Riding the Chinese Emperor’s Train in Suffolk? Is WG Sebald Pulling my Leg?

I keep coming across references in literary pieces and among literary types to WG Sebald’s great classic The Rings of Saturn. It seems Sebald is back in fashion (something than happens with him occasionally), which is good news as he has long been a favourite eclectic writer of mine. For those who don’t know it, The Rings of Saturn is meandering tale of Sebald’s walk from Lowestoft across the flatlands of eastern England and the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk. Along the way he muses in a rambling, but engrossing, fashion on everything from Dutch land reclamation, the decline of medieval sea ports on the eastern English coast, the misadventures of sericulture (silk cultivation) in Europe and, while in the lovely town of Southwold in Suffolk (an early home of George Orwell as a boy by the way), notes the bridge crossing the river Blyth between Walberswick and Southwold (pictured in all its summer seaside glory below),  which once supported a narrow‐gauge railway line bearing a train originally built for the Emperor of China. From this Sebald muses entertainingly on dragons and, at some length and depth, on the Taiping Rebellion.

This is a most intriguing story – a train, specifically built for the Guangxu Emperor that for various reasons never got to China and so was left to plough along this neglected narrow gauge railway line in Suffolk…apparently. Now I like Southwold. My parents took me there when I was a child, I’ve been back several times, it’s the home of the Adnams Brewery (one of the best pints in England) and, as noted, Orwell lived there. But is this story of the Chinese emperor’s train true? Sebald was there in the late 80s/early 90s but I can’t find a reference to this tale of the Chinese emperor’s train anywhere except in reviews of The Rings of Saturn. But, like those demented people who see UFOs everywhere, I want to believe a Chinese emperor’s train lived, and perhaps still lives, on a little narrow gauge railway in an English backwater.

But I’m going to have to conclude that it’s not true and was just a local legend Sebald heard, or that he had his leg pulled in a local Southwold pub (Sebald was German and so might not have been that good with ze English humour) or that he was good at English humour and was pulling his readers collective leg. But if anyone knows any different do tell? The Rings of Saturn, by the way, remains a great summer read if you’re looking for something to take on holiday.