====  BEIJIAO – A CHINESE INDUSTRIAL CITY IN 2001 ====


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This layout was inspired by my many trips to China from 1993 to 2015 to photograph the last of Chinese steam. The layout is set in 2001 and, by then, the remaining steam action was mainly centred around heavily polluted industrial cities in the north of China and Beijiao is a fictitious version of such a city – in many ways the real China, the China which few tourists ever see.
There are three distinct systems on display. Firstly, at the back of the layout we have an industrial railway linking coal mines off stage to the left with a steelworks off stage to the right. Access to the steelworks is up a 1/30 grade and so uphill trains require the help of two bankers on this section. There is also a passenger service for the steelworks workers, many of whom live in the drab tenements around the station.
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In the centre of the layout is a double track China Rail main line and trains can be seen heading to and from a large interchange station and marshalling yard off stage to the left. You will notice that Chinese freight trains are made up of a wide variety of different of vehicles, giving each train a unique personality and this was something which made railway photography in China so appealing to me.
In the foreground is a bi-directional ‘regional railway’ which connects with the national China Rail network at Beijiao. This line was inspired by the famous Ji-Tong railway in Inner Mongolia which only opened in 1995. The Ministry of Railways had refused to finance the line and so the money came from the local provinces who had wanted the line built – hence the term ‘regional railway’. In the mid-1990’s second-hand QJ 2-10-2’s were a lot cheaper to buy than new diesels and so, when the line opened it was 100% steam powered and even in 2001 the first diesels had yet to appear. So, just as China Rail was losing its appeal, a whole new reason for me to visit China had burst onto the scene. 
The video you’ll see today was taken at Warley in November 2019, our last outing, and many improvements have been made since then. For further details please email me on teamyakima@hotmail.com


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Beijiao Photos

All Photos taken by Andrew Burnham

Credit as

Beijiao 
Exhibited by Paul Stapleton

Photographs by Andrew Burnham

Courtesy of Continental Modeller