Battlefield Heroes

Two of China's Last Real Steam
Narrow Gauge Railways on DVD
(and much more.....)
Click here to download sample clips

Perhaps because they were among the last to be 'discovered' by foreign visitors, the narrow gauge railways at Xingyang (first reported in late 2002) and Yinghao (2004) in Henan, Central China, retained their charm and innocence long after others were swamped by bus loads of tour groups. At the time of writing (early 2008), the Xingyang system is still active but no proper trains have run at Yinghao for some time.

The brickworks railway at Xingyang skirts the town, mostly in a deep gully, which means that most people there do not even know it is exists. Many visitors have been frustrated to find it out of action because trains run 'as required' and, regardless of this, the service is necessarily suspended following rain as the clay it carries then becomes unworkable. Being based in Beijing, we can choose the optimum time to visit and consequently, we have been there four times and have always been 'lucky'.

Coal is the traffic at Yinghao, the line here is almost entirely rural in nature, running through open countryside. The sole remaining active coal mine is at the bottom of a short but steep climb which means that wagons are worked in part train loads which are then combined for the run down to Yinghao itself. Our three main visits there were all made in the summer during the harvest season.

We always aim to put the railways we film in their context, so these DVDs will cover:

Yinghao Coal Railway

The steam hauled trains from the lineside and on board

A visit to the workshops

Loading and unloading the coal

Surface workings of the coal mine including gravity and man powered skips

The Yinghao County community including a visit to their church and mosque

Xingyang Brickworks Railway

The steam hauled trains from the lineside and on board

A visit to the workshops

Loading and unloading the clay

A visit to one of the brickworks to see the manufacturing process close up

As usual, the real stars are the people who work on and live along the railway.

And the title? We thought you'd never ask... The literal translation of 'Xingyang' is a battlefield and 'Yinghao' a hero. It's a pretty appropriate description of people working with Chinese C2s these days.

We have prepared 4 sample clips (reduced size 320 x 240, wmv format) which you can download:

	Xingyang Clay Train 1 also available YouTube Version
	Xingyang Clay Train 2 also available YouTube Version
	Yinghao Coal Train 1 also available YouTube Version
	Yinghao Coal Train 2 also available YouTube Version

The material for these DVDs was filmed by independent film producers Rob and Yuehong Dickinson who have made several visits to each railway between 2004 and 2008. It was recorded in DV-AVI format and the result will be a broadcast quality film, on two DVDs (approx 45 minutes each railway). Like 'Logging Off', 'Sweet Spot' and 'Shibanxi Heaven', this is not just another steam video, it is a total record of a way of life that has barely changed since the railways opened.

At this stage we are not committing ourselves to even an approximate release date but it should be at some time in 2008. If you would like to register an interest, please send an email to . As is normal, with our DVDs there will be an 'early bird' discount offer and we will be in touch with you at the appropriate time.

(IMPORTANT: the addresses with "@" above are NOT LINKS which can be clicked, they are images, you will have to retype them to send an email. Sorry but that has to be done to try to prevent the address being spammed.)