Yunnan Railway Museum

The museum entrance is Kunming North Station, rebuilt in a French style. The museum is a three-story complex with a South Hall and a North Hall, connected by a passage spanning the tracks. Exhibits are organized into areas such as the Yunnan–Vietnam Railway (Kunhe line), the Gebishi Railway (including the 600 mm-gauge Jige line and related lines), and the Chengkun Railway and high-speed rail, where visitors can view historical documents and original artefacts.

ST No. 774 (some sources suggest the correct number may be 754) is a British-built metre-gauge (1,000 mm) steam locomotive manufactured by Robert Stephenson and used on Myanmar Railways. It was one of 28 imported locomotives intended to replace motive power lost to wartime destruction. It remained in service in Myanmar from 1948 to 2006. After withdrawal, it was presented to China’s railway authorities and is preserved and displayed at the Yunnan Railway Museum and the Beijing Railway Museum. In the classification system of China’s national railways, “ST” denotes a 1-E-1 wheel arrangement; therefore, the “ST” lettering beneath the cab represents the Myanmar class designation.

KD55-583 is a former Japanese National Railways (JNR) 9600 class locomotive. During wartime it was requisitioned from JNR by the Japanese military, regauged to standard gauge (1,435 mm), and used on the Central China Railway and North China Transportation. After the war it was redesignated as class KD5, and later regauged again to metre gauge (1,000 mm) to become class KD55, serving on Yunnan’s Kunming–Hekou (Kunhe) line.
However, the local information panel states “built by Kawasaki in 1897,” which is clearly inconsistent, as the first JNR 9600 class locomotive was built in 1913. In addition, although the panel identifies the builder as “Kawasaki,” requisitioned locomotives of this type included examples built at Kokura Works and by Kisha Seizo; the possibility that this locomotive was built by a different manufacturer cannot be ruled out. In Yunnan it was used from 1958 to 1985, and it is currently designated as a National Grade-3 Cultural Relic.

SN No. 29 is a 600 mm-gauge steam locomotive used on Yunnan’s branch line between Jijie and Gejiu (the Jige line). The extremely narrow 600 mm gauge is known in China as “cun-gauge (寸軌),” and the Jige line was one of its representative lines. The line originated as the Gebishi Railway, China’s first privately owned railway, and was later incorporated into the national railway system.
This class consists of tender locomotives built by Baldwin in the United States, numbered 17 through 32. The delivery years vary by source, but they were generally supplied during the 1920s (roughly 1924–1929). Despite being built for “cun-gauge,” these locomotives were remarkably large—about 15 meters in overall length—and had a striking presence among narrow-gauge steam locomotives. They remained in service until the late 1990, when the Jige line was closed.
Preserved SN locomotives include No. 23 in Beijing (China Railway Museum), No. 26 in Shanghai (Shanghai Railway Museum), and No. 29 in Kunming (Yunnan Railway Museum). Two more locomotives (Nos. 27 and 21) are displayed at the Yunnan–Vietnam Railway History Park in Bisezhai, but their frame sections were clearly fabricated separately, so it is difficult to state with certainty that they are fully authentic original vehicles.

Shangyou No. 0388 is a standard-gauge (1,435 mm) locomotive built in 1971 by the Tangshan Locomotive & Rolling Stock Works. According to the information panel, it was used until 2006 at the open-pit phosphate mine of Kunyang Phosphate Mine, located at Sanjiacun, Kunyang Town, Jinning County, Kunming (under Yunnan Phosphate Chemical Group Co., Ltd.), and was later presented to the Yunnan Railway Museum for exhibition.

The Dongfanghong 21 class is a metre-gauge (1,000 mm) hydraulic diesel locomotive, and this is No. 1 of the class. It was built in 1978 by Qingdao Sifang (Sifang Locomotive & Rolling Stock Works) and served in Yunnan for passenger/freight duties and shunting, replacing steam locomotives.

Dongfeng 2 (DF2) No. 3279 is a standard-gauge (1,435 mm) electric-transmission diesel locomotive built in 1969 by the Qishuyan Locomotive Works. The DF2 was an improved development of the earlier Dongfeng class, modified for shunting service by adopting the 6L207E engine (1,800 hp).

The Dongfeng 1 (DF1) was a standard-gauge (1,435 mm) electric-transmission diesel locomotive developed as part of China’s domestic production program, built from 1964 to 1974. DF1 No. 2058 was manufactured in 1973 by the Qishuyan Locomotive Works. Seen alongside the SN class steam locomotive, the difference in vehicle size resulting from the differing gauges is immediately apparent.

This is a metre-gauge (1,000 mm) railcar built in 1914 by Decauville in France and used on the Kunming–Hekou line (the Yunnan–Vietnam Railway) from 1914 to 1984. In 1932 Michelin modified the wheel treads to rubber, after which it became known as the “Michelin on rails.” The set consists of a main car equipped with a kitchen and shower room, plus a trailer baggage car, and it served as a VIP vehicle with a top speed of 100 km/h. After withdrawal it was restored in 2004 and is now designated as a National Grade-1 Cultural Relic.

The “Chuncheng” is a prototype and early production EMU representing the initial phase of China’s high-speed multiple-unit development. It is a 6-car set (3M3T) for standard gauge (1,435 mm), operating on 25 kV AC. At the Yunnan Railway Museum, the preserved vehicles from the “Chuncheng electric multiple unit” include RZ25DT 110875 (driving car) and YZ25DD 345767 (intermediate car).

The green wooden third-class coach No. 372 is a metre-gauge (1,000 mm) wooden passenger car built in France in the 1940s. It was used on the Kunhe line until 1985 and is now designated as a National Grade-2 Cultural Relic.
The vermilion wooden third-class coach No. 241 was built for the 600 mm-gauge Jige line and was manufactured in 1919 by the Hankou Yangtze River Works; it is currently designated as a National Grade-1 Cultural Relic. The vermilion baggage & mail car No. 351 is also for 600 mm gauge and was built in 1919 by the same works. The flat car No. 701 shown on the right was likewise built in 1919 by the Hankou Yangtze River Works and is designated as a National Grade-1 Cultural Relic. Other covered and open wagons are also preserved.