About the International Steam Pages

The International Steam Pages were established in late 1996 to publicise steam action in those parts of the World which are not covered elsewhere on the World Wide Web. If you want news about preserved railways in Western Europe, North America or Japan, then this is NOT the place to look, please use your favourite search engine. But if, like me, you seek out steam power in far away places, then you will feel at home here. If you are just back from a visit then I'll be happy to include your report on this page, just email webmaster@internationalsteam.co.uk. I can accept relevant pictures - JPEG or GIF, if they are more than 100Kb please email me first and I will give you a suitable alternative email address. Unless you say otherwise you'll get your name mentioned (in these days of uncontrollable spam I tend not to post email addresses) - if you want to contact a reporter, please get in touch with me. The bulk of the news comes from a core of reporters to whom we are all very grateful. Below is a rare gathering of happy international gricers who had come separately to Bago, Myanmar in January 2006; Ray Gardiner, Heinrich Hubbert, Rob and Yuehong Dickinson, Manfred and Kyi Kyi Schoeler, Han Win Aung (guide).

These pages are maintained by Rob (and Yuehong) Dickinson - see above - we are based in and around Beijing, China. I met Yuehong at Weihe while we were both separately recording the last year of operation of the forestry railway in February 2003. We met again in Beijing for dinner in early December 2003, suffice to say that evening changed our lives for ever. Some hint of what that means is given in the paragraphs that follow. If you sympathise with what they say and are an independent traveller coming through Beijing, please feel free to email us some time in advance and if we are not 'on the road', we will happily share an evening or so with you exchanging stories.

Like all 'steam travellers' I (for which read 'we' in what follows) have found it harder and harder to find 'real steam'. And where I do find it, all too often it has been tarnished by what might politely be called 'insensitive behaviour' by selfish enthusiasts and tour operators who think only of their own immediate photographic results. So increasingly, I head for the less obvious destinations especially those where there is no alternative to a little bit of patience and where I can blend into the background as far as possible. And perhaps overtaking my interest in steam locomotives, I have discovered the joys of stationary steam engines, in Indonesia, India, Myanmar and Thailand. I have used the epithet Temples of Steam to describe our voyages of exploration in Myanmar (Burma). We were back again in early 2006. Click here if you want to know what was making the steam.

Regrettably the crass commercialisation of many of the steam operations has caused me to stop reporting most of our own trips in China, but rest assured we are still out there from time to time enjoying real Chinese steam which is the best in the world. As one operator said quite bluntly "As usual, we don't wait for occasionally passing steam trains and have arranged some special trains." I am glad he now seems to have gone out of business... And now it seems there is not a single accessible working narrow gauge steam railway in China which hasn't had some selfish bastards chartering trains. Quite how such sad people derive any satisfaction from the photographic results beats me. These days, more than ever you need to take time to get your shots of 'real steam' and we spent half of June 2006 staying up the line at Shibanxi ands went back again in June 2007, this is a frame from our video:

Is there life after steam? Of course, just read on.....

Having now climbed all the major peaks on Java I compiled a brief guide to its largest volcanoes (24th August 2003). I even got persuaded to go up one of them (Merbabu) a second time in 2005.... Merapi (background) probably has a different shape by now.

Less obviously as strenuous but equally wearing was a luxury cruise down the Irrawaddy River.

Most of us are now 'well past our prime', maybe even into the sunset of our lives. I have been preparing for full time retirement by building a small house in the country. If you have read all the steam news, click here for our house in the country (updated 26th October 2007). 

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Email: webmaster@internationalsteam.co.uk