(50%) Real Steam in Vietnam, November 2010

Fabrice Lanoue visited the steelworks of Thai Nguyen - the last stand of steam in Vietnam - with a Far Rail Tour. They use one (or maybe two) Chinese 0-6-0T for shunting operations in the steel works and for the few hundred yards to the state railway station. The party had an official permit for the visit including the blast furnaces, the slag tip and the depot.

The management agreed to use two steam locomotives. The steelworks still has six of the Chinese GJ class locomotives. Most of the tracks inside the steelworks have mixed gauge (three rails). The steam locomotives are used on the standard gauge while Russian diesel locomotives are the metre gauge locomotives.

The steelworks still have a Japanese 2-6-2-metre gauge tank engine which is stored in good condition in the shed.

Thai Nguyen

Standard gauge

GJ 1032 dumped outside
GJ 1034 dumped outside
GJ 1035 outside serviceable
GJ 1037 under repair inside the shed
GJ 1042 in use
GJ 1045 in use for the party on 3rd and 4th November 2010

Metre gauge

131T 436 stored in the shed
3 others were previously in use in the steelworks, 409/437/501 all now scrapped

Hanoi (all metre gauge)

Gia Lam:

141-165 (Tangshan, China) Dumped outside
141-122 (Gia Lam, Vietnam) Dumped outside in very poor condition
141-190 (Tangshan, China) In the shed stripped down, they probably try to do repairs on the boiler. Work had stopped.

Hanoi Ga depot:

141-159 (Tangshan, China) dumped in a shed and was towed out for photography. The other locomotives had disappeared.