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The South Manchuria Railway (SMR) was founded in 1906 in Dalian. The first president was Goto Shimpei.

By the end of 1907, the company employed nearly 13.000 people. By 1910, those numbers had increased to 35,000 and 25,000 respectively.The railway used a significant amount of US-made rails and signaling equipment, as well as some steam locomotives built by the American Locomotive Company at Dunkirk, NY. A visiting executive from the Erie Railroad was quite impressed with the arrangement, and described South Manchurian Railway ca. 1913 as "the only railroad in the whole world that is like our American railroads (and they are, fairly speaking, the best)".

The SMR quickly expanded the system inherited from Russia to staggering proportions, building coal mines at Fushun and Yantai, and harbor facilities at Andong, Yingkou, and Dalian. At each station, the SMR built hotels for travelers and warehouses for goods.

From 1916, the SMR began to spin off a number of subsidiary companies, including Showa Steel Works, Dalian Ceramics, Dalian Oil & Fat, South Manchurian Glass, as well as flour mills, sugar mills, electrical power plants, shale oil plants and chemical plants.

Over 75% of SMR's income was generated by its freight business, with the key to profitability coming from soybean exports, to other asian countries and to Europe. Soybean production increased exponentially with increasing demand for soy oil, and for soy meal for use in fertilizer and animal feed. By 1927, half of the world's supply of soybean was from Manchuria.

By 1938, the SMR had 72 subsidiary companies, development projects in 25 urban areas and carried 27,515,000 passengers per year.

The "Asia Express " is the famous train of the SMR.

The SMR is at present one of the biggest company in the Empire of China, it's actual president of the SMR is Duan Junyi.

The South China Railway Company [SCRC] was founded in 1917 in Canton. The first president was Fu Yuning.

The SCRC quickly expanded their route network in the southern part of the chinese empire, but is still the smallest Railroad Company in the chinese empire. By 1940, the CCRC carried 17,155,000 passengers per year.

The current president of the SCRC is Leong Kok Hong.

The Central China Railway Company [CCRC] was founded in 1911 in Wuhan. The first president was Xu Jingcheng.

The CCRC quickly expanded their route network in the central part of the chinese empire also the CCRC building harbor facilities at Shanghai and Quingdao. At each station the CCRC built, like the SMR, hotels for travelers and warehouses for goods.

By 1940, the CCRC carried 20,155,000 passengers per year.

The current president of the CCRC is Cheng Tianfan.

The Shanghai Express is an express train operated by the Central China Railway Company (CCRC) and has a top speed of 120 km/h. It ran from Nanjing to Shanghai and consists of:

• a streamlined tank locomotive with a 2-4-2T configuration
  
  
• a trailer car with a compartment for sorting post and packages during the journey as well as a dining area with 23 seats.
  
  
• two centre cars with 12 seats in 2nd and 56 seats in 3rd class.
  
  
• a trailer car with 24 seats in 2nd and 32 seats in 3rd class, as well as four rotating seats in the panorama section at the end;
  

Externally the coaches resembled the express multiple units of those years. In order the achieve the desired speed, they were of light construction and were five to ten tonnes lighter than normal passenger coaches.
The locomotives used to haul the trains are streamlined disguised tank locomotives and are constructed by the Shenyang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Co. Ltd. . The machine with the wheel arrangement 2-4-2T had a two-cylinder steam engine and were used in push-pull service.

The rail zeppelin was an experimental railcar which resembled a zeppelin airship in appearance.It was designed and developed by the German aircraft engineer Franz Kruckenberg. Propulsion was by means of a propeller located at the rear. During the test-phase it accelerated the railcar to 230 km/h setting the land speed record for petrol powered rail vehicle.

Rail Zeppelin

Two protoypes built at Hannover-Leinhausen (Germany) in 1929

Specifications:
Car body construction: aluminum
Car length: 25.85 m (84 ft 9 3/4 in)
Car Height: 2.8 m (9 ft 2 1/4 in)
Weight 20.3 t (20.0 long tons; 22.4 short tons)

Prime mover: BMW VI
Engine type: Water-cooled V12 petrol aircraft engine with 600 hp
Transmission: compressed air (driving a propeller)

Maximum speed: 230 km/h (140 mph)

Capacity: 40 passengers


After an intensive testphase in 1931, China decided to build 20 of these vehicles as fast connection on the railroad between Beijing and Nanjing.
All of them are still in use as Express Railcars.


Rail Zeppelin Prototype during testphase


Side view of the serial Rail Zeppelin