the time they were taken. 

Big lesson here - always shoot Raw - there's almost always a way of recovering even the biggest technical blunders.

Tangshan is a heavily industrialised mining city in the east of China that had been known as one of the real hotspots for Chinese steam.

The Nanpiao Coal Railway is located In Liaoning Province in the east of China. I've visited twice - in March 2005 and January 2008.

It's a great mix of a regular steam-operated passenger service and fairly frequent coal trains. The system passes through some beautiful rural countryside and some highly industrial areas.

The day-to-day story of my January 2008 trip to China with Roger and Ken, organised by Bernd Seiler.  An epic of steam and cold!