User name : 'Chinarail' ( 柯睿思 ）
Status : Wikipedia Contributor & User
Gender : Male
Languages : English and some limited Chinese
Residence : Hong Kong
Time Zone : UTC+8
Date Joined : 22 April 2008
First edit : 22 April 2008
First page with new topic created 23 February 2009
Interests
editPrimary interest : Chinese railway history.
Secondary interests : Chinese & S.E. Asian transport history including Shipping, Buses, Tramways, Mining & other Early Modern Industrial Development and finally… late Qing Dynasty and early post- revolution Chinese industrialists and officials.
About 'Chinarail'
editChinarail was born in the United Kingdom just after the Second World War. After leaving school in 1965, instead of going to university as intended, he ended up in Hong Kong where he has resided ever since. Yes ! ... now getting long in the tooth, long-retired and had the benefit of attending the ‘University of Life; with wildly differing careers : first in Government, then 20 years in aviation and finally three separate and unrelated own businesses.
The railway interest derives from family background, being the first in five generations not to work "on the railways" ( Great-great grandfather was driving steam locomotives in northern England in the 1850's.) And to make up for the "hole in life of not working the railways" , substituted for this by building a 7.25 inch-gauge miniature railway with a portable track which in the 1980s provided much enjoyed entertainment at school fairs and carnivals. When not driving this, used to head across the Hong Kong border at weekends and during holidays, travelling around China by railway and ferries. Some knowledge of “street” Cantonese together with its vulgar slang cemented friendships with the drivers of the massive QJ steam locomotives enabling Chinarail to have “hands-on” experience at the controls when their bosses were not watching. Those days are regrettably long gone together with all steam on main lines and all but one or two remote industrial lines.
Moving forward to more recent times, ‘Chinarail’ elevated his interest a notch or two into the academic realm and 30 years ago set about some serious research into early Chinese railway history. Now have two books published about Chinese railway history (one is bilingual) and have accumulated a large collection of Chinese railway and transport related books, documents, maps , photographs, ephemera .... you name it. This collection has during the past decade been extensively cited and borrowed from in some thirty or more publications, as well as in exhibitions and permanent displays in Chinese museums.
New Pages Created
editKaiping Tramway and Imperial Railways of North China : First created : 23 February 2009
Claude W. Kinder : First created: 25 February 2009
Guangzhou-Sanshui Railway : First created 01 March 2009
Chao Chow and Swatow Railway : First created 07 March 2009
The Far Eastern Review : First created 30 November 2012
Significant Revisions & Additions to Existing Wikipedia Pages
editThe China Merchants Steam Navigation Company ( Now ‘China Merchants Group’) : Revised 11-14 April 2021.
Edward Tyrer - Former Commissioner of Police, Hong Kong : Revised August 2013
List of Photographs & Images added to Wikipedia Pages
edit( Note:- some of these images display user name “Chinarail2” due to a mix up with WikiCommons registration difficulties encountered in 2009. Edits with these are marked as “ Cross-wiki upload from en.wikipedia.org Tag: Cross-wiki upload”)
S.S.Kwang Li - C.M.S.N.Co. " 廣利 " 号
C.M.S.N.Co. Letterhead -19th Cntury.jpg
Fleet Flag & Funnel Livery of China Merchants Steam Navigation Co. - 19th Century.jpg
Sketch of Airship - Designed by TSE Tsan-Tai 謝纘泰1899.jpg
TSE Tsan-Tai ( 謝纘泰 ) - Portrait taken c. 1907.jpg
Order of the Double Dragon - 3rd. Class -1st. Grade - Star & ribbon with neck badge-.jpg
The Far Eastern REview (FER) Change of Cover Styles Over Time.jpg
FER-Chinese name-sm.jpg
FER-Logo-200dpi.jpg
FER-Chinese-Logo.jpg
StephensonNo3-sm.jpg
TongkuStation-PostCard1.jpg
Li-Hung-chang-UK-visit-1896.jpg
Dong-Dang-Vietnam-China -border-150dpi.jpg
Ting-Ju-chang-Ding-Ruchang-Admiral-small.jpg
Royal Hong Kong Police Landrover - Kwun Tong Police Station.jpg
HKP Traffic Police Triumph Motorcycle AH119 -Summer 1967.jpg
HKP Traffic Police Triumph Motorcycle AH115 -Summer 1966.jpg
HKP Traffic Police Triumph Motorcycle AH119 -Winter 1967.jpg
U.S.S. Guam - Yangtze River patrol gunboat.jpg
Teng-Jan-dah - (Deng Yanda ) 1927.jpg
Sun-Yat-Sen-House-sm.jpg
Panaramic View of Benxi Iron Blast furnaces & Coal Mine c.1920.jpg
Dr.Sun Yat-Sen -1923.jpg
General Tien Chung-Yu.jpg
Lord Charles Beresford - in Naval Uniform late 1880s 02.jpg
Hsiung-Chung-Chih-aka-Samuel-Young-熊崇志-sm.jpg
Peking-Lu-HanRly- PC50-Wiki.jpg
Peking-Cheng-YangMunStation1.jpg
Illus.London-News-75dpi-reduced.jpg
Jul1912-p81-Bar.jpg
Tayeh2-8-0-No.14.jpg
Tienstin- PCard-1.jpg
SwatowStation-1906.jpg
Swatow-Rly-Opening1.jpg
SwatowLoco1.jpg
SwatowRlyMap.jpg
TongKingSing.jpg
BarclayParsonsSurvey.jpg
Canton-Sam-ShuiMap.jpg
SamshuiRly-4-4-0-ALCO.jpg
Canton-Samshui-Forney.jpg
FatshanStn-FER-Jan1906sm.jpg
Canton-Samshui-Rly2.jpg
Canton-Samshui-Rly1.jpg
Rocket-China.jpg
CWKinder-sm.jpg
TongkuStation-PostCard1.jpg
Rocket-China.jpg
LiangShih-Yi-FER-May1911.jpg
K.Y.Kwong-FER-May1911.jpg
Temple-ofHeavenStn.jpg
Peking-Cheng-YangMunStation1.jpg
TongkuStation-PostCard1.jpg
Tienstin- PCard-1.jpg
MaChiaPuStation-sm.jpg
StephensonNo3-sm.jpg
CWKinder-smB.jpg
ChouFu1909FER-smB.jpg
Rocket-China-smB.jpg
TongKingSing-smB.jpg
Hu-Yufen-sm.jpg
BRA-stamp-sm.jpg
Rocket-China-sm.jpg
K.Y.Kwong-FER-May1911sm.jpg
LiangShih-Yi-FER-May1911sm.jpg
ChouFu1909FER-sm.jpg
TongKingSing-sm.jpg
Rocket-China.jpg
ChouFu1909FER.jpg
TongKingSing.jpg