Feature Articles

British steam locomotives versus the rest, or Were British engines impotent? - Tim Runnacles

Sunning Railway, Guangdong Province 1906-1939 - by Peter Crush

The China Eastern Railway - A Glimpse of History - by Peter Crush

[The Politics] [Pictures of the CER] [The failure]

[Political Origin] [Construction] [Opening and Subsequent Operation]

Kaiping Tramway - China's Second "First" Railway- by Peter Crush

[Introduction] [Rolling Stock] [Accident]

KCRC Timetable - June 1981 - Supplied by Rick Wong

(Notice the train service between Lo Wu and Hung Hom was 19 pairs a day. By the end of 2001, the frequency of service had increased to 200 pairs a day)

Chinese Railway Glossary - Robin Gibbons

China Railway Timetable - prepared by Duncan Peattie

Updated as at Oct 2001, he has been working on a more user friendly version of the China Railway Timetable. In acrobat format. Comments about the timetable are greatly welcome. Attached is a sample timetable (Guang-shen line). Interested in buying a copy? You can let him know by e-mail. Here is a message from the author:

In the past it has been difficult to obtain accurate and comprehensive timetable information for the Chinese Railways.

The "Thomas Cook Overseas Timetable" has a China section but, given its world focus, can only give an overview of major services on major lines. The China Railways Publishing House (CRPH) publishes a timetable; unfortunately it suffers from many disadvantages. It is difficult to obtain - even within China distribution tends to be patchy; it is written in Chinese only, and whilst it contains a mass of information the method of presentation makes it very difficult to work out the complete service on a line.

When I first travelled in China (with everything safely organised in Hong Kong) I was amazed by the complexity of the rail system. As well as the huge volume of freight moving by rail I noticed (by peering at the carriage signboards) that there appeared to be passenger trains from and to a great variety of places. When I tried to find out more information I found it very difficult - railway station booking halls had masses of information on their walls but entirely in Chinese, whilst virtually no English was spoken.

I subsequently managed to obtain a copy of the CRPH timetable, which just increased my frustration. Clearly within it were the answers to what I wanted to know, but it was all but incomprehensible. An idea formed in my mind to try and break into this mass of information. Pressure of work limited the time I could spend on it, but my chance came this year with a not entirely expected change of employment.

I have now been able to produce a timetable filling the gap between the Cooks and CRPH timetables. It covers every train shown in the CRPH timetable (but not every station) and is organised in tables. The timetable is now at the proof-reading stage; publication by email (acrobat.pdf file, size about 1MB) is scheduled for Feb 2002 with a print version (A4, comb bound, 128 pages (subject to fine tuning)).

The attached file contains a sample of the timetable; if you like what you see you may be interested in purchasing an email copy at a cost of HKD 80 (other currency and print version prices on request). To purchase an email copy, or for any enquiries, please contact:

chinatt@eudoramail.com