All things old China - books, anecdotes, stories, podcasts, factoids & ramblings from the author Paul French

The Peking-Mukden Line and Baldwin Locomotives

Posted: March 2nd, 2009 | 3 Comments »

baldwin-trains-1925-ad 

Came across this advert the other day for Baldwin Locomotives in 1925 – proud supplies of locomotives to the Peking-Mukden (Shenyang) Railway. And fine locomotives they are as well. For Baldwin, the maker of the original Old Ironsides, this was an export order to shout about and so they took out these ads in the China coast English-language press. They must have done well to outbid the Brits who had supplied a lot of trains previously.

Baldwin was an American firm based in Philadelphia and nearby Eddystone, Pennsylvania founded in 1831 by Matthias Baldwin. Although the company was successful as a producer of steam puffers they never survived the transition to diesel trains and went out of business in 1956 despite making some good looking trains. In WW2 they were one of the companies that made the Sherman tank.

The Peking-Mukden Railway was a jewel in the crown of China’s railroad system. The standard gauge Peking-Mukden Railway (also known as the “Ching-Feng” and later the “Pei-Ning” line in Chinese or the “IRNC” or the “Northern Railway” in English.) passed through Tientsin and joined the Southern Manchurian Railway (SMR) at Mukden.

3 Comments on “The Peking-Mukden Line and Baldwin Locomotives”

  1. 1 Dr. Bill Zingheim said at 2:48 am on March 21st, 2016:

    What do you know about the 2-4-4-2 Mallet Locomotives sold to China in 1911 for the Baotu-Quinglongqiao railway?

  2. 2 paul French said at 5:34 pm on March 21st, 2016:

    Nothing – sorry

  3. 3 carol said at 11:06 pm on May 8th, 2019:

    my grandfather worked on the Pekin-Mukden railway as an engineer. I was very excited to discover this!!

Leave a Reply