Our big export to China!

This steam engine (KF 4-8-4), currently on display at the National Railway Museum in York which we visited today, was built in 1935 at the Vulcan Foundry, Newton le Willows, Lancashire. It was designed to pull passenger and freight trains of 609 tonnes and was one of 24 ordered by the Chinese Government. Much bigger than steam engines used in the UK, this engine is a slimmed down American design, made lighter to cross Chinese railway bridges safely. It weighs 195 tonnes and has a total length of 28.3 metres. The four small wheels at the front help swing the weight of the engine around sharp curves while behind these are eight large red wheels which drive the engine. All wheels behind the drive wheels help spread the engine’s weight. In WW11 the engine was captured and used by the Japanese army, but after the war it worked on China’s railways for 40 years before coming to York in 1981 as a gift from the people of China to the people of Britain.