The train has been invented for more than 200 years and has now become the most important means of transportation for mankind. Historically, China's railway construction was once very backward, and railways could only be built under the guidance of foreign engineers. In the blink of an eye, a hundred years have passed, and now China's total railway mileage has exceeded 139,000 kilometers, of which the high-speed railway mileage has reached 35,000 kilometers, becoming the most developed country in the world's railway network.
Interestingly, on a railway in Shaanxi, the old railway tracks of the Qing Dynasty are still used. These centuries-old railway tracks have witnessed the take-off of China's railway industry, and in the eyes of cultural relics experts, each one can be called a national cultural relic.
In 1804, a British mine technician, Drivisk, used the steam engine to build the world's first steam locomotive, which traveled at a speed of about 5 to 6 kilometers per hour. Because coal or firewood was mainly used as fuel at that time, people called this newly born machine "train" and still use it today. It wasn't until 22 February 1840 that Charlie Rivisic, an engineer in Cornwall, invented the world's first train that actually ran on railroad tracks.
Railway construction in China began in the last years of the Qing Dynasty. In 1876, the British Jardine Matheson & Co. built a "Wusong Railway" without the Qing Dynasty. The 14.5-kilometer narrow gauge light railway from Shanghai Zhabei to Wusongkou is the first railway in Chinese history to operate. However, after Empress Dowager Cixi knew about it, she felt that the roar of the train affected feng shui and was even more disrespectful to the ancestors, so in the following year, she decreed that the imperial court should spend 285,000 taels of silver to buy the railway and then dismantle it.
Empress Dowager Cixi's defeat is known to everyone. However, the railway bought for 280,000 taels of silver was dismantled in this way, which was really shocking. Such a loser actually ruled the Qing Dynasty for half a century, and the decline of the Qing Dynasty was not unjust at all. No wonder many people call Cixi "the wives of the losers", and in terms of the losers, Cixi is really worthy of this title.
In the early development history of China's railways, it is necessary to mention the Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant. Founded in 1890 by Zhang Zhidong, a famous minister in the late Qing Dynasty, this steel factory is the first steel factory in China's history and is regarded by the West as a symbol of China's industrial awakening. In its heyday, there were more than 7,000 workers at Hanyang Iron and Steel Works, and its annual steel output accounted for 90% of the entire Qing Dynasty. The tracks laid by the construction of the railway at that time basically originated from the Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant. To this day, a railway in Shaanxi is still used on the rails produced by the Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant a hundred years ago.
In Luoyang County, Shaanxi Province, there is a Jialing River Bridge that spans the north and south. This is a railway bridge, a dedicated line of the Luoyang Iron and Steel Works, connecting to the Baocheng Railway. One day in 2015, a local citizen was playing on the bridge and suddenly noticed that some strange letters could be faintly seen on the rails on the bridge. After careful identification, it was found that some rails were engraved with the words "M.C.-1906-A.T", "KTPE-RSW1909", "Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant" and so on.
Later, after the discovery was spread, it attracted the attention of cultural relics experts. Under the research of cultural relics experts, the secrets were solved. It turned out that these rails were produced by the Hanyang Iron and Steel Plant a hundred years ago, and the number on it was the date of production of these rails. These Qing Dynasty railway tracks from a hundred years ago have been used to this day, which is really incredible.
In the eyes of cultural relics experts, these old railway tracks have unusual significance, because they have witnessed the development of China's railway industry, have high historical and cultural value, and each one is a national cultural relic. Because in the railway museum, there is a collection of the same rail, which has been rated as a national second-class cultural relic by cultural relics experts, and the inscription "made by Hanyang Iron Works in 1902" is engraved on it, and like the rails on the Jialing River Bridge, they are from the Hanyang Iron and Steel Factory.
It is a very difficult thing that these railway tracks from a hundred years ago can be used to this day. They have experienced a century of ups and downs, witnessed the glory of China's railway industry, and still play their own role in the railway, which is indeed very emotional.