About the International Steam Pages

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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 to check I am in a position to download a large email. 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 - as from September 2010 'home' has been in Mitcheldean, UK. 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. Previously, between 2004 and 2010, we were based in China, where all around were beautiful mountains and constant reminders that economic development for its own sake brings only an illusion of increased happiness. For those of you who may have met us on your travels or are simply curious you can read about our new UK home.

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 caused me to stop reporting most of our own trips in China, but rest assured we were 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 until they nearly all closed, it seemed there was not a single accessible working narrow gauge steam railway in China which hadn'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. 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.

In early 2009, we took nearly two months off to go backpacking through Burma, Thailand and Laos. It was a fabulous experience, we wrote it all up as we went along and you can read about it - there's a bit of everything in 'Rob and Yuehong in the Golden Land' and there are links there to our more recent explorations.

Most of us are now 'well past our prime', maybe even into the sunset of our lives. I prepared for full time retirement by building a house in the country near the Great Wall of China, but right now we have very quietly sold it and we have new homes in the UK and Penang.