I was watching “The Peacemaker” on cable this weekend. Its a '97 movie starring George Clooney, Nicole Kidman, and some slavic guy. Seems this Croat or Serb or Muslim (he claims all three) wants to blow up the UN with a stolen nuke. Anyone remember it? Anyway, the nukes are being hauled through the Urals in south-western Russia by a steam locomotive before they are stolen by a group of mercs on an overtaking diesel-powered train (the kind I saw while serving in the Balkans/SFOR!/)
To my point: How many countries still use steam locomotives for other than tourist/museum trains. I’m sure there are some using steam for revenue passenger service, but freight? Thanks much for your indulgence.
There are still a few colliery lines in Serbia that use steam and there probably are in Poland too. As far as I know , Poland is the only country still with regular steam operation though I think there is an element of subsisiding it as a tourist operation.
I believe Zimbabwe is also still using steam, owing to the fact that it has plenty of coal but no oil and cannot afford any oil with the parlous state of its economy.
Having looked at my 2000 issue of “Jane’s World Railways” (highly recommended as a resource), China is the last major operator of steam locomotives. Everything else seems to be small pockets here and there with only a handful of steam locomotives on otherwise all diesel rosters.
Thanks for the replies. I would have guessed India and China, and they’re probably going to change that soon since their economies are booming now. anyone have any more?
I believe China banked the fires on the last of their Main Line Steam earlier this year and their steam was the last ‘revenue’ steam that was still in operation in the world.
Depends on what you mean by Main Line. It continues to haul freight, serve branch lines and will work for factories for years. There are photos posted from China in the last month that show working steam that is not narrow guage. Either that or I have got some bad info and will gladly stand corrected. This would place them years ahead of their own estimates to build enough diesel engines.[2c] As always ENJOY
It seems to be my lot to revive old threads. Besides Poland, I think some South American countries. But by now, they might be gone. I recorded a program about steam in Cuba(and an interurban!) from the RFD channel. But that video could be dated.
My understanding is that China has no Main Line steam still operating. The last line stopped using steam 4 or 5 years ago. There is a poster on https://www.railpictures.net/ that has posted numerous picturs of that operation. As I recall the dates on most of his pictures are 2016 or 2017 and he has commented that steam is no longer in use.
In China, steam is gone on all of China Railway system by around the end of the early 2000s or so, but managed to stick around on small provincial lines for much longer, who bought the locomotives from the government. Steam on those lines lasted up until around 2013.
The QJs which rumbled over the JiTong line back when it was first built are now long gone.
The last line in China that uses steam now is a quarry in Xiangjing Province called Sandaoling, however I heard the line is going to close soon.
There are several narrow-gauge railways in Eastern Germany that use steam on metre-gauge lines. This is the biggest one and it does haul freight on occasion;