Do any Countries in the World still use Steam Locomotives?......are Steam Locomotives still made?

Answer 1

yes china and i got to ride on one when i was in japan a few years ago.

Answer 2

There are over 100 lines in the UK that use steam locomotives.

A new steam locomotive 'tornado' is being built at the moment in the UK.

Steam locos can be found in Poland and on tourist railways in France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and Germany.

Answer 3

I believe China still does so extensively. EDIT: Never mind, the last mainline run of a steam locomotive was in 2005, but some smaller branch lines and industrial railroads still use them.

Answer 4

Countries that aren't as rich/less developed than the US still use steam for major runs, as Diesel's aren't as much in their budget. They still use them, however on a much more limited scale. For Diesel usage, the US and Canada lead. However, we still offer steam excursions in many parts of the country. Union Pacific #3985 and UP #844 are very famous for some of the best and most unique passenger travel in the country. There are also narrow gauge steam excursion routes, i.e. the Durango & Silverton RR in Colorado. Even here in Utah we have a standard gauge steam excursion available through the Heber Valley RR.

Answer 5

i think you will find that they are still in use in China, parts of India and parts of South America as main locomotives and of course on preserved railways the world over. Some are still being built in this country to fill gaps in stock with rare engines that were lost to posterity.

Answer 6

As far as I know, they were still in regular use in China, Poland + India (but I think starting to get phased out).

Meanwhile there are many Volunteer run Steam Railways in the UK, such as the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (used to do a work placement there) + the Severn Valley Railway, among others.
http://www.nymr.co.uk/
http://www.svr.co.uk/
http://www.bluebell-railway.co.uk/
http://www.west-somerset-railway.co.uk/
http://www.east-lancs-rly.co.uk/
http://www.gcrailway.co.uk/

Answer 7

Stephanie has a good answer for main line steam, such as it is.

The DLM company in Switzerland built two brand new steam locos for a tourist railway recently. These were not rebuilds but new from the rails up.

http://www.dlm-ag.ch/index2-en.htm

Answer 8

Steam locomotives are in limited use in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. See http://www.trainweb.org/tusp/index.html for reports of sightings, holdouts, and new developments in the 21st Century. There are various tourist lines where engines are in frequent if not daily use and certain engines that see excursion work a few times a year. Germany and England have had fairly extensive steam excursion service since the mid 1980’s. See http://www.germansteam.co.uk/ for English language information on German steam excursions of this century. There are many excellent photos that bring back memories of my years in Germany in the ‘70’s. Mainline steam in regular service ended in 1960 in the United States and Canada, 1968 for Mexico and England, 1972 for France, 1977 in West Germany, and 2005 in China.

China has hundreds of steam locomotives in service on industrial lines and coal lines. See http://www.railography.co.uk/info/cn_steam/locoindex.htm . Unfortunately, their railway management got self-conscious about their steam locomotives as being supposedly obsolete and an embarrassment for a rising economic power, so thousands of fairly modern 2-10-2’s, 2-8-2’s and 4-6-2’s built as late as the late 1980’s were scrapped prematurely just like the U. S. did in the ‘50’s when I was growing up. China has an abundance of good coal but relatively little oil. It made good sense to electrify their mainlines (as we should have done), but they should have kept steam for secondary mains and branch lines.

Commercial production of steam engines ended in 1949 in the U.S., but the Norfolk & Western continued to build their own steam locomotives as late as 1953. West Germany built their last modern 2-6-2 for secondary passenger service on non-electrified lines in December 1959. England built their last dual-purpose 2-10-0 appropriately named “The Evening Star” in 1960. Western railfans converged on China to see brand-new steam built at Datong until the late ‘80’s. The story is not over ‘cuz the fat lady ain’t sung. There is a British railfan group called the A-1 Trust (see http://www.a1steam.com/ ) that is currently building their own 4-6-2 for mainline excursion use. The boiler was built at the Meiningen Locomotive Works (see http://www.dampflokwerk.de/english/ ) in the former East Germany. Even more daring is a plan to build a state-of-the-art 4-6-0 (see http://www.5at.co.uk/ ) that can hit 125mph and prove that there is still design potential in steam.

America almost had a modern coal burning 4-8-2 called the ACE 3000 for freight service due to the oil crisis of the early 1980’s, but the Saudi’s dumped more oil on the world market, and the U.S. became even more dependent on foreign oil and got involved in more oil wars. See http://www.trainweb.org/tusp/ult.html for what might have been and what could still enable us to get the hell out of the Middle East and its deceptively “cheap” oil. The electrification of 30,000 route miles of U.S. mainline track would be cheaper than trying to fight to preserve the flow of oil from an inherently unstable, unfriendly region and enable us to power our transportation needs with domestic energy sources. Modern steam locomotives like the ACE 3000 and the 5AT would be perfect for our secondary lines that do not carry enough freight and passenger traffic to justify electrification. These are not your granddaddy’s steam engines.

Answer 9

I believe that both in India & China that they still use steam engines.
Do not forget that some of the narrow gague lines in Wales still use steam engins & they have new engins built for their lines.

Answer 10

One country that no one has mentioned is Cuba. Parts of the Cuban railway system is steam powered.

Answer 11

Sweden is currently experimenting with an oil fired steam loco.it is claimed to reach full working pressure in 30mins.