Across Manchuria by train

[Nick_Burman]

 

 

Japanese travel documentary showing Manchuria in the 1920's. Not much rail content as such, but some of it is fabulous - the first moving images of the Asia Go and its PaShiNa locomotives I've ever seen! Plus some rare footage of South Manchurian Railway and Chinese Eastern Railway (before gauge conversion and incorporation into the SMR) trains.

 

Cheers Nicholas

[miyakoji]

Very interesting.  I'll have a look at this while referencing places and dates on Wikipedia.

[ben_issacs]

Folks, 

The South Manchuria Railway (Short Japanese title Nan Man Tetsu) was a very interesting and advanced railway for its time in Asia.

I suspect that when the Japanese set it up after the finish of the Russo-Japanese War, they intended it to show how a standard gauge Japanese railway would be.

Very much North American in appearance, typical medium sized N.A. steam locos,complete with bells, big clerestory roof pass cars, bogie freight  stock.

One aspect of a N.A. railroad that they didn't follow was the type of guard's vans (cabooses) used.

These looked like cabooses, with a top lookout, but were only little fourwheelers. and looked a bit odd bouncing along at the rear of a train of bogie goods waggons

SMR headquarters were at Dairen, now Dalian.

Their main line ran from the naval base at Port Arthur, whose Japanese name I can't remember, through Dairen, up to Mukden  now Shengyang  and on to Changchun, which for a while was called Shinkyo.

Some of their steam loco designs, 4-6-2's and 2-8-2's, were perpetuated by the Chinese People's Railway after the war.

Regards, 

Bill, 

Melbourne.

 

 

 

 

 

[ben_issacs]

Folks, 

Had a look at that docuo.

It's after 1934, which is when the 'Asia' Express, which appears in some shots,  came into being.

Also the women's fashions  are 1930's, not 20's.

There are brief shots of the Fushun mine and the Anshan steel works, and many shots of towns such as Harbin which were not served by the SMR, but by the Manchukuo National Railway, and the Chinese Eastern..

The recent shots of Dalian were of interest, with trams still running there.

The shot, right at the end, of a very bedraggled SL 751 (?) was sad to see, these engines were a famous class and certainly worth better treatment than that one seems to have got.

Regards, 

Bill, 

Melbourne.

 

 

[marknewton]

Dont worry Bill, SL7 751 and sister engine 757 are both preserved at Shenyang.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[ben_issacs]

Mark, 

Thanks for that info.

A magnificent museum, I wish that we had something like it here in Melbourne!

On a China trip many years ago with an ARE group, we were guests at the opening of the first, outdoor railway museum at Shenyang.

There, SL 751 was in light steam, and ran trips with one car up and down about 100 yards or so of track,  we all had trips on this, so could be amongst the very few Westerners still living who had travelled behind this magnificent loco, even if only for 200 yards or so.

The shot of the bedraggled SL 751 in the docu must have been taken before the setting up of the museum.

Is there an SL 8 there?

Regards, 

Bill,

Melbourne.