China's Jiayang Railway – The World's Last Passenger Steam Train Service

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China‘s Jiayang Railway : The World's Last Passenger Steam Train Service

Photograph by Kevin Frayer

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Early morning in Shixi, and the train is readied for a journey.

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Although China boasts the world's most extensive high-speed rail infrastructure with over 16,000km of track, it is

also home to one of the last regular passenger steam train services in the world.

Award-winning photojournalist Kevin Frayer made several trips on the train and then walked along the tracks,

capturing scenes straight out of China's past.

The narrow-gauge Jiayang Railway connecting the towns of Shixi and Bagou in Qianwei county, Sichuan Province,

was constructed in 1958 to haul coal. The trains are still powered by the rusting, temperamental steam engines

built in the 1950s.

Hand Play

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A railway engineer prepares the steam engine for its first trip of the day, at a station in Shixi.

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Workers service a local coal powered steam train before departing on a trip carrying local villagers at a station in the town of Shixi.

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A worker loads coal into the engine of the steam train at the station in the town of Shixi.

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A worker fires the coal-fired steam engine at the station in Shixi.

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A worker services parts for the steam engine in a workshop at the station in Shixi.

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Local residents wait for the train to pull from a station.

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Passengers gather their belongings as they disembark from the train near Bagou.

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Local villagers board the train. The steam engine attracts a large number of train enthusiasts to the area every year. The local government listed the train as “protected industrial heritage” on April 18, 2006.

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Passengers ride the steam train.

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Speech is barely audible in the carriages over the blasts of steam.

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A man travels with other passengers in a carriage for locals.

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Commuters look at their mobile phones in a carriage.

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A local sits on board. In wet weather the glassless windows mean passengers get wet, or pull up the metal shutters and sit in darkness.

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A man looks at his mobile phone as he waits for the train to depart at a station in the town of Shixi.

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Locals look out at the passing scenery near Shixi.

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Passengers look out of the train as it goes through fog near Bagou.

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Passengers look out of a window as the steam train travels through fog near the former mining town of Bagou.

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Locals walk along the railway tracks outside Bagou當地人習慣沿著鐵軌上走

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A villager walks on the rail tracks near the former mining town of Bagou.

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Locals walk through a tunnel to catch the train near Bagou.

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Local residents walk through a tunnel for the steam train.

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Tourists react as the coal-powered engine noisily lets off steam at the station in the former mining town of Bagou.

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The coal-powered narrow-gauge steam train lets off steam as it rounds the scenic Jiaoba curve near Bagou, Sichuan Province.

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A passenger looks out a window as the train passes a bamboo plantation near Bagou.

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The steam train passes rice fields near the village of Bagou.

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A farmer tends to his field as the steam engine travels near the village of Bagou.

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Peng, 80, watches a train passes her house along the railway line in Bagou.

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Men smoke and play cards at a tea room close to the railway line in Bagou.

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Locals near the train station wait to peddle their products to tourists.

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A woman carries goods to sell at a market across the railway tracks from the station in Shixi.

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A woman carrying firewood walks along the platform of the station in Shixi.

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A woman sits on her bed under posters of Chinese Communist Party leaders, at her home near the railway line in the former mining town of Bagou.

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A portrait of Chairman Mao hangs in a house near the railway line in the former mining town of Bagou

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March 12, 2016 王文堯 Kaohsiung Taiwan R.O.C All photos were taken from Internet.Music : Jervy Hou - A Breathtaking Piano Piece

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