Shibanxi Coach Kit

The Shibanxi (pronounced she-banks-she) Railway is one of the few narrow gauge lines left in China that still uses steam as its prime source of motive power, this charming line is the Chinese equivalent to the Darjeeling and Himalayan, due to the mountainous region that it is in and the absence of any good roads the line carries every thing from coal to livestock building material and even acts as a removal service for house moves.

The Shibanxi lies on the Min Jiang River, a major tributary of the Yangtze, about 100 miles south west of Chengdu, Sichuan well known with tourists for the Panda project nearby. This 2ft 6ins gauge line runs southwards from Shibanxi for about 20kms through the lower foothills of the easternmost part of the Himalayas, where the Western Sichuan plateau drops down to the plains. The area that this railway is in is sub tropical leading to one or two locomotives having their cabs modified to open the sides up in the summer time in fact it is not uncommon to find the fireman wearing just shorts only!

The line itself was built in the great leap forwards in around 1958 along with two collieries as a part of the Great Leap Forward, Communist China's first drive to industrialise the country. The first 4kms of the line as far as the large colliery at Yuejin is now electrified. Frequent coal trains run on this stretch for which the line has three 4-wheeled centre cab electric locos built in June 2000. The other colliery, at the southern terminus at Huangcunjin, closed in 2003. The only trains south of Yuejin now are the four daily passenger trains. Its very survival has been due to the shortage of funds to dieselise the line and in recent years the local administration have become aware of the tourist potential and while the railway carries on much as before has issued staff with smart uniforms and repainted some of the C2 0-8-0 locos in an effort to attract the tourist market.

Our coach kit is based on one of the railways home made coaches which provide the regular passenger train, to produce a model of a specific coach would be difficult as each one is different as they are all home grown. This model is produced as an easy to assemble kit requiring the screwing together of the steel sides with the roof clipping on in place, the single door slides in its own runner. The kit comes complete with wheels, axle boxes solebar and interior seating. The prototype had no glazing just steel shutters to keep out the rain. As will be noted there is only one door on the coach due to the platforms all being on the same side!

While this is a model of a Chinese coach its style lends it's self to plenty of other railways and would not look out of place behind the P&J Boxcab loco.

The Prototype is even more basic with comfort provided with the use of folded up cardboard boxes as seat cushions! Each coach has its own brake person who operates the hand brake wheel on the down hill descents as there is no continuous braking system on the line!

Available to buy from this Website: Cost per kit £85.00

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