The Last Steam Engine in Hong Kong

When the Kowloon-Canton Railway first began operation on October 1, 1910, steam was the only available railway technology. As such, all trains operating between Kowloon and Canton (present-day Guangzhou) were steam engines.

However, during the Second World War, the railway in Hong Kong was heavily damaged, with entire sections missing; Japanese occupation forces raided workshops for equipment and neglected maintenance of the rolling stock.

Moreover, the rolling stock had been scattered between Kowloon and Hankou, most of it on the Chinese railway. When the war ended, only two sets of rolling stock and about 100 carriages and wagons were found in Kowloon.

Although measures were taken to restart normal operations, the heavy strain on the few steam engines that had been sent to Hong Kong demanded extensive maintenance to keep them operational.

By 1953, it became clear that operating steam engines was no longer economically viable. In August 1955, the first diesel-electric engines arrived in Hong Kong. Slowly, diesel-electric engines replaced the old steam engines.

On September 2, 1962, the last steam engine in Hong Kong was withdrawn from service and sold for scrap.