The World S Last Steam Locomotives In Industry The 21st Century

A stunning collection of rare photographs documenting the last years of industrial steam around the world. This first volume focuses on scenes captured in the twenty-first century.

A stunning collection of rare photographs documenting the last years of industrial steam around the world. This first volume focuses on scenes captured in the twentieth century.

China was the last country in the world to manufacture and operate steam locomotives. By the early 1980s, there were an estimated 10,000 operational steam locomotives in the country, but by the 1990s, diesel and electric locomotives started to replace them on the main lines and the number in service reduced substantially as the millennium approached. The last steam locomotives were finally withdrawn from China Rail in 2003. After that, some continued to operate heavy freight trains on local railways for a short while, but most were deployed for use on the country’s industrial railways, mainly at coal mines and steel works. This trend continued into the first decade of the 21st century, but subsequently, the number of steam engines in service declined substantially and were confined to just a handful of industrial locations. Steam rail operations in China are now facing extinction. The modernization of the railways with the switch from steam to diesel, the closure of unsafe and loss-making collieries and China’s drive to reduce pollution and combat climate change from burning coal, have all conspired towards the demise of the industrial lines operating steam in China. This book looks at the last of the standard-gauge steam operations in China, including Sandaoling, the last steam-worked opencast coal mine in the world; Fuxin, a coal-mining city in Liaoning Province, which until recently, operated the largest surviving fleet of SY locomotives; Baiyin, in Gansu Province, which operated some of the last steam-hauled passenger trains in the world; and Wu Jiu, a remote coal-mining outpost in Inner Mongolia. Beautifully illustrated with over 120 color photographs and a description of the operations, this is a striking portrait of the last of the world’s operating steam trains.

For nearly half of the nation's history, the steam locomotive was the outstanding symbol for progress and power. It was the literal engine of the Industrial Revolution, and it played an instrumental role in putting the United States on the world stage. While the steam locomotive's basic principle of operation is simple, designers and engineers honed these concepts into 100-mph passenger trains and 600-ton behemoths capable of hauling mile-long freight at incredible speeds. American Steam Locomotives is a thorough and engaging history of the invention that captured public imagination like no other, and the people who brought it to life.

The disappearance of the steam locomotive in the land of its birth touched the hearts of millions, but when the government announced the Modernisation Plan for Britain's railways in 1955, under which steam was to be phased out in favour of diesel and electric traction, few people took it seriously. Steam locomotives were an integral part of our daily lives and had been for almost one and a half centuries. Furthermore, they were still being built in large numbers. It was popularly believed that they would see the century out and probably well beyond that. But the reality was that by 1968 a mere thirteen years after the Modernisation Plan steam traction had disappeared from Britain's main line railways. It was harrowing to witness the breaking up of engines, which were the icons of their day, capable of working long-distance inter-city expresses weighing 400 tons on schedules faster than a mile a minute. Top speeds of 100mph were not unknown.This book chronicles the last few years as scrap yards all over Britain went into overtime, cutting up thousands of locomotives and releasing a bounty of more than a million tons of scrap whilst the engines, which remained in service, were a shadow of their former selves; filthy, wheezing and clanking their way to an ignominious end. The pictures in this book are augmented by essays written by Colin Garratt at the time. Although steam disappeared from the main line network it survives in everdwindling numbers on industrial systems such as collieries, ironstone mines, power stations, shipyards, sugar factories, paper mills and docks. In such environments steam traction eked out a further decade and during this time many of the industrial locations closed rendering the locomotives redundant. The British steam locomotive was born amid the coalfields and was destined to die there one and three quarter centuries later.

A spectacular, historical perspective and photographic gallery of the last working steam railways in China--the world's largest major concentration of steam locomotives in the 21st Century. In the last half of the 1900s, China built ten thousand coal-burning steam locomotives across the country. These powerful engines ran in a variety of settings, from an open cast coal mine near the Siberian border to the semi-tropical remote hills of Sichuan, powering passenger trains that stretched one thousand kilometres across Inner Mongolia and pulling the local trains on forestry railways in the countryside of northern China. Then, in 2001, Chinese Railways retired almost all its steam locomotives. Nonetheless, some regional, local and industrial operations continued using steam for another decade or more. The photographs and photo essays in this book are a result of visits to dozens of these often-remote railways where steam was still being used. They highlight the skills of workers as they overhauled and maintained the locomotives and reflect on the lives of the people who depended upon them in a rapidly changing world. The Last Steam Railways: Volume One chronicles the last two decades of China's fascinating and picturesque steam railways in a visually dramatic and authoritative presentation. This is the first of three volumes that take the story of the last steam railways across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. With over five hundred original colour photographs, graphics, maps and tables, this is a spectacular addition to any history collection.

The thrilling story of the last, and greatest, generation of steam railway locomotives in regular main line service A story of invention, skill, and passion, Giants of Steam reveals how the true advocates of steam's glory days pushed its design and performance to remarkable limits, taking these powerful and beautifully designed machines to new heights against a backdrop of the political upheavals and military conflicts of the mid-20th century. Glancey tells the stories of the greatest of the "steam men," the charismatic engineers who designed these machines and put them to use. Giants of Steam also reveals how steam design has continued to progress against the odds in recent decades, while enthusiasm for the steam locomotive itself is far from burning out.

This overview of the leading locomotive producers in the United States during the twentieth century shows how they responded to a radical technological change: the replacement of steam locomotives by diesels. The locomotive industry provides a valuable case study of business practices and dramatic shifts in innovation patterns, since two companies--General Motors and General Electric--that had no traditional ties to locomotive production demolished established steam locomotive manufacturers. Albert Churella uses many previously untapped sources to illustrate how producers responded to technological change, particularly between the 1920s and the 1960s. Companies discussed include the American Locomotive Company (ALCo), the Baldwin Locomotive Works, the Lima Locomotive Works, Fairbanks-Morse, the Electro-Motive Division of General Motors, and General Electric. A comparative work of business history and the history of technology, the book is not a complete history of any locomotive builder, nor does it explore the origins of the diesel engine in great detail. What it does, and does superbly, is to demonstrate how managers addressed radical shifts in technology and production methods. Churella reveals that managerial culture and corporate organizational routines, more than technological competency per se, allowed some companies to succeed, yet constrained the actions of others. He details the shift from small-batch custom manufacturing techniques in the steam locomotive industry to mass-production methods in the diesel locomotive industry. He also explains that chance events and fortuitous technological linkages helped to shape competitive patterns in the locomotive industry.